In Parashat Yitro we come to one of the more well known parts of Torah, Israel stands together at Mt. Sinai to receive the ten words, or the colloquial language is the ten commandments. At Sinai, who is Israel? That was Moses’ question when he wrote later about God who would “make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before our God and with those who are not with us here this day” (Deuteronomy. 29:13-14). Those standing here? “Here” is right before they entered Canaan, but what about those who stood “there” at Sinai some 40 years earlier? A teaching from Talmud (Shevuot 39a) says “here” was “there,” as not only “those who stood at Mount Sinai'' who were receivers of Torah, but also “ the subsequent generations, and the converts who will convert in the future." In the same vein we further learn from a Midrash (Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 3) the answer to the question, “Why does it say, Those who are here; and those who are not here without using the word, standing?” Rabbi Abbahu (an earlier Talmudic Rabbi) supplies the answer; “Because all the souls were there, even though their bodies had not yet been created.” If that is so then our connection to Sinai is more spiritual as we were not there, but really it is both/and. How might we understand this? First, the passing down of Torah, which we commonly say came from God at Sinai, is the role of the parents (not just fathers) to their children and was foremost in Moses’ mind. We see this as he gathers the people at Sinai where he speaks “to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel'' (Exodus 19:3). A Midrash (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer [41]) defines just who that is, thus we read: “Go, speak to the daughters of Israel [and ask them] whether they wish to receive the Torah.' Why were the women asked [first]? Because it is the way of men to follow the opinions of women, as it is said, ‘Thus shall you say to the House of Jacob’ – these are the women -- ‘and declare to the Children of Israel’ -- these are the men.” This is suggested in Proverbs 1:8 that says “My son, heed the discipline of your father, And do not forsake the instruction of your mother,” which was understood by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines (an early Zionist Rabbi) to mean that the guidance of the mothers Torah carried more weight than just the fathers instruction. Our lesson - words give meaning, words are tangible. Second, Sinai itself. While we are charged with the need to pass these words down to every generation, today our relationship to Sinai is more existential as we were not there physically. Regarding Sinai as a historical event Rabbi Arthur Green, probably to the chagrin of some, “makes no claim for the historicity of Sinai,” which he sees in the arena of “myth and symbol [of] a much deeper truth than that history,” the idea being that Sinai became a “sacred tale around which our lives are woven.” Teaching a view that is consistent with a Neo-Hasidic ideology, Rabbi Green would say that the human-God interactions (that would also include Sinai) began in Gan Eden (garden of Eden) when God asks Adam, “Ayekha,” where are you, words that for Green are “the call from God within.” Were those words audible or were they just perceived? While there is conversation about what language God spoke the real question is how and what did Adam hear? Adam heard God because he was fashioned as B’tzelem Elohim, and since Adam was in the image of God he could hear his inner “divine silence” although it was not audible. Another lesson - what we hear is not always words. The same is so for Moses. While Moses was physically at Sinai his instructions and teachings were more so his response to the same question, ayekha, where are you? What Rabbi Green is saying is that the words Moses spoke to Israel that day did not come directly from God although they were divinely inspired. As such, what Moses responded to was the question ayekha that produced words birthed from his “divine silence,'' only to be made tangible when spoken and written (remember Green calls Sinai a myth). Regarding those who were present during that Sinai myth we read, “On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:11). What they heard was an experience, the experience of ayekha. What they experienced and responded to were sounds that had no particular language. What they heard was a language they each knew and could understand. What does that mean and what does that have to do with those of us who were not at Sinai? The Midrash (Exodus Rabbah 5:9) about hearing the Torah in multiple languages was about a diversity of languages to make Sinai’s message universal. Yet I think it can be individualized to each who stood (and stands) at Sinai even if it was only in their (or our) soul before the donning of the body (see Midrash Tanchuma above). Therefore in closing, borrowing once more the words of Rabbi Green, Sinai became an experience that is a “sacred tale around which our lives are woven.” Rabbi Green would say that today the question ayekha continues to call “out every human to participate in it, each in our distinctive way.” We too, being at Sinai, will experience sounds (maybe words, maybe nature, maybe our inner divine silence) that we can also understand if we listen. Sinai was not an ordinary event but a life altering experience.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
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