CrashCourse3

Crash Course in Jewish History Part 11: Mount Sinai
By: Rabbi Ken Spiro

Passover is often described as the holiday of freedom. And in liberal
democracies freedom is often misunderstood as the ability to do whatever you
like with no oppressive authority telling you what to do. But that is not
how the Bible and Judaism define freedom.

The Jewish idea of freedom is best summarized by that very famous
expression -- "Praise the servants of God who are not servants of Pharaoh."
That is, freedom is seen a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. It
is being free from an oppressive authority in order to stand at Mount Sinai
and commit to a certain responsibility.

What happened at Mount Sinai?

To answer quite simply, the Jewish people -- every man, woman and child --
had an encounter with God.

It was a totally unique event in all of human history. The Bible itself
states in Exodus 4:33 that this never happened any place else. You can check
all history books, you'll never find a similar story of God speaking to an
entire people.

All other claims about revelation in human history are based on the
experience of one individual or at best a small group of initiates. For
example, Islam is founded on the teachings of Mohammed who said that God
spoke to him in a cave and revealed the teachings contained in the Koran to
him.

The notion of an entire people having an encounter with God is unique to
Judaism. And it's the one claim that cannot be faked. So for example, I can
claim that I had a vision last night and God spoke to me, and if I'm
charismatic enough and you are gullible enough you might believe I am a
prophet. But I can't convince you that you saw something that you know you
didn't see.

Jews say that we have kept the Torah for thousands of years, not because of
miracles or any other supernatural phenomena of Jewish history, but because
we all stood at Mount Sinai and heard God speak and for generation after
generation that very fact was passed down.

The story of the survival of the Jewish people is going to be to a large
extent the story of what's called shalshelet hakabala -- the transmission
process of Torah from one generation to the next.

A NATION IS BORN

At Mount Sinai the Jewish people become a nation. Again, this is a unique
event which says a lot about the Jewish people. What's so unique about it?

Well, consider how the French became "the French." Did they all wake up one
morning to collectively decide they liked white wine and blue cheese and
they were going to speak French? No. It was a long process. As with every
other nation, this process involved a people living in a specific geographic
area for an extended period of time and evolving a common language and a
common culture born of a shared historical experience. Eventually, this
people developed a political entity and government (with a king at its head)
and they defined their boundaries, flew a flag, minted coins and called
themselves France.

For Jews the process of becoming a nation started s outside their national
homeland -- in fact while in bondage and under the most adverse conditions
designed to erase any cultural or historical identity. Jews did not become a
nation by pledging allegiance to the State of Israel. A scraggly band of
escaped slaves became a nation standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and
saying to God: "We will do and we will listen" -- that is, pledging to
fulfill the commandments of the Torah and with time to understand the
mission we came with it.

Just as Abraham said, many, many generations earlier, "I choose to live, and
if necessary to die, for the reality of God," so too these descendants of
Abraham made the same commitment.

That's how the Jews became the Nation of Israel.

This is why we say that Judaism is not just a religion -- it's a national
identity. Being a Jew is not the same as being a Christian. Christianity is
purely a religious belief. You could be British, American, French and still
be a Christian.

Not so the Jews.

The Jews can certainly become citizens of the countries in which they live
and they often look and act like everyone else, but all the while, they and
everyone else knows they are different. If they choose to deny this fact,
the rest of the world will always remind them of it.

Being a Jew is being part of a distinct people and a nation, which does have
a land, does have a language, does have a history and a world mission.

Most importantly, Jews have a specific relationship with God which is not
just a religious/spiritual thing, it's an all-encompassing view of the
world -- how to live every second of life -- which is unique in the world.

The Jewish national identity was forged by the experience at Mount Sinai
where we committed to a mission, and a specific way of life to be lived in
accordance with the commandments of the Torah, which is the guidebook for
accomplishing that mission on a personal and national level.

THE ULTIMATE SCRIBE

After the original revelation, Moses spent 40 days listening to God talking
to him, dictating to him the 613 commandments of the Torah (which are
encapsulated in Ten Statements, the so-called "Ten Commandments") and also
the principles how to apply these commandments (which are referred to as the
Oral Law).

Note that the Oral Law was given first. And the Oral Law has been
exclusively in the domain of the Jews. The Christians adopted the Written
Law -- the Torah and other parts of the Hebrew Bible as part of their
scriptures -- but the Oral Law stayed uniquely Jewish. Because it is the
Oral Law that tells us how to live as Jews.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough how significant the Oral Law is. One
can't live as a Jew without it. It's going to become a very important issue
when we look at splinter sects in Judaism later on in Jewish history.

The Written Law was written over a period of 40 years while the Jews
wandered in the desert and God was dictating to Moses. There's a lot of
material in the Bible that's explaining what happens later on in their
wanderings, so obviously this wasn't given in advance at Mount Sinai or
there'd be no free will.

Although the Torah -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy --
are called the Five Books of Moses, Moses was not the author. Moses was the
scribe -- the ultimate scribe. God dictated to Moses.

But it's very clear, and the Bible says over and over again, that Moses was
unique among all prophets.

And there arose no prophet in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to
face.(Deut. 34:10)

Prophecy means that a human being is able to transcend to a higher level of
spiritual reality, and of course, what that level is depends on the
prophet's direct experience of the infinite. Most prophets would get a
vision and put that vision into words. Moses' prophecy was unique in that
God spoke to him. He "heard" God directly.

And the Torah is considered a direct dictation, which is why the Five Book
of Moses have a unique position among all holy books of the Jewish people
and a unique authority in the Jewish world.

With the Ten Commandments in hand, Moses came down the mountain and what he
saw shocked him to such an extent that he dropped the stone tablets. Below
the mountain, where just a few weeks ago, they stood in an encounter with
God, the Jews were worshipping an idol in direct violation of the law they
had just been given.

FOR FURTHER READING SEE:
DID GOD SPEAK AT MT. SINAI?"

NEXT: THE GOLDEN CALF