To establish monotheism, Moses had to publicly murder those who wished to worship him as God.

THAT'S a commitment to democracy over personal power and pleasure.

It's an entirely different episode in the Torah that makes the Golden Calf story so very very clear.

Every Saturday a portion of the Torah is read in all synagogues around the world.

The portion read this past Saturday ends with a dramatic and vivid story whose purpose is to make One Thing Very Clear.

Here's what happened. Full text follows.

The older sister and personal savior of Moses, Miriam, spoke to her middle brother Aaron about one of Moses’ sexual or romantic decisions regarding a non-Israelite woman.

The precise nature of her complaint would be make gossip for us because it includes the two most purient interests in the beastly soul of humankind: Sex and Tribalism.

Wisely, the Torah doesn't let us lose the point it's focused on ny providing us any purient details at all.

All we need to know is that it involved Moses and a woman, and that Miriam did not see how her biases clouded her from reaching an accurate judgement between who she was, and who Moses was.

And also that allowing one’s biased ego to get away with casting such aspersions, even to a fellow sibling, might arouse of Truth & Goodness Itself.