Golden calf the words that were traditionally ascribed to Jeroboam and placed them in the mouths of the people." Friedman believes that the story was turned into a polemic, exaggerating the throne platform decoration into idolatry, by a family of priests sidelined by Jeroboam. The declarations of Aaron and Jeroboam are almost identical: After making the golden calf or golden calves both Aaron and Jeroboam celebrate festivals. Aaron builds an altar and Jeroboam ascends an altar (Exod 32:5–6; 1 Kings 12:32–33). In "Legends of the Jews", the Conservative rabbi and scholar Louis Ginzberg wrote that the worship of the golden calf was
Golden calf enthroned. The reason for this complication may be understood as The second explanation relies on the "sin of Jeroboam," who was the first king of the northern kingdom, as the cause of the northern kingdom’s fall to Assyria in 722 BCE. Jeroboam’s "sin" was creating two calves of gold, and sending one to Bethel as a worship site in the south of the Kingdom, and the other to Dan as a worship site in the north, so that the people of the northern kingdom would not have to continue to go to Jerusalem to worship (see 1 Kings 12:26–30). According