Q&A: The Revelation at Mount Sinai — Was It Magic?
The Revelation at Mount Sinai — Was It Magic?
Question
Egypt was a superpower of magic, and certainly those around Pharaoh, who ruled this superpower, understood magic very well. If so, it makes sense that Moses, who grew up in his household, became expert in the magic known in Pharaoh’s house. Afterward, Moses went wandering in various places, and we know that during that time he entered the house of Jethro, who was a priest of Midian, so it is reasonable that he became even more expert there in magic.
Then Moses returns to Egypt and performs signs and wonders, including the splitting of the sea and the revelation at Mount Sinai, where the people hear thunderous sounds and lightning and a powerful voice speaking to them.
The question is: how can one believe that these were really miracles from God and not acts of magic that Moses performed after becoming one of the greatest experts in magic?
And the fact that the people of Israel accepted him proves nothing: (a) he performed forms of magic they had not seen in Egypt because of his specialization; (b) the people of Israel were forbidden to engage in magic, which caused them not to understand this wisdom, and so it was easy to fool them; (c) they were slaves, the children of slaves, worked with crushing labor, and presumably a slave has neither the time nor the means to become expert in “disciplines” such as magic; (d) the most natural thing is that a persecuted people to whom a redeemer arrives in the name of God will accept him and not pile suspicions on him—in the end, Moses delivered the goods for them, and through him they left Egypt, so their hearts were inclined to believe him.
It should be noted that Maimonides writes that all signs can be cast into doubt, perhaps they were done by magic, and that this is precisely what the giving of the Torah serves for, since that cannot be explained as magic. But to me, the giving of the Torah proves nothing, because in the Torah the event is not described as such a supernatural event; and if Maimonides understood that even the splitting of the sea could be attributed by some to magic, then all the more so the revelation at Mount Sinai, where the people stood beneath the mountain and heard from Him a voice saying to them, “I am the Lord.”
Answer
In the fifth notebook I dealt with grounding faith, and you can see my view there. In general, every claim taken by itself can certainly be debated, and of course there is no certainty about anything. But the overall picture does seem reasonable to me. See there.
Discussion on Answer
There was no revelation.
“You heard the sound of words, but saw no form—nothing but a voice.”
The Torah emphasizes that there was no revelation.
Hello Copenhagen,
Can I have your email address? To ask about these matters?
Greetings and blessings,
cinterpretation@gmail.com
I may not answer immediately when busy, and perhaps it would be better if you raise it for discussion here as a question to the Rabbi, and everyone will be able to contribute their comments and insights.
I know several years have passed, but I have to respond for those who may have been impressed by the “arguments” above:
The a fortiori argument is mistaken and misleading;
Maimonides says explicitly that the revelation at Mount Sinai *compels* the conclusion that this was not magic, and you challenge that from the splitting of the Red Sea—and that too is astonishing, since after the splitting it says explicitly, “And the people believed in the Lord…” On the contrary: they were slaves, yes, but they lived around magicians 24/7. The very fact that they were slaves is proof that they understood magic, not that they were “ignorant about magic.” They knew magic firsthand. Exactly the way a servant or personal assistant knows a manager or boss firsthand—that is exactly what a slave is. The difference is that he has no social rights at all…
There was no revelation? “I am the Lord your God” is not a revelation? Hearing the *voice of God* is not a revelation?! And what about the verse, “You were shown, so that you might know that the Lord is God; there is none else besides Him”?
Strange—the people themselves understood that this was God, but you, 3,300 years later, say they apparently did not understand.
So it is one of two things: if you accept what is written, then there is revelation, and the people understood very well that this was God, and therefore they were seized by mortal fear (that is where the expression “fear of God” comes from…), and therefore Moses mentions this in his speech and no one says a word in protest.
And if you do not accept what is written—then what exactly is the discussion about?
And regarding magic, there is another mistake and distortion: magic is part of the laws of idolatry, in tractate Sanhedrin; one must know the methods of magic in order to know how to judge such cases (and in the Talmud we find tannaim who knew this—it reminds me of some video by the apostates from iGod who made a whole production out of it). So where exactly is the concealment about magic?? The fact that the people were forbidden to practice magic did not forbid them to *know* the methods of magic (all Israel is commanded in Torah study, and the laws of idolatry are a substantial part of the Torah), so the entire foundation on which the thesis is built collapses and, forgive me, is false.
And in general this is astonishing: the magicians of Egypt said outright, “It is the finger of God,” so again the whole foundation collapses. Unless, of course, you do not accept the biblical report; and if so—again, what exactly is the discussion about?
And as for Jeremiah: what about all the chapters before and after, where he has no doubt that this is prophecy? More than that, the people around him are aware that he is a prophet of the Lord—do you have a stronger certification than that? After all, most of them were idol worshipers, and even so they knew that he was a prophet of the Lord. Bottom line: you are dealing with experts in magic, and when they understand that this is not magic, then for us, thousands of years later, when magic is only fantasy and fiction, there is no reason whatsoever to “worry” that these were mere sleights of hand…
Eli,
A criterion is needed to distinguish between what should be attributed to hallucination or an act of magic and what it is rational to attribute to a genuine revelation. According to what you are saying, it is not clear whether anything could ever count as evidence for revelation, since everything can be pinned on the possibility of hallucination/magic/the Matrix and the like.
In this connection there is the interesting passage in Jeremiah (chapter 32):
And Jeremiah said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying: Buy my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. And Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, according to the word of the Lord, and said to me: Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that it was the word of the Lord.
Did Jeremiah *know* that the word of the Lord had come to him only because it passed the test of fulfillment?