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Q&A: The Difference Between the Revelation at Mount Sinai and Stories of Revelations Among Other Nations

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The Difference Between the Revelation at Mount Sinai and Stories of Revelations Among Other Nations

Question

Hello, honorable Rabbi.
In one of the threads, the Rabbi referred to a point raised by a writer, where it was noted that there is an essential difference between the revelation story of the Jewish people and the other stories, namely in the number of witnesses. The writer argued that because of the prominent quantitative difference, it is impossible to attribute imaginary experiences or lies to the Jewish people, whereas these explanations can be attributed to the other revelation stories. The Rabbi's answer was that numbers can be reshaped over the generations, and therefore one cannot rely on them.
My question is this: does the Rabbi's answer imply that if it were to become clear that there really was such a number of witnesses, then the claim would be correct—that it is impossible to attribute to the Jewish people fantasies, experiences, or lies?
I would be glad if the Rabbi would consider these arguments:
1. The Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Mount Sinai are the events we mention every day—how can the number of people be reshaped so drastically (from something one could imagine or invent to something for which that is impossible), when this is a small detail but one connected to the founding event of the people, especially when the Torah counted several times the number of each and every tribe?
2. With one person, a rumor gets reshaped—but the more people there are, the more reshaping there is for each individual. Someone gets up and says, "There were 600,000 men," and another person will answer him, "My father told me differently!" and so on… How did it happen that after many generations, millions of people would all say the same thing? (It must be millions, because otherwise it would not be possible that the people had not diminished.)
I would appreciate the Rabbi's help in clarifying this. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Answer

I no longer remember the discussion there. In general, the number carries some weight, but it is not really decisive.

  1. The question is when they began mentioning it every day. Was it from the time of the Exodus / the revelation itself, or only in later generations? As for the numbers in the Torah, commentators have already written that these may be typological numbers. We discussed this here once as well. 
  2. Very easily. Just look at how stories about righteous figures and various miracle stories develop, with details and fine details that rabbis are fully convinced of. Beyond that, this tradition could begin with just a few people, and there may have been a dispute among the three who started it, with one of the narratives taking over and being passed down to later generations.

In short, these are rather weak arguments.

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