The golden calf

The story

Two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they came to the Sinai Desert and camped near Mount Sinai. God called Moses to the mountain and spoke to him there. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and other laws for the people.

The Israelites down in the camp had waited a long time for Moses to return. When he still did not come, they ran to Aaron and asked him to make a god to protect them, guide them, and whom they could see. All the Israelites brought their golden jewelry to Aaron and he wanted to make a bull image out of it....

The game

...but Aaron had too little gold and sent the Israelites to the rich among their people. However, these rich Israelites do not want to give their gold so easily.

The Israelites (gamblers) have to gamble with them and answer questions so they can get their gold.

• After four families (groups) have been formed (see "The Families"), the game begins. Each family consists of father, mother, 1-3 children and grandfather. Each family member (player) has a badge on which is written what he is (father, mother, ...). All family members go in search of a rich Israelite (see "The Rich Israelites"). These rich Israelites stay in a certain area, but are not stationary. When a gold-seeking Israeli finds a glod-holding Israeli, he must do exactly what the rich man tells him. He does not get the gold just like that.
• The rich man asks him questions or gambles with him. If the poorer Israelite can answer the question or if he is lucky in the game, then he gets a gold bar. If he comes up empty, then he has to find another rich person to tap.
• Assuming the poorer Israelite was lucky and was able to get a gold bar from the rich man, he heads back to the gold calf building site. If he meets someone from another family on the way and he touches him somewhere, then the one who has the lower family rank (see "The Order of Rank in the Family") must give his gold bar to the other. If two of the same rank meet, then nothing happens and they part again. So that not everyone knows in advance what family rank the other has, the badges can be exchanged within the family throughout the game.
• If a gold seeker has made his way to the gold calf building site with his gold bar, then he gives his gold bar to the gold recorder. The gold recorder (see "The gold recorder") gives the corresponding family one point per gold bar and passes the gold on to the gold calf builder (leader) who builds the calf. Now the whole thing starts over again until the golden calf is completed.
• Purpose: Each family tries to capture as many gold bars as possible. The family that has delivered the most gold bars has won....

End of the game

All the Israelites are standing around the calf admiring their work of art. Then someone shouts down from a hill (or not) that Moses has returned with the tablets of the law and everyone should come quickly. Everyone runs to the man who called. But they find only the broken tablet of the law, which Moses smashed out of anger at the people. Meanwhile, someone destroys the golden calf.

The Israelite families should now realize that they did something wrong and none of them won.

The Families

• The four families consist of 4-6 family members: father, mother, 1st child, 2nd child, 3rd child and grandfather (the number of children can be adjusted).
• Each family member has a badge on which his rank (father, mother,...) and family name is written.
• The family names: Ben Gurion, Ben Hur, Ben Chorin, Ben Hanan

The rich Israelites

The leaders play the rich Israelites, who move around a certain area. They carry around a lot of gold bars and various games of chance.

Now, if a poor Israelite looking for gold comes to a rich man, the rich man can determine what will be played. The Israelite only gets a gold bar if he won at the game or answered the question correctly.

Games:

• Game dice (roll certain number, roll two same numbers, ...)
• "Draw sticks"
• "Scissors, stone, paper"
• ...

Questions about the Moses story up to this point.

The gold recorder

• Each gold bar is given to the gold recorder. When the Israelite shows his ID card, a point is written down for his family.
• At the gold recorder, defective ID cards can also be replaced and questions can be asked about the game.

The list of materials

• ID cards for families
• Game dice for rich Israelites
• Slide boxes (yellow Kodak boxes) as gold bars
• Tablets of the law
• Base for calf building

Source reference

Cover picture: Cour tesy ofwww.spielboerse.ch - Spielideen für die Jungschar!

Game idea: Cour tesy ofwww.spielboerse.ch - Spielideen für die Jungschar!