Levitating Golden Calves

Here are links (HTML, flipdocs, paywalled Substack) to my article from last Shabbos, about levitating cows and Sotah 47, as well as a brief rundown of the ideas in my article.

As an image:

An overview.

Geichazi had sinned and caused the masses to sin, so he (said he) wasn’t able to repent. There are three opinions as to what that sin was, on Sotah 47b:

מַאי עֲבַד? אִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי: אֶבֶן שׁוֹאֶבֶת תָּלָה לוֹ לְחַטַּאת יָרָבְעָם, וְהֶעֱמִידוֹ בֵּין שָׁמַיִם לָאָרֶץ. וְאִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי: שֵׁם חֲקַק לַהּ אַפּוּמַּהּ, וְהָיְתָה אוֹמֶרֶת ״אָנֹכִי״ וְ״לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ״.

The Gemara asks: What did Gehazi do that caused the masses to sin? There are those who say that he hung a magnetic rock on Jeroboam’s calf, the golden calf that Jeroboam established as an idol, and used a magnet to pull the calf off the ground so that he suspended it between heaven and earth, i.e., caused it to hover above the ground. This seemingly miraculous occurrence caused the people to worship it even more devoutly. And there are those who say: He engraved the sacred name on its mouth, and it would say: “I am the Lord your God” and: “You shall not have other gods” (Exodus 20:2). The idol would quote the two prohibitions from the Ten Commandments against idol worship, causing people to worship it even more devoutly.

וְאִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי: רַבָּנַן דְּחָה מִקַּמֵּיהּ, דִּכְתִיב: ״וַיֹּאמְרוּ בְנֵי הַנְּבִיאִים אֶל אֱלִישָׁע הִנֵּה נָא הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אֲנַחְנוּ יֹשְׁבִים שָׁם לְפָנֶיךָ צַר מִמֶּנּוּ״, מִכְּלָל דְּעַד הָאִידָּנָא לָא הֲוָה דְּחִיק.

And there are those who say: Gehazi pushed the Sages away from coming before him, preventing them learning from Elisha, as it is written, after the aforementioned incident: “And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, behold this place where we are staying before you is too cramped for us” (II Kings 6:1). This proves by inference that until that time the place was not cramped, as Gehazi would turn people away.

For (A), the magnet, it doesn’t seem like it would work with their level of technology, that is, without a powerful electromagnet. Also, here he affixed the magnet, presumably because gold is not itself subject to magnetism.

I run through two historians (there were others) who described iron (not gold) statues suspended in midair, as the same kind of subterfuge, either as an intended yet unfulfilled idea or as something that actually happened.

I also consider (B), the engraved tablet, and discuss how this is using legitimate spiritual power to negative ends, parallel to the tablet used to raise Yosef’s bones which had been misdirected and employed to raise the original golden calf in the midbar.

I also consider (C), chasing away potential students, and have a nice derash connecting it, and the magnet repelling, to Geichazi’s general approach of pushing away people, and to Elisha’s pushing away of Geichazi.