For the source text click/tap here: Avodah Zarah 5
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Rish Lakish says: We must show gratitude towards our forefathers (the ones who sinned during the Golden Calf). If not for them, we would not have come into the world (for they would have been like angels, incapable of fathering children). This is as the verse says: I said you are angelic, sons of the Most High. However, you have corrupted (yourself with) your actions, and therefore you will die like a man.
The Gemora asks: This implies that if they would not have sinned, they would not have fathered children. Doesn’t the verse say: And you should be fruitful and multiply? [This is a Torah command!]
The Gemora answers: This only would have applied until the giving of the Torah. The Gemora asks: After the giving of the Torah the verse said: Go say to them, return to your tents(meaning that they could resume having relations with their wives)!?
We explore the sin of the golden calf it’s literary polemical and midrashic history.