When the Israelites sought to craft a god for themselves, they turned to Aaron and he crafted the Golden Calf for them. The Sages explain that Aaron’s intentions were proper, to the extent that by virtue of the purity of his intentions he and his sons merited to become priests.

God told Moses: “And you, have Aaron your brother approach you, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, to serve as priests to Me” (Exodus 28:1). The Sages said: When Moses descended from Mount Sinai and saw Israel engaged in that action [i.e., worshipping the Golden Calf], he looked at Aaron and saw that he was striking the idol with a hammer to form it. Aaron intended only to delay the people to prevent them from sinning until Moses would descend, but Moses thought that Aaron was complicit in their sin and he was angry with him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: I know how proper Aaron’s intentions were. This can be explained by means of a parable of a prince who grew arrogant and took an iron spike to dig beneath his father’s palace. His mentor said to him: Do not exert yourself. Give it to me and I will dig beneath it. The king looked at the mentor and said to him: I know that your intentions were to slow the digging. I take an oath by your life that I will not appoint any person over my palace other than you. So too, when the Israelites said to Aaron: “Rise, make us a god” (32:1), he said to them: “Remove the gold rings” (32:2) and give them to me to fashion the calf. Aaron said to them: I am a priest; I will fashion it and will sacrifice offerings before it. But in truth, he engaged with them only to delay them until Moses came. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Aaron, I know what your intentions were. I take an oath by your life that I will not appoint anyone over the offerings of My children other than you, as it is stated that God said to Moses: “And you, have Aaron your brother approach you” (28:1) to perform the service in the Tabernacle. (Shemot Rabba 37)