What Really Happened at Sinai?

Open an Etz Chayim Chumash and study Exodus 19:16 - 20:18

What atmosphere does God create for the giving of the Torah?

How does this affect the people? What about Moshe?

Why was this an important way to present the Torah?

WHAT DID THEY SEE? Exodus 20:15

“The Torah was given through seven voices. And the people saw the Master of the Universe revealed in every one of these voices. That's the meaning of the verse ‘All the people saw the the voices.’ (Exodus 20:15) These voices were accompanied by sparks of fire and flashes of lightening that were in the shape of the letters of the ten commandments. They saw the fiery word pouring out from the mouth of the Almighty and watched as they were inscribed on the stone tablets, as it says, ‘The voice of God inscribes flames of fire’ (Ps 29:4). And when the people actually saw The-One-Who-Speaks-the-World-into-Being, they fainted away. Some say that their spirits left their bodies, while others say that they entered a prophetic trance. These visions brought them to trembling and shaking and a blackout of the senses.” (Midrash Exodus Rabbah)

THE SILENT ALEF: “It is possible that at Sinai we heard nothing from the mouth of God other than the letter alef of the first utterance 'Anochi Adonai Elohechem, I am YHWH your God.' As we read in Exodus 20:15, “And all of the people saw the thunder.” In other words, they saw what is normally heard! At Sinai we saw the letter “alef” evoking the name and presence of God…” (Zera Hakodesh- Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Horowitz 19^th Cent)

WHAT DID THEY HEAR? “Rabi Yochanan Said: When God’s voice (kolot) came forth at Mt. Sinai, it divided itself into 70 human languages, so that the whole world might understand it. All at Mt. Sinai, young and old, women, children, and infants according to their ability to understand. Moses too, understood only according to his capacity, as it is said (Ex. 19:19), ‘Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice.’ With a voice that Moses could hear.” (Midrash Exodus Rabbah 5:9)

​DEAFENING SILENCE: "Said Rabbi Abbahu in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: When the Holy One gave the Torah, no bird screeched, no fowl flew, no ox mooed, none of the ophanim (angels) flapped a wing, nor did the seraphim (burning celestial beings) chant "Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh (Holy, Holy, Holy!)" The sea did not roar, and none of the creatures uttered a sound. Throughout the entire world there was only a deafening silence as the Divine Voice went forth speaking: Anochi Adonai Elohecha (I am the Lord your God)" (Midrash Exodus Rabbah)

Talmud Nidda 30a-b

"A lamp is lit above the fetus' head .... it can see from one end of the world to the other .... it is taught the entire Torah .... and then along comes an angel who makes it forget everything it learned!

[You have probably heard this idea before - that the angel slaps the kid silly (literally) until it forgets everything it learned, and that because of that slap, the child is left with an indentation on top of his upper lip (which is medically known as the philtrum)."

What is the point of teaching the fetus if they will forget the Torah anyway?

According to the Tikkunei Zohar the purpose of this teaching is so that when the child learns Torah anew, they recall the learning that took place before they were born, which offers strength and vitality to the knowledge.

God In Search Of Man, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

The word Torah is used in two senses; the supernal (heavenly) Torah, the existence which preceded the creation of the world, and the revealed (earthly) Torah. Concerning the supernal Torah the Rabbis maintained: "The Torah is hidden from the eye of all living...Man knows not the price thereof." "Moses received Torah" but not all of the Torah "at Sinai." And not all that was revealed to Moses was conveyed to Israel; the meaning of the commandments is given as an example. Together with the gratitude for the word that was disclosed, there is a yearning for the meaning yet to be disclosed. There is a theory in Jewish literature... which maintains that the Torah, which is eternal in spirit, assumes different forms in various eons. The Torah was known to Adam when was in the Garden of Eden, although not in its present form. Commandments such as those concerning charity to the poor, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, would have been meaningless in the Garden of Eden. In that eon the Torah was known in its spiritual form. Just as man assumed a material form when he was driven out of the Garden of Eden, so has the Torah assumed a material form. If man had retained "the garments of light" his spiritual form of existence, the Torah, too, would have retained its spiritual form.

REVELATION EVERYDAY: The Kotzker Rebbe was asked: ”Why is Shavuot called (z’man matan Torah) 'The Time that the Torah was Given,' rather than 'The time the Torah was Received?” He answered: “The giving took place on one day, but the receiving takes place at all times.” (Martin Buber Tales of Hasidim)

"THE SILENT ALEF" From The Book of Miracles (Rabbi Lawrence Kushner)

Narrator: “No one really knows for sure what happened on Mount Sinai.” One time the rabbis were arguing about it.

RABBI 1: "At Mt Sinai God spoke the entire Torah to all the Children of Israel, and Moses wrote it down as God spoke.

RABBI 2: "No! It says in the Torah that the Children of Israel heard only the Ten Commandments that were carved in stone with the finger of God.

RABBI 3: "NO NO! The people could not handle hearing all of that. It would be too much for them. They only heard God say the first word of the Ten Commandments– “ANOCHI!" אנכי and then the entire world went totally silent, not even a bird chirped or a frog croaked.” Anochi means “I am” – Basically they heard God saying “I exist – I am real”

RABBI 4: "NO NO NO!!! ‘Not even the first word, Anochi אנכי, was heard. All that God spoke was the first letter, of the first word, of the first commandment. At Sinai, all the people of Israel needed to hear was the sound of the alef. It meant that God and the Jewish people could have a conversation.”

Narrator: Jewish mysticism teaches that Alef, contains the entire Torah. But not everyone hears the gentle sound of alef. People are able to hear only what they are ready to hear. God speaks to each of us in a personal way, taking into consideration our strength, wisdom, and preparation.

Discuss these different perspectives based on their:

1. Theological coherence (does it contradict itself)?

2. Historical authenticity?

3. Does it feel authentically Jewish?

4. Ability to inspire building of Jewish Community and Practice?

5. Does it meet your psychological needs?

6. Which one works best for you?

Traditional - Rabbi Sampson Raphael Hirsch (19th Cent Germany)

Revelation was a Supernatural Event

God unambiguously revealed the Five Books of the Torah directly to Moshe who wrote it down. God also revealed to Moshe the Oral Torah (either all of it, the core concepts, or just the tools needed for interpreting the Written Torah).

Co-Revelation - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

The experience of revelation was itself covenantal in nature (both parties participated in creating the Torah)

Two events occurred at Sinai:

1. God’s giving of the Torah

2. Israel’s receiving of the Torah

“… the Bible is itself a Midrash… The source of authority is not the word as given in the text, but Israel’s understanding of the text.” (AJ Heschel)

I-THOU Encounter - Franz Rozenzweig and Martin Buber

Revelation was the greatest I-Thou encounter between God and humans.

No specific laws or codes were revealed. However, God’s command was communicated. Torah is Israel’s response to their encounter with God

Naturalist - Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan

Revelation is the ongoing process in which humans discover the means for salvation. Mt. Sinai was the beginning of this process of discovery. There is no transcendent God or any outside deity that communicated to the people. God is the process or power that enables us to discover the means for salvation from within ourselves. Therefore, Judaism is whatever the Jewish community agrees upon it to be. Torah is Judaism’s unique form of wisdom. Torah is also unique because its content deals with ultimate questions of human existence

Mystical - Zera Kodesh Rav Naftali Tzvi Horowitz (early 19th Cent)

“It is possible that at Sinai we heard nothing from the mouth of God other than the ‘alef’ of the first utterance “Anochi Adonai Elohechem,” “I am YHWH your God.” As we read in Exodus 20:15, “And all of the people saw the thunder.” In other words, they saw what is normally heard! At Sinai we witnessed the letter “alef” evoking the name and presence of the One God…”

YOU'RE RIGHT!

Two men came to the Rabbi's study to settle an argument. The Rabbi's wife was also seated in the room. One man explained his complaint to the Rabbi: "The story is such and so, and he has to do this and he has to do that." He gives a fine account and argues his case clearly. The Rabbi declares, "You're right!" Next, the other man presents his side. He speaks with such passion and persuasion that the Rabbi also says to him, "You're right!"

After they leave, the Rabbi's wife is distraught and says to her husband, "How can you say that both of them are right?" The Rabbi strokes his beard and thinks long and hard and finally says to his wife, "You know, you're right."

THE TEN PRONOUNCEMENTS

1) I am the Eternal, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery.

2) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

3) Thou shalt not speak the name of the Eternal, YHWH - your God, in vain.

4) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

5) Honor your father and mother.

6) Thou shalt not murder.

7) You shalt not commit adultery.

8) Thou shalt not steal.

9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor.

10) Thou shalt not covet (be jealous of) anything that belongs to your neighbor.

• Which one is the hardest to follow?

Rabbi Shai Held, "Coveting, Craving... and Being Free,"

But many scholars maintain that coveting means what it sounds like—the internal state of desiring something (or someone) that belongs to someone else. While it is true that the other four commandments in the second tablet refer to actions, the concluding commandment could well be different. Perhaps it concerns the attitude that makes the rest of the violations possible. As Bible scholar John Durham writes, “The tenth commandment… functions as a kind of summary commandment, the violation of which is a first step that can lead to the violation of any one or all of the rest of the commandments. As such, it is necessarily all embracing and descriptive of an attitude rather than a deed.” In other words, coveting may well lead to taking, but it does not denote it. With the last commandment the Torah reaches inward, beyond our actions to our inner life and the motivations that animate our behavior in the world. “All peoples acknowledge that it is forbidden to commit adultery or steal, but here the commandment goes further... it is even forbidden to desire in one’s heart another’s wife or property.” In any case, the verses often cited to connect coveting and acting may well prove just the opposite: “If hamad [covet] had meant ‘covet and seize,’ a second verb [like l-k-h, take] would have been unnecessary...

Dismissing what he sees as the destructive notion that Judaism cares only about what we do but not about what we think or feel, Ibn Ezra insists, radically, that “the main purpose of the all the commandments is to straighten the heart. This is evident from the fact that we distinguish between one who sinned intentionally and one who sinned in error” (Commentary to Deuteronomy 5). The danger, in other words, is not just where covetousness can lead, but what covetousness itself represents. The Torah cares deeply about our inner lives; character matters.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (1951), pp. 89-90.

Nothing is as hard to suppress as the will to be a slave to one’s own pettiness. Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty. Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem—how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent. In a moment of eternity, while the taste of redemption was still fresh to the former slaves, the people of Israel were given the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments. In its beginning and end, the Decalogue deals with the liberty of man. The first Word—I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage— reminds him that his outer liberty was given to him by God, and the tenth Word— Thou shalt not covet!—reminds him that he himself must achieve his inner liberty.