Moses in rabbinic literature his power over the angels when the people made the golden calf.The Bible does not note Aaron's opinion of this request, merely that he complied, and gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings. He melted them and constructed the golden calf. The Hebrew word calf can also mean circle. This would explain that they made a RA symbol and not casted a calf (difficult manufacturing process with furnace, beeswax, clay, etc.). Aaron also built an altar before the calf / circle (RA), and the next day, the Israelites made offerings and celebrated. God, however, protected him (Exodus Rabba xli. 12). When
Golden calf to Coogan, this episode is part of the Deuteronomistic history, written in the southern Kingdom of Judah, after the fall of the northern kingdom, which was biased against the northern kingdom. Coogan maintains that Jeroboam was merely presenting an alternative to the cherubim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and that calves did not indicate non-Yahwehistic worship. The documentary hypothesis can be used to further understand the layers of this narrative: it is plausible that the earliest story of the golden calf was preserved by E (Israel source) and originated in the Northern kingdom. When E and J (Judah source) were