Have A Little Cow. No Harm In It

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

—Exodus 32:1-6

Alexander Ivanov, The Golden Calf

One thing about Aaron a lot of people don’t seem to know is how much he liked making statues of cows. It so happened to be a hobby of his. Had been for years. Ever since he could remember. He could whittle a fist-sized cow in an afternoon, give or take, and during the long walk he’d hand them out to kids or whoever wanted one. He made cows out of soap, too, if there was any to spare, and if it wasn’t too hot out. Winter is the best time for soap carving. Cedar is very good for whittling. Fig trees, ficus trees, even olive wood are okay in a pinch. Anything less than about 10 rings per square inch is not worth the cutting. 20 rings and up is good.

Spring wood is too bulky and you lose the shape too easily. No matter how good you think you are at sharpening, it’ll crush under the knife sooner or later.

Aaron could, and did, carve a lot of things besides cows. If anyone wanted something in particular, he could probably whittle it for you. Pretty much any animal, as long as he had seen it, or if you could describe it in enough detail so he could make a reasonable guess. Friends or family members. It wouldn’t be more than a rough approximation, but it would look enough like the person it was supposed to look like that people got a kick out of it.

He wouldn’t do caricatures or anything like that. It was lighthearted, but it wasn’t a joke, if that makes sense.