In this parashah, Moses was on Har Sinai, with Hashem. Hashem was talking to Moses. Meanwhile, the Jews were waiting for Moses. They didn’t feel safe without him. The Jews asked Aharon to make a golden calf to replace Moses so they could feel safe once again. Aharon agreed to this because he thought it would take time to make the gold calf so when Moses came down, there wouldn’t be a gold calf yet. Aharon told them to use all of the earrings to make the calf. He thought they would refuse, but they immediately took their earrings, built a gold calf, and started dancing with the idol. Hashem saw this, and he was FURIOUS! Hashem was going to destroy them, but Moses refused. He saw it from a different perspective and didn’t clearly see what the Jews were doing. Hashem agreed with Moses and when Moses came down from Har Sinai and saw the Jews dancing with the gold calf, he was furious! He broke the tablet.

To be a better person, you need to follow certain rules and norms in a way to is similar to Hashem. Hashem wanted the Israelites to change to forgive them.