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June 2, 2000/28 Iyar 5760, Vol. 52, No.39
Midrash offers lens to holiday
OZZIE NOGG
Jewish Family & Life
Most of us have undoubtedly seen Hollywood versions of Moses leading the Israelites to Mount Sinai. But for fanciful and charming commentaries on the trip to the Ten Commandments, I'll take legend and folklore over Cecile B. DeMille. Who needs movies? We've got midrash.
A sample:
According to the sages, God originally planned to give the Torah to the Jews the day after they left Egypt. But then, realizing that giving the Torah so quickly would make it seem that its acceptance was done only in gratitude for freedom, God decided to wait. For 50 days.
And thus, seven weeks later, when the Israelites got to Sinai, they accepted the Torah out of love for God and not because of the miracles, signs and wonders the Lord performed to secure their redemption from Pharaoh.
Three days into the trip, the children of Israel were not happy campers. There's no water, they whined. Moses prayed to God and God answered by sweetening the streams of Marah and producing wells at Elim, which, it is reported, tasted not only like water but also like wine and honey and milk. Spirits quickly lifted.
But a month later, the bread, so hastily baked before the departure from Egypt, ran out. Moses has fed us promises and false hopes instead of food, the people balked. Ever patient, Moses prayed again to God and voila - manna poured from heaven, falling in heaps at the feet of the pious.
It tasted like meat, like fish, like your favorite food.
According to these legends, God was courting Israel as a bride. He treated her as would a king who marries only after giving his beloved many gifts. In this case, the gifts were good health, sweet water and miraculous food. The greatest gift - the Torah - God withheld a bit longer.
"The ways of the Torah are ways of loveliness and all its paths are peace," said God.
The people got the message. They examined their ways and repented. Harmony reigned. By the time the children of Israel reached Mt. Sinai, they had stopped behaving like children and were ready to accept responsibility and the obligation of Torah.
Now, tradition says that before offering the Torah to Israel, God offered it to other nations. Each nation asked, "What is written therein?" And when God started listing the thou-shalts and thou-shalt-nots, God got a resounding "thanks, but no thanks."
The Israelites, on the other hand, said, We've already been observing Your commandments for generations. And so, when God offered the Torah to the Jews, they accepted.
Finally, the day of revelation dawned. According to commentary, nature stood still. The sea did not roar. No birds sang. No creature stirred or made so much as a peep.
But the universe, wrote the Jewish-Roman historian Philo, whirled violently. God bent the heavens and moved the earth. The air reverberated with thunder and horns. All morning the ground shook and groaned until, at noontime, the words "I am the Lord your God" boomed down from Mount Sinai.
The words were understood by all the people of the earth and by the souls of generations yet unborn. At the foot of Mount Sinai, the people stood, flabbergasted and stupefied with fear. Slowly, apprehensively, they moved closer.
As they drew nearer, God lifted Mount Sinai and held it over the people's heads. "If you accept my Torah, fine," God said. "If not, your graves will be under this mountain." The people shouted, "We accept."
To top things off, down from the mountain came Moses, carrying the Ten Commandments. Legend says that these were made of sapphire but could still be rolled into a scroll.
They were divinely engraved, not only with the Commandments, but also with all the precepts of The Law. The Ten Commandments contained the kernel of the entire Torah.
And so, the day of Revelation ended. Tradition says it was twice as long as an ordinary day. It was, quite obviously, the quintessential "peak experience."
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