Image Details
Chagall’s Passover Haggadah/Steimatzky Publishers/© 1997 Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris
Tired of waiting for Moses to descend Mount Sinai, the Israelites encourage Aaron to make them a new deity. God wants to destroy them for worshiping this false god, but Moses—in the guise of a classical prophet—eloquently and successfully begs for mercy: “Let not your anger, O Lord, blaze forth against your people, whom you delivered from the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:11). Moses’ role as prophetic intercessor leads author Schwartz to identify this passage as part of the Elohistic source (E), characterized by its prophetic features.