A 2nd Sinai?

(1) Then God said to Moses, “Come up to Adonai, with Aaron, Nadav and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar. (2) Moses alone shall come near Adonai; the others shall not come near, nor shall the people come up.” (3) Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of Adonai and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that Adonai has commanded we will do!” (4) Moses then wrote down all the commands of Adonai.

(3) Moses went up to God. Adonai called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus shall you ...declare to the children of Israel: (4) ‘You saw what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. (5) Now then, if you obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples... (6) but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (7) Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and put before them all that Adonai commanded him. (8) All the people answered as one, saying, “All that Adonai has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the people’s words to Adonai. (9) And Adonai said to Moses, “I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.” Then Moses reported the people’s words to Adonai,

(4) Early in the morning, he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (5) He designated some young men among the Israelites, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as offerings of well-being to Adonai. (6) Moses took one part of the blood and put it in basins, and the other part of the blood he dashed against the altar. (7) Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that Adonai has spoken we will faithfully do!” (8) Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that Adonai now makes with you concerning all these commands.”

נעשה ונשמע, (na'aseh v'nishmah) “we will carry out what God has said already, and we are also prepared to listen (obey) to what God will command from here on in.

The Torah says, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One of Blessing overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: From here there is a substantial caveat to the obligation to fulfill the Torah. The Jewish people can claim that they were coerced into accepting the Torah, and it is therefore not binding. Rava said: Even so, they again accepted it willingly in the time of Ahasuerus, as it is written: “The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them” (Esther 9:27), and he taught: The Jews ordained what they had already taken upon themselves through coercion at Sinai.

Rabbi Simai taught: When Israel accorded precedence to the declaration “We will do” over the declaration “We will hear,” 600,000 ministering angels came and tied two crowns to each and every member of the Jewish people, one corresponding to “We will do” and one corresponding to “We will hear.”

Rabbi Elazar said: When the Jewish people accorded precedence to the declaration “We will do” over “We will hear,” a Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Who revealed to my children this secret that the ministering angels use?

As it is written: “Bless Adonai, you angels of God, you mighty in strength, that fulfill God's word, hearkening unto the voice of God's word” (Psalms 103:20). At first, the angels fulfill God's word, and then afterward they hearken. Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. Under its shadow I delighted to sit and its fruit was sweet to my taste” (Song of Songs 2:3)? Why were the Jewish people likened to an apple tree? It is to tell you that just as this apple tree, its fruit grows before its leaves, so too, the Jewish people accorded precedence to “We will do” over “We will hear.”

נעשה ונשמע, (na'aseh v'nishmah) a reference to action designed to ensure that they could obey G’d’s directives without thought of any reward that might be in store for them by doing this. We find a similar construction in Psalms 103:20 עושי דברו לשמוע בקולו, “who do God's bidding, ever obedient to God's bidding.”

(20) Bless Adonai, O angels, mighty creatures who do God's bidding, ever obedient to God's bidding;

"And he took the book of the covenant and he read (it) in the ears of the people:" But we do not know from where (he read it). R. Yishmael b. R. Yossi says: From the beginning of the creation until here. Rebbi says: The mitzvot commanded to Adam, the mitzvot commanded to the sons of Noach, and the mitzvot commanded in Marah and all of other mitzvot. R. Yishmael says: What is written at the beginning, (Lev 25:1-3) "And Adonai spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying … then the land shall rest a Sabbath to Adonai. Six years shall you sow your field, etc.", sabbatical years, Jubilee years, blessings and curses. What is written at the end? (Ibid. 26:46) "These are the statutes and the ordinances and the Torot that Adonai gave between God and the children of Israel on Sinai by the hand of Moses." (At this,) they said: We take it upon ourselves. When Moses saw this, he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying to them: You are tied and bound and committed. Tomorrow come and take upon yourselves all of the mitzvot

In connection to the mishna’s statement about the importance of Torah study, the Gemara relates the following incident: And there already was an incident in which Rabbi Tarfon and the Elders were reclining in the loft of the house of Nit’za in Lod, when this question was asked of them: Is study greater or is action greater? Rabbi Tarfon answered and said: Action is greater. Rabbi Akiva answered and said: Study is greater. Everyone answered and said: Study is greater, but not as an independent value; rather, it is greater as study leads to action.

(2) You must know, that a [person] is acted upon according to [their] actions; and [their] heart and all [their] thoughts always follow after the actions that [they] es - whether good or bad. ... for the hearts are drawn after the actions.