|
|
|
May 10, 2002/Iyar 28, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 34
Shavuot's legacy contains many legendsOZZIE NOGGShavuot.Z'man matan Torahteynu. The time of giving the Torah. Most of us have undoubtedly seen Hollywood versions of Moses and the march of the masses to the mountain. But for the fanciful, charming commentaries on the trip to the Ten Commandments, I'll take legend and folklore over C.B. DeMille. Who needs movies? We've got Midrash! Here's 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 God performed to secure their redemption from Pharaoh. Yet another folktale has God "stalling" for a different reason. Namely - the Torah is without blemish and must therefore go to a people without defects. So, between the Exodus and Sinai, God healed the sick among the Israelites. To quote one source, "The blind could see, the ears of the deaf were unstopped. The tongue of the dumb sang and the lame leapt as deer." God made the people whole so they could accept God's words with strength and vigor! More Midrash: Not surprisingly, there were skeptics in Moses' band of wanderers. A few ex-slaves - or so goes the gossip - secretly took an idol with them when they left Egypt, just in case things with this new God didn't work out. But Moses discovered the idol and left it in the sand. And what sand it was. This desert was vast and teeming with horrific snakes. It is said that birds would fall dead from the sky if one of these snakes so much as crawled over the bird's shadow on the ground. But for the Israelites, the snakes meekly rolled over and formed reptilian bridges to help the people cross the treacherous terrain. "Well," they were probably thinking, "so far, so good..." But 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 complained. Ever patient, Moses prayed again to God and voila - manna poured from heaven, falling in heaps right at the feet of the pious. Granted, ordinary men had to pick manna from the fields and the wicked, if lucky, found a bit only after much searching - but still, this manna was amazing stuff. It tasted like meat. Like fish. Like your favorite food. According to these legends, God was courting Israel as a bride. God 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. Pettiness and doubt disappeared. Harmony reigned. By the time the Children of Israel reached Mount Sinai, they had stopped behaving like children and were ready to accept responsibility and the obligation of Torah. Now, tradition says that before God offered 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! Jacob smashed the idols in favor of one God. Joseph kept the Sabbath even in Egypt. Abraham didn't covet so much as a thread or a shoestring. Isaac proved how much he honored his parents by allowing his father to offer him up as a sacrifice." And so, when God offered the Torah to the Jews, they accepted. "All that the Lord has spoken we will do and obey," they said. Finally, the day of revelation dawned. And what a day it was. 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 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 peoples 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!" whereupon myriads of angels swooped down and gave each Israelite a crown and a girdle of glory (which were, by the way, unceremoniously taken back when the Jews built the golden calf). And then, to top things off, down from the mountain came Moses, carrying the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, says the legend, were made of sapphire but could still be rolled into a scroll. Each tablet was six hands wide and six hands tall, made by God on the dusk of the first Shabbat after creation. They were divinely engraved, not only with the commandments but with all the precepts of the law. 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." Shavuot. In the shtetl this was, traditionally, the time when a boy started school. Hidden under his father's long, black coat (so the evil eye could not harm him), the lad was led to the cheder (school) for his first Hebrew lesson. The letters were written on a slate spread with honey, and as the child repeated the letters, he licked the honey, thereby tasting the sweetness of Torah. "The words of the Torah," says the Talmud, "are as water, wine and milk. Just as these are kept in simple vessels, so are the words of Torah preserved in even the humblest man." It's true. The Torah belongs not only to students and scholars. Its teachings are available to all of us. Shavuot. Why is it called the time of giving the Torah and not the time of receiving the Torah? "Because," said Rabbi Yitzhak of Gur, "the giving was only at Mount Sinai. The time for receiving the Torah is every day." Make this the day. Ozzie Nogg is a storyteller and free-lance writer who lives in Omaha, Neb. |
