No doubt, the worship of the calf was not a small sin! A nation who had seen so many signs and miracles through their great prophet, forgot them all; and got impatient for a short delay in the absence of their prophet, putting aside the greatest principle of their religion (THE MONOTHEISM) and worshiped the statue of a calf of melted gold!

      If such a prospect of idolatry, and worship of images vanished not from their minds, it could be repeated every now and then, and here and there, particularly after the death of Moses. Therefore the culprits were sentenced to an unusual death: taking swords and killing one another! It is narrated that Moses ordered those who worshipped the calf, to perform ablution, and in a dark night, kill each other by swords!

      One may ask: ``Was not such a decree to death, too heavy a punishment for the culprits? to answer this we say: In fact, the first tenet, and the most important principle of all the Divine Religions is MONOTHEISM. To tamper with such important basis, and swerve to idolatry is nothing but atheism or godlessness, and the most heinous sin in the sight of God and HIS apostle. How could such a sin be easily ignored? HAD it been taken easy, it would be repeated down through the history, in future, and thus the decree, though very harsh and rigorous, did guarantee the safe moving on, of MONOTHEISM.''

      (The event of slaying each other is also mentioned in THE OLD TESTAMENT through the following verses: ``And Moses stood at the gate of the camp and shouted: Every one who is on the LORDS' side come over here! So all the LEVITES gathered round him and he said to them: The LORD OF ISRAEL commands everyone of you to put on his sword and go through the camp from this gate to the other, and kill his brother, his friends, and his neighbour. The LEVITES obeyed and killed about three thousand men that day.    TRANSLATOR'S NOTE - EXODUS 32: 27-28