Well that's an easy one! Worshipping a calf is one of the three cardinal sins that is
יהרג ועל יעבור ! One must give up one's life if forced to worship a calf! That is an "Ovoda Zara!"
Worse! Much worse than that!
The incident of the "chet ha'eigal" the worshipping of the golden calf, was just months after the Jewish people witnessed the miracles of "yetzias mitzrayim" and just 40 days after receiving the Torah at Har Sinai!
They all heard the commandment of the "Ten Commandments" which states: "
You shall not make yourself a carved image etc."
Hashem was so upset that he threatened to annihilate the Jewish people and start fresh with the children of Moshe
"ועתה הניחה לי ויחר אפי בהם ואכלם ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול"
"And now desist from Me. Let my anger flare up against them and I shall annihilate them; and I shall make you into a great nation"
Wow! Days after hearing the voice of Hashem, so to speak, telling them not to fashion an idol, they disregard it and make an idol to worship, violating one of the only three sins that one must give up their lives!
Moshe pleads nevertheless that Hashem spare their lives, and tells Hashem that should He go through with His plan then: מחני נא מספרך " erase me now from The book that You have written"
In pleading on their behalf, Moshe invokes the memory of our forefathers:
זכר לאברהם ליצחק ולישראל עבדיך אשר נשבעת להם בך ותדבר אליהם ארבה את זרעכם ככוכבי השמים וכל הארץ הזאת אשר אמרתי אתן לזרעכם ונחלו לעולם
"Remember for the sake of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yisrael, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself and You told them ... I shall increase your offspring like the stars of the heaven and this entire land of which I spoke I shall give to your offspring and it shall be their heritage forever"
Hashem relents:
וינחם ה' על הרעה אשר דבר לעשות לעמו
"Hashem reconsidered regarding the evil that He declared He would do to his people."
Not only that, but after Hashem "reconsiders" and forgives them, Moshe after witnessing with his own eyes the worshipping the Eigal, again pleads with Hashem to forgive them and says:
"אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך ה' ילך נא ה' בקרבינו כי עם קשה ערף הוא וסלחת לעוננו ולחטאתנו ונחלתנו"
And what is amazing is that you won't find anywhere in the Torah that the Jews did teshuvah!
Whew! We missed a bullet! Only those who actually worshipped the "eigal" died the rest of the Jewish people survived!
Now let's look at the incident of the "meraglim" the spies!
This happened 60 days after receiving the Torah! They the meraglim came back with an evil report about the Land of Israel!
Now this sin of "Bad Talk" against Eretz Yisrael is not part of the Ten Commandments! This is not one of the three cardinal sins that one has to give their lives up!
Yet Hashem's punishment was far more severe than the sin of worshipping the "eigal"
Hashem swore that all the Jews over 20 years old would not enter the Land of Israel, they all died in the desert save for Caleb and Yehoshuah! Millions died! And instead of entering the land right away, they wandered for 40 years in a desert!
And on the anniversary of that date that they returned with their evil report which was on the 9th of Av, two Beis Hamikdash were destroyed, and we Jews fast and mourn on that day ever since!
Why?
Notice that at the sin of the meraglim, Moshe pleads for the Jewish people but this time, Moshe DOES NOT invoke the Patriarchs?
Why is the punishment of the meraglim far far worse than the worshipping of the Eigal and why did Moshe not invoke the Patriarchs when pleading for the Jewish people?
A simple reading of the "Eigal" incident has all the answers!
Yes, they worshipped a golden calf, but their ultimate goal was to reach the Promised Land!
Read what the "Eigal Worshippers" said.... they asked Aaron:
עשה לנו אלהים אשר ילכו לפנינו כי זה משה האיש אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים לא ידענו מה היה לו
"Make for us gods that will go before us, for this man Moshe who brought us up from the land of Egypt...we do not know what became of him."
They didn't just say that Moshe took them out of Egypt but said אשר העלנו, :who brought us up" ... they used the word עליה in reference to leaving Egypt to GO UP to Eretz Yisrael!
Their goal, though worshipping an idol, was for that idol to bring them to the Promised Land!
The idol worshippers also said:
אלה אלהיך ישראל אשר העלוך מארץ מצרים
"This is your god, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt"
Again, they used the word עליה in reference of leaving Egypt to go to the Land of Israel!
They wanted to go to Israel!!
Now lets see what the Jews said at the incident of the meraglim!
הלוא טוב לנו שוב מצרימה
"Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?"
ויאמרו איש אל-אחיו נתנה ראש ונשובה מצרימה
So they said to one another.. Let us appoint a leader and let us return to Egypt."
The sin of the meraglim destroyed the idea of a "Geula" They didn't want redemption, they didn't want Eretz Yisrael, they wanted to return to Chutz Le'aaterz, to Mitzrayim. This wanting to return to Egypt, back to slavery was a slap in the face of the Creator, who said just weeks before
אנכי ה' אל-קך אשר הוצאתך מארץ מצרים, מבית עבדים
by wanting to return to Egypt they denied Hashem Himself, who took them out of slavery!
Yes! True, the sin of the golden calf was a violation of a cardinal sin against the Torah , but the sin of the meraglim was a national sin, a sin against us having a nation, against us having flags דגלים , against us having our very own government, wanting to stay in Chutz Le'aaretz, under the rule of the Egyptians... this sin was much much worse!
And who were the ones who made the Eigal????? The Eirav Rav, Egyptians that converted and mixed with the Jews,
The meraglim, however, was the cream of the cream, they were the Torah Leaders ... they were Tzaddikim, as the Torah itself states:
כלם אנשים ראשי בני ישראל המה
To be sure, these "Tzaddikim" did not worship the Golden Calf!
These meraglim, these Torah leaders must have been disgusted and nauseated when they witnessed the worshipping of a calf, yet they saw nothing wrong just weeks later with bad-mouthing Eretz Canaan!
Moshe could not bring himself to invoke the names of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov by the meraglim. The Avos loved Eretz Yisrael!
Hashem forgave the Jewish people as a whole for asking for a god to take them to Israel, but he was not "mevater" when it came to bad mouthing Eretz Yisrael!
Jews be careful how you talk about Israel and its people!
Torah leaders, should read these two parshois! Parshas "KI Sisah" and Parshas Shlach!
Remember:
Most Jews refused to leave Mitzrayim, Most of the Meraglim spoke Loshon Hara against Eretz Yisrael, Most Jews refused to leave Baval to build the Second Bais Hamikdash, and Most Religious Jews, especially the Chareidim were against getting visas to emigrate to the then Palestine. And even now there are Frum Jews that are waiting for Moshiach to make Aliyah! They are waiting for the Third Bais Hamikdash to come down from the heavens!
This "3rd Bais Hamikdash coming down from the heavens business" is the pshat of Rashi, and it is an easy one to follow because you don't have to do a thing but wait, the Rambam, however, says that the Bais HaMikdash has to be built! And in order to build, you must first conquer.
But this Rambam view takes effort, takes making Aliyah and that is something they refuse to do, instead, they build monstrosities in Chutz" le'aartz saying that when Moshiach comes, the shuls are going to be brought to Israel!
Nice thought! But what about all the shuls that the Nazis destroyed? What about all the Shuls in Brooklyn that were abandoned when the neighborhoods turned nasty? They are not coming back! Nope!
I believe that building monstrosities in Boro park is something that Hashem doesn't want! Especially when we are so close to the Geulah! But they the Rebbes don't believe for one second that the Geulah is close! If they did they wouldn't invest tens of millions in Chutz Le'aaretz! They like the meraglim don't want the geulah, because what will they do with their shuls once we have the 3rd Bais Hamikdash even if it does fall from the sky? They are happy and thrilled with the status quo!
What will Skver do with the frum neighbors that they are harassing? Skver doesn't want anyone even other chassidim living near them, How are they going to daven in the Bais Hamikdash with other chassidim?
What will Kiryas Yoel do with the Viznitzers that are now building right next to them (story for another time)? Will they daven with the Viznitzers in the same Bais Hamikdash? What about Bobov 48 and Bobov 45? Will they daven together in the Bais Hamikdash?
That's why they don't want the geulah! They want to continue davening in their fancy shuls, they want their chassidim to daven with them, they don't want them in the Bais Hamikdash, where ALL Jews are together!
There is a lot more to be said, and I will add to this post !
