Q&A: On the Revelation at Mount Sinai and on the First Part of the Trilogy
On the Revelation at Mount Sinai and on the First Part of the Trilogy
Question
Hello Rabbi, thank you for publishing the trilogy—as usual I became much wiser and really enjoyed the “lean” version of Judaism.
On your site you come out more or less against the importance of studying the Hebrew Bible, saying that no information really comes out of it, and that usually people just infer what they had already assumed. I assume that’s why you don’t spend much time on this kind of study.
So I was very surprised to see that you base belief in Sinai on the biblical text. I am referring mainly to p. 499 in the book: “The descriptions of the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Mount Sinai recur in many other places in the Hebrew Bible.” In my humble opinion, you are simply mistaken. While the Exodus is indeed mentioned about a hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, the revelation at Mount Sinai is hardly mentioned at all (a search in the responsa database will prove it—five places, in my opinion). True, in most places where the Exodus is mentioned as the source of a religious obligation—do X because I brought you out of Egypt—it is always possible to argue that it was important to mention the moral aspect of slavery rather than the commitment of the covenant, but still, such statistical prominence demands explanation. It seems quite clear to me that the revelation at Mount Sinai is a late addition.
How can one prove that something is a late addition? By pointing to places where we would have expected it to be mentioned if it had been known. The places that show the revelation at Mount Sinai was unknown to the author are these (ordered by strength of proof—I’ll bring the actual sources at the end):
- Joshua 24
- Psalms 78
- Psalms 105
- Jeremiah 32
- Amos 2
- Deuteronomy 11
- Deuteronomy 29
In all these places there is a historical survey from the Exodus through the entry into the Land, and discussion of Israel’s obligation to serve God, without mentioning the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Places in the Hebrew Bible that clearly do know of the revelation at Mount Sinai are three: Nehemiah, which is a late Second Temple source (as you yourself brought in your book); the story of Elijah on Horeb—1 Kings 19 (the earliest source that resembles the Sinai revelation—earthquake, etc.—but it does not explicitly mention the giving of the Torah or revelation to the whole nation); and Psalm 68—of unknown date (David?)—which quotes the Song of Deborah.
As for the places you cited:
The source in Ezekiel—contrary to what you wrote—Ezekiel is not referring to the giving of the Torah at Sinai, but specifically to laws that were spoken in the Tent of Meeting. The clearest parallel to his words is Leviticus 18:
(4) “My ordinances you shall do, and My statutes you shall keep, to walk in them; I am the Lord your God. (5) And you shall keep My statutes and My ordinances, which if a person does, he shall live by them; I am the Lord.” Selah. And not to the revelation at Mount Sinai.
The Song of Deborah—contrary to what you wrote—does not mention the giving of the Torah there. The event at Sinai is paralleled to another event that happened in Seir and is not brought in our Hebrew Bible (the event in Seir is also brought in the Song of Moses in the same parallel: “The Lord came from Sinai, and shone forth to them from Seir”—it is quite clear that two Torah-givings are not being mentioned).
And therefore, in my humble opinion, it is incorrect to hang the Jewish religion on the giving of the Torah at Sinai. All the more so since from the Torah itself we see that the covenant and the Jewish religion began and existed even before the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and that even after Sinai there were additional covenants (the Plains of Moab, Joshua, Judges, Hezekiah, and Josiah) and additional Torah-givings (a large portion of the commandments were commanded in the Tent of Meeting and in the Plains of Moab).
More generally, someone reading the book of Samuel will see that Torah law was not familiar to them at all, not even very basic things stated explicitly in the Torah, such as the prohibition of another man’s wife (Bathsheba, Michal, and Absalom), the exclusivity of the priesthood (David eating the holy bread, bringing the Ark up to Jerusalem without a single priest), “you shall not make for yourself an idol”—in the house of David no less—and even classic incest (when Tamar says that her father would permit her to her brother). And even killing children by a father because of a vow—Saul, like Jephthah, wants to kill his son—and grasping the horns of the altar, etc.
And one last, somewhat cheeky remark connected to the beginning of what I wrote, and apologies: it seems to me that you did not do the expected homework on this subject. If you had opened the entry on Sinai—the giving of the Torah—in the Biblical Encyclopedia, you would have seen that it is common knowledge that Mount Sinai is absent from the historical surveys throughout the Hebrew Bible, and therefore it is considered a late addition. Even if you disagree with me, I would have expected a more detailed treatment of this issue in the book.
Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 2–8
(2) “And know this day: it is not your children, who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm; (3) and His signs and His deeds which He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land; (4) and what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, when He made the waters of the Reed Sea overflow over them as they pursued you, and the Lord destroyed them to this day; (5) and what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; (6) and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel; (7) for your eyes are the ones that saw all the great work of the Lord that He did.” (
Deuteronomy chapter 29, verses 1–8
(1) “And Moses called to all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land; (2) the great trials that your eyes saw, those great signs and wonders. (3) Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. (4) And I led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes did not wear out upon you, and your sandal did not wear out from upon your foot. (5) Bread you did not eat, and wine and strong drink you did not drink, in order that you might know that I am the Lord your God. (6) And you came to this place, and Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to meet us in battle, and we struck them down. (7) And we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenite and the Gadite and the half-tribe of Manasseh. (8) Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, in order that you may prosper in all that you do.”
Joshua chapter 24, verses 1–20
(1) “And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God. (2) And Joshua said to all the people: Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Long ago your fathers lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods. (3) And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his offspring, and gave him Isaac. (4) And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. (5) And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. (6) And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Reed Sea. (7) And they cried out to the Lord, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt; and you lived in the wilderness many days. (8) And I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land, and I destroyed them from before you. (9) Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and sent and called Balaam son of Beor to curse you. (10) But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, and he blessed you indeed; so I delivered you from his hand. (11) And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the lords of Jericho fought against you—the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—and I gave them into your hand. (12) And I sent the hornet before you, and it drove them out from before you, the two kings of the Amorites—not by your sword and not by your bow. (13) And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them; vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, you eat from them. (14) Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and remove the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. (15) And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Selah. (16) And the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods! (17) For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who did those great signs before our eyes, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed. (18) And the Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” (19) But Joshua said to the people: “You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions and your sins. (20) If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
Jeremiah chapter 32, verses 19–24
(19) “Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of mankind, to give each person according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds; (20) You who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt to this day, and in Israel and among mankind, and made Yourself a name, as at this day; (21) and brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror; (22) and gave them this land, which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; (23) and they came and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice, and in Your Torah they did not walk; they did not do all that You commanded them to do, and so You caused all this evil to happen to them.”
Amos chapter 2, verses 9–13
(9) “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars and who was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. (10) And it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. (11) And I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men as Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. (12) But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying: You shall not prophesy.”
Psalms chapter 78, verses 11–60
(11) “They forgot His deeds and His wonders that He had shown them. (12) Before their fathers He worked wonders in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. (13) He split the sea and made them pass through, and made the waters stand like a heap. (14) By day He led them with a cloud, and all night with a fiery light. (15) He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the great deep. (16) He brought streams out of the rock and made waters run down like rivers. (17) Yet they sinned still more against Him, rebelling against the Most High in the dry land. (18) They tested God in their heart by asking food for their craving. (19) They spoke against God; they said: Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? (20) Look, He struck the rock and waters gushed out and streams overflowed; can He also give bread? Can He provide meat for His people? (21) Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose against Israel, (22) because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation. (23) Yet He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, (24) and rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them grain of heaven. (25) Man ate the bread of the mighty; He sent them food in abundance. (26) He stirred up the east wind in the heavens and by His power led the south wind. (27) He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas. (28) He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their dwellings. (29) So they ate and were well filled, and He gave them what they craved. (30) Before they had satisfied their craving, while their food was still in their mouths, (31) the anger of God rose against them, and He killed the stoutest among them and struck down the young men of Israel. (32) In spite of all this they still sinned and did not believe in His wonders. (33) So He ended their days in futility and their years in terror. (34) When He killed them, they sought Him, and they returned and searched earnestly for God. (35) And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer. (36) But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue. (37) Their heart was not steadfast toward Him, and they were not faithful to His covenant. (38) But He, being compassionate, forgave iniquity and did not destroy; many times He restrained His anger and did not stir up all His wrath. (39) He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not return. (40) How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! (41) Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. (42) They did not remember His hand, the day when He redeemed them from the foe, (43) when He set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan; (44) He turned their rivers to blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. (45) He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. (46) He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust. (47) He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. (48) He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. (49) He sent against them His burning anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble—a band of destroying angels. (50) He made a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. (51) He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham. (52) Then He led out His people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. (53) He led them safely, so that they were not afraid, but the sea covered their enemies. (54) And He brought them to His holy border, this mountain which His right hand had acquired. (55) He drove out nations before them and apportioned them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. (56) Yet they tested and rebelled against God Most High and did not keep His testimonies. (57) They turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. (58) They provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their idols. (59) God heard and was furious, and He utterly rejected Israel. (60) So He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among mankind.”
Psalms chapter 105, verses 37–45
(37) “He brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none among His tribes who stumbled. (38) Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon them. (39) He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night. (40) They asked, and He brought quail, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. (41) He opened the rock, and waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. (42) For He remembered His holy word to Abraham His servant. (43) So He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with singing. (44) And He gave them the lands of nations, and they inherited the labor of peoples, (45) that they might keep His statutes and observe His teachings. Hallelujah.”
Answer
Hello,
I missed this question, so my response was delayed. Sorry.
It’s hard for me to answer this level of detail, so I’ll just comment briefly. The statement that nothing can be learned from the Hebrew Bible does not apply to facts. Without the Hebrew Bible I would not know that there were Cain and Abel, that Abraham had a tent, and that his wife was Sarah. I was talking about values. As for the revelation at Mount Sinai too, the Hebrew Bible is an anchor for the Oral Tradition, and without that tradition I would not be able to learn very much from it.
I think there are more places where the revelation at Mount Sinai is mentioned, but that isn’t important. Five places are enough for me. Especially since this joins the broader set of considerations presented in the fifth booklet. In general I would say that sometimes things are not mentioned precisely because they are so obvious. I would not draw conclusions from the absence of a mention in one place or another.
Discussion on Answer
It seems that each part of the trilogy was written by a different source, and only at a later stage were the three parts joined together. Decisive proof of this is that in each of the discussions and responses only one part is mentioned. For example, “Ben Aniyim” challenges only the first part, which argues for the existence of the revelation at Mount Sinai. By contrast, “Shatz” challenges only the second part, which argues that God’s providence has ceased, and says nothing about matters relating to Mount Sinai. On the third part, concerning the refreshing of Jewish law, no objections at all have been found on the site, and it seems to be very late indeed 🙂
Best regards,
Dr. Shatzius von Levinhausen
Shatz,
How do you understand the nature of the revelation at Mount Sinai, given that it is mentioned so little in the rest of the Hebrew Bible?
With God’s help, 10 Tevet 5780
To His Honor—hello,
At the revelation at Mount Sinai, the covenant between God and the people of Israel was made, and they heard God command the Ten Commandments. This fact was known to everyone, since the Torah of Moses is full of references to God’s commands at Mount Sinai and in the wilderness of Sinai. It was clear that the Torah of Moses commands not to worship idols, not to steal, not to commit adultery, and not to murder. That was not the point of dispute.
The reason for the grave sins in which Israel stumbled was utilitarian. There was a widespread feeling that specifically the sinner succeeds, while the person who follows the ways of the Torah is a “sucker.” Some doubted God’s ability to do good and evil; others doubted whether perhaps “the Lord has abandoned the land,” and that anyone who nowadays wants to “get ahead in life” needs to behave like the nations around him.
Against this outlook, simply pointing out that God commanded it would not help. Against these views one has to prove that God can do good and evil and that in fact He does so. That is why the prophets repeatedly bring historical proofs from the miracles of the Exodus, the nation’s survival for forty years in the wilderness, and the conquest of the land, from which it is plainly evident that the One who commands can also do good to those who heed His commandments and harm those who violate them. Therefore the prophets emphasize this aspect in their rebuke.
Best regards, Shatz
The arguments that the Torah was composed from different sources are clearly refuted by the fact that the people of Israel were almost never politically united except for a brief period in the days of David and Solomon. Hundreds of years before that and hundreds of years after that there were separate tribes and kingdoms, and afterward these tribes were scattered to all ends of the earth.
How could separate peoples unite and create a shared Torah that purports to give them all a uniform history and uniform laws? Who could have caused opinionated tribes to abandon their conflicting traditions, if there were not a consciousness that despite the division and fragmentation they all shared a common foundation?
How can it be that the Samaritans, who claim to be the continuation of the tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, hold the same Torah as the descendants of the tribe of Judah, with only slight differences, when there was never unity between the Samaritans and the people of Judah, and on the contrary there was bitter rivalry between them? It is plainly proven that the one Torah long predated the split, and the two camps could not deny the common foundation.
Hello Rabbi,
You didn’t really address the substance of the points, and that’s a shame. One can always make general claims. But it seems to me that anyone who reads Joshua 24 (three minutes) will be able to understand that Joshua at least did not know of the revelation at Mount Sinai…
Hello K,
1. I agree regarding the treatment of the revelation at Mount Sinai in the beginning of your remarks, and I think I touched on that in what I wrote about the Song of Deborah.
2. If it was possible to insert the revelation at Mount Sinai into the Hebrew Bible (as I claim), then I think one can easily argue that all the other humane revelations were inserted as well.
Hello Shatz, please read Joshua 24…
Your second point about the Samaritans is wonderful and precise, and proves that… the Samaritans are not descendants of Ephraim but a sect of mixed peoples (Judeans, Ephraimites, and Cutheans). The main house of God of the Ephraimites was at Bethel (as written in the book of Genesis, in the portion of Vayetze, contrary to the Judean tradition), and therefore Josiah burned the place to dust and threw bones there. And the Ephraimites did not believe in a single temple (hence the second calf at Dan), whereas the Samaritans worship only at Mount Gerizim—like the Judeans, who also have a single temple. Josephus already noted this separation of the Samaritans from the Judeans by Manasseh the high priest. See Adam Zertal, A Nation Is Born…
But I really didn’t understand how the discussion again got onto the sources of the Torah…
Eitan,
I just read Joshua 24, and I really do not see the conclusive proof you’re talking about. It describes all of the Holy One, blessed be He’s acts on our behalf. Mount Sinai is not our rescue or His care for us, but rather the placing of obligations upon us, and maybe that is why it does not appear there.
Beyond that, toward the end of the chapter we are required to serve Him, and the question is: from where are we supposed to know that there is an obligation to serve Him, and how to serve Him? If there was no event in which we were commanded to do so, it’s a bit hard for me to understand that demand.
And I return to my original point: as usual, the Hebrew Bible doesn’t prove very much.
With God’s help, 10 Tevet 5780
Joshua’s words in chapter 24 are explained nicely according to what I wrote—that the prophets are trying to persuade Israel to serve God not only because they are obligated, but because it will be good for them.
Therefore Joshua does not say to the Israelites, “You committed yourselves.” On the contrary, he challenges the Israelites with the offer to cancel the covenant with God, if that covenant “is too burdensome for you”—you are free to go home and “peace upon Israel.”
What Joshua does do before the “dissolution of the partnership” is remind them of the good they received from that covenant, and they “get the message”: we cleave to God not only because we undertook to, but because it is good for us.
That is what the prophets emphasize: service of God is not only a burden, but “for our good all our days.”
Best regards, Shatz
By the way, how did the “Ephraimite” Vayetze portion get woven into the Torah of the tribes of Judah? And how is it that no communities survived all over the world that adhered to the original Torahs of each tribe? Who managed to produce the impossible?
To Shatz and to the Rabbi,
So Joshua doesn’t want to mention the covenant but only the good, and that’s why he makes a covenant again? What’s the logic in that? What’s the logic of making a renewed covenant without referring to the previous covenant?
To the Rabbi,
“Toward the end of the chapter we are required to serve Him, and the question is from where are we supposed to know that there is an obligation to serve Him, and how to serve Him.”
For the same reason that Cain and Abel and the three patriarchs and the people in Egypt served God, and in the same way. The 613 commandments are not mentioned there!
To Shatz,
“How, by the way, did the ‘Ephraimite’ Vayetze portion get woven into the Torah of the tribes of Judah?”
Because our forefathers were more pluralistic than we are and knew how to respect other people’s Torah as well.
As for the rest of your questions—I didn’t understand them.
Cain and Abel and the patriarchs were not required to serve in any way they were not commanded to (except for morality).
Joshua offers the people the option of leaving the covenant with God, as though he were saying to them: “If the burden is unbearably hard for you—then you can go home.”
At the Sinai covenant there was a two-sided deal: “I will be your God and you will be My people.” So there is room for understanding that there could be a situation in which the people cancel their commitment to keep God’s commandments, and in response God likewise cancels His counter-commitment toward the people, and each side “manages on its own.”
Only Joshua sticks a small “thorn” into that idyllic initial thought of possibly leaving the covenant, namely the fact that the people of Israel cannot survive without the constant protection of their God. Joshua proves this by pointing to how necessary God’s protection is for His people, without which they have no existence.
The covenant argument could be challenged and withdrawal suggested, but the utilitarian argument—that the people of Israel need God in order to survive—the Israelites could not challenge.
Best regards, Shatz
As for the pluralism of our forefathers: from the book of Kings it appears that there was political division accompanied by constant struggles and wars between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel, except during the “idyllic” period of the house of Ahab, when Jezebel brought from Sidon a completely different “Torah,” in which people worship Baal and Asherah. Maybe you should suppose that one of Jezebel’s prophets created the unified Torah 🙂
With God’s help, 12 Tevet 5780
There is no difficulty at all from the fact that the patriarchs built altars in different places, in Shechem, Bethel, and Beersheba. The Torah itself explains that when the people come “to the rest and to the inheritance,” the service of God will be centralized “in the place that the Lord will choose from all your tribes.”
The patriarchs lived in a state of wandering and therefore could offer sacrifices in different places. But when the people of Israel reached “the rest and the inheritance,” they would be required to find “the place that the Lord will choose”—“will choose,” future tense—and this destiny was fulfilled specifically in the days of David, when the people attained political stability, and therefore David gives no sleep to his eyes “until I find a place for the Lord, dwelling places for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psalm 132).
And the place that was chosen in David’s days to be the permanent Temple of the entire nation was specifically a new place, “in the fields of Jaar,” a place not previously chosen by any of the patriarchs or any of the tribes as a permanent place to serve God, because the sanctuary of the nation now coming into being needed to be a new place, one that God would choose now, a place concerning which no tribe could claim, “I have prior rights here.”
Best regards, Shatz
And just think: according to the assumption of the “Bible deniers,” that the Torah was written in a later period and that its authors allowed themselves to “insert” tendentious additions into it, how did they not put Jerusalem into every possible place—something that would have wonderfully served the agenda of making it the center of worship?
Clearly all their claims that the Jews were forgers and fabricators who inserted tendentious changes at every turn fit German antisemites, but not the factual reality. The Torah mentions many places where the patriarchs served God and does not explicitly state which is “the place that the Lord will choose,” precisely in order to make clear that finding that place is an innovation that will only be revealed in the future.
To the Rabbi: where did Judah know about the commandment of levirate marriage from? Where did he know there is a law to burn Tamar? Where did Abraham learn that his servant’s oath had major significance?
To Shatz: “The covenant argument could be challenged and withdrawal suggested, but the utilitarian argument—that the people of Israel need God in order to survive—the Israelites could not challenge.”
You didn’t answer. So why make another covenant? Why does “we will do and we will obey” in the book of Joshua help after “we will do and we will obey” in Exodus?
Who performed a commandment of levirate marriage there? Judah acted according to the accepted custom in his society, to marry a childless widow. And burning Tamar—was that a commandment? Strange questions, with all due respect.
With God’s help, on the eve of Sabbath, “Gather yourselves, sons of Jacob,” 5780
To Eitan—hello,
The need to repeat the covenant is explained in Joshua’s words in chapter 23. Joshua feels: “Behold, I am going today in the way of all the earth.” He fears that after his death the people will turn back from following God and cling to the ways of the nations, and therefore there is a need for a renewed gathering of the tribes of Israel at Shechem and a renewed declaration: “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey.”
In order to burn this renewed acceptance into the people’s consciousness, Joshua shocks them by placing on the table the option of abandoning God, and the people are indeed shaken and declare: “No, for the Lord we will serve.” Samuel too sees a need, before his parting, “to renew the kingship,” and shocks the people with rain in the wheat harvest, so as to internalize the need for commitment to keeping God’s Torah.
Moses too, in the book of Deuteronomy, expresses his fear that after his death the people will turn back from following God, and therefore he gathers the people and warns them and repeats the making of the covenant in the Plains of Moab. Just as Moses brings the people into covenant with God at the beginning of his path, at Sinai, and at the end of his path, in the Plains of Moab—so Joshua makes a covenant at Mount Ebal upon entering the land (chapter 8) and again makes a covenant at Shechem toward the end of his path (in chapter 24).
Even a sublime event, however great, may fade in the routine of life, and not for nothing do we repeatedly accept upon ourselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven at the beginning of the day and at its end, aspiring that our acceptance each day should be “like a fresh proclamation”—if only…
Best regards, Shatz
To the Rabbi. I forgive you. According to your view, why did Judah want to burn Tamar? She was bound to levirate marriage, which is only a social custom, so apparently Judah wanted to burn her also only as a social custom. I don’t know whether he said it for the sake of heavenly unification, but to me believing that he wanted to burn someone just like that with no connection to religion sounds unreasonable.
If your claim is that a religion that commands burning someone is absurd, I agree.
More generally, if your claim is that without Mount Sinai there cannot be religious commandments, then all the religions of the ancient world prove otherwise, since they were full of commandments without any giving of the Torah.
To Shatz. Moses mentions the earlier covenant when he makes a covenant before entering the land. You answer at length about everything except the simple question: why doesn’t Joshua mention the covenant that was violated when he makes the new covenant?
Ben Aniyim,
Why don’t you add that even in places where Mount Horeb is mentioned, it isn’t mentioned as something all that significant, but just as one item among others? For example in Psalm 106:19 or in 2 Chronicles 5. Or in Nehemiah 9:13, where it’s also mentioned that way, and likewise in the Song of Deborah it is mentioned more in passing.
I think that if so, it’s a sign that they understood the event differently.
In any case, I don’t think that according to the Rabbi’s approach it matters all that much whether there was a revelation at Mount Sinai or an event in Egypt. The very understanding that somewhere along the Egypt–Land of Israel axis there was an event in which we understood that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants us to keep the commandments—that’s enough. And as for denying the miracles and the commandments, you certainly haven’t proved that at all.