They get a bit of a bad rap these days, known mainly for being an exclamation that something is not true, or for the name of some kind of sports team (I'm not a native in this country but I'm trying).
But back in the day Bulls were the height of prestige - symbols of wealth, strength and most importantly masculine virility.
Small wonder then that many gods of the ancient world were closely associated with calves and bulls. In Mesopotamian myth, there was Gugalanna, the Great Bull of Heaven slain by the hero Gilgamesh. While in the Ugarit (an area close to ancient Israel), the chief god El was worshiped as the Bull-El, and Baal, the storm god, was also associated with this masculine image.
In our Bible too we can see relics of this bull worship - Jacob is called 'bechor shor', firstborn of the ox in Deut 33:17, or Hosea 8, which reads as a critique of this worship of bulls.
But the most striking polemic against bull worship is in this week's parasha of Ki Tisa. Moses has gone up the mountain to receive the two tablets but the people get nervous, and turn to Aaron to make them a substitute:
