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
Jewish commentaries on the Bible often consulted literal translation of the Bible with a few exceptions. Figurative language is usually not translated literally but is explained (e.g., Gen. 49:25; Ex. 15:3, 8, 10; 29:35). Geographical names are often replaced by those current at a later time (e.g., Gen. 10:10; Deut. 3:17). According to the Talmud, the Torah and its translation into Aramaic were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, because Egyptian slaves spoke Aramaic. After the Babylonian exile, the Targum was completely forgotten. Onkelos, a Roman convert to Judaism, was able to reconstruct the original Aramaic. Saadia Gaon disagrees and says the Aramaic of Onkelos