I have a Sinai Problem.
I love the imagery of the Revelation on Mount Sinai that comes from this week’s Torah Portion, Parashat Yitro. It’s so evocative and moving. The thunder and the lightning. The shofar blast and the trembling and the awe. I can close my eyes and hear the echoes of that moment.
There is a Midrash that teaches that all Jew stood together at Mount Sinai. Not just the Israelites whom God freed from Egypt, but all Jews throughout history. Mordechai and Maimonides. Solomon and Spinoza. And you, and I. And I can feel that truth. I have a sense that I was there, listening as God spoke for the first time to the Jewish people. But I don’t know what I heard.
That’s my Sinai Problem. I feel the truth of the moment of revelation, but I don’t know what was revealed. I feel that moment speaking to me today, but I don’t know what it is saying.
What is the voice that echoes from Sinai?
The traditional Jewish answer is simple. Just all Jewish teaching…ever. For the traditionalist, this includes the Torah, which we call the written law, and also the Mishnah and Gemarah, which make up the Talmud, or what we call the oral law. For some this even includes commentaries on the Talmud. Maimonides sums it up most succinctly when he says, “I believe with perfect faith that the whole Torah, now in our possession, is the same that was given to Moses our Teacher [on Mount Sinai].”[1]
And this is where they lose me. I know that Jewish law developed over centuries. I don’t believe that in one moment God revealed all the commentaries ever written. I know that each generation adds its own creativity to the Jewish project. I don’t believe that this comes from God’s predetermination. I believe that God wanted us to share the load.
So this is my Sinai Problem: I don’t believe that God gave the whole Torah at Mount Sinai, I’m not even sure it was a real historical event. And yet I hear it call to me. I feel it in my kishkes. If I don’t believe that God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai, what does it mean that I feel that I was there for the Revelation? What speaks to me about that moment? How do I solve my Sinai Problem?
I think all of us Jews in the modern world have a Sinai problem. If you leave behind the traditional Jewish notion that God gave Moses the entirety of Jewish law, then how do we make that moment meaningful in our lives? What is the purpose of revelation? Many philosophers have their own solution to their Sinai problem. Perhaps they can help us solve ours.
Sinai Solution Number One: Sinai Starts our Story.
Rabbi David Hartman, an esteemed Orthodox rabbi from Jerusalem, says that belief in Sinai does not require that one believe that all truth was revealed in that moment, or that our task is only to uncover what was already laid bare. Rather, he argues that what happened at Mount Sinai “gave the community a direction, an arrow pointing toward a future filled with many surprises… The Sinai moment of revelation… invites one and all to… explore the terrain and extend the road.”
For Hartman, Sinai set our community on a journey. It was not a road map, it was a starting place. God sent us out on our mission. It is a mission that still speaks to us today, a story we are still telling, and in that way, the journey that began at Sinai still unfolds today. For Hartman, Sinai’s is powerful because it is the start of our story.
Sinai Solution Number Two: Sinai informs our growth as a people.
The Reform philosopher Jakob Petuchowski does not see a contradiction between the historical development of Jewish law and the resounding appeal of Sinai. Jewish law evolved over centuries. Different circumstances called for different responses. Life for the Jews in ancient Israel was different than life for the Jews of the Babylonian Exile or Medieval Spain. Each required its own adaptations of Jewish teaching.
Yet the Jews of each age examined each challenge through the lens of that initial moment at Sinai.
Petuchowski says, “The thunders and the lightning at Sinai, as they appear in the biblical narrative, are an echo sounding through the ages of what had happened there. They testify to the fact of the Revelation, to the impact it had on the people.” That impact continued to shape the Jews of each age. For Petuchowski, Sinai is powerful because it echoes across Jewish life and shapes our growth as a people.
Sinai Solution Number Three: Sinai creates our Covenant
There is a midrash that teaches that at the moment of the revelation, God lifted the mountain and held it over the heads of the Israelites, to serve as a chuppah.[2] “God came to Sinai to accept the Jewish people, as a groom who goes out to greet his bride.” Standing under the Mountain, we are wed to God.
This is the meaning of the covenant at Saini. Like a marriage, we strive each day to know each other better. Like a marriage, we strive each day to learn how we might better meet each other’s needs. Like a marriage, our future is wrapped up in each other. The Prophet Hosea declares, “I will betroth you to Me forever.” (Hosea 2:21) At Sinai, God married the Jewish people, and today we are still partners in that marriage.
The philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, offers a modern framing of this idea. He says that at Sinai, the Jewish people didn’t hear the word of God, they encountered God, and began a new relationship with God “It was at Sinai that the people began the process of searching out what God wanted from them.”[3]
This was the spiritual marriage into which God and the Jewish people entered. It was a covenant of the search for the answer to the question, “What does God want from me as Jew?” For Rosenzweig, Sinai is powerful because it is the place where God and the Jewish people entered into covenant.
Sinai Solution Number Four: Sinai speaks to our soul.
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Birditchev, a Hassidic commentator, offers an explanation of the Israelites’ statement when they accepted the law: “נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע (Exo 24:7 WTT) – we will do and we will listen.” You would think it would be in the other order: “We will listen and then we will do.” Levi Yitzhak struggles with how it could be that the Israelites agreed to commandments they had not yet heard.
To solve this problem, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak says that there is a Torah inside of all us. It is written in our spiritual DNA. He posits that inside our physical bodies, we have another, spiritual body, and written on the bones and sinews of that body is Torah. And just like our bodies need food, our spiritual bodies require sustenance. And for Jews, that food is mitzvot – commandments and good deeds.
Have you ever had a moment here you just knew something was right or wrong? You didn’t need to look it up, or ask a rabbi, or consult a friend. You just knew it was right. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak says that this was you being aware of the Torah that is written in your spiritual self. The process of revelation is a process of self-discovery; it’s about finding the truth that is hidden within us from the very beginning. Standing at Sinai, the Israelites discovered what they already knew to be true.
This is how they were able to eagerly say, “נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע (Exo 24:7 WTT) – we will do and we will listen.” In the moment of awe, as God lifted the mountain above their heads, they were able to open themselves up to their own inner truth. The Torah they heard is a Torah that was written inside of them. For Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, Sinai is powerful because it resonates with our spiritual selves.
Each of us has a spiritual soul, one that we inherited from our ancestors or one that we claimed for ourselves. Judaism speaks to me because it speaks to my spiritual soul. The revelation of Sinai still echoes in my own ears because it is the ongoing revelation of my own inherited truth.
Every day is an opportunity to know my spiritual soul better, to find out what it needs for sustenance. Each person in each generation should see himself as if he stood at Sinai, because each person is constantly learning to better understand the Torah that is written within her or within him. These are some solutions to the Sinai Problem. For Hartman, Sinai starts our story. For Petuchowski, Sinai informs our growth. For Rosenzweig, Sinai sets a covenant. For Levi Yitzhak, Sinai speaks to our soul.
For me, each of these begins to shape my solution to my own Sinai problem. Sinai calls me to the story of my people. It unites our community and helps us to grow. It begins our covenant with God. And it speaks to my spiritual self.
The Torah blessings that we will recite tomorrow morning call us to seek answers to the question of Sinai. They end with the words נוֹתֵן הַתּוֹרָה – God who gives Torah. We do not say נָתַן הַתּוֹרָה – God who gave the Torah.[4] We say it in present tense. God is constantly giving us Torah. We are constantly finding truth, in the world and in ourselves. And in that way, we are constantly hearing the echoes of Sinai. Every day is an opportunity to stand in the overpowering awe of the mountain, to feel the earth shake, and see the lights flash, as God gives Torah to us. It happens in big ways and small ways. It happens at crucial moments and in the quiet hours where we are alone with our thoughts. But when we perceive a truth in the world and it resonates with the truth that is within us, we receive Torah. We stand at Sinai. When we feel wed to God, when we feel the call to discern what God wants from us, we stand at Sinai. When we feel embraced by the story of our people, we stand at Sinai. Revelation is the reality that reverberates across time.
Baruch Atah Adonai, notein hatorah – Blessed are you God, who calls us to Sinai, who is daily giving us Torah.
[1] Maimonides 8th Principle of Faith
[2] Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishamel
[3] Rosenzweig’s position as explained by Harvey J. Fields in A Torah Commentary for Our Times, Vol 2 p49.
[4] Based on Yalkut Me’am Lo’e