Taught a class this week on the concept of Torah from Sinai. The issue at hand was did, indeed, the Revelation at Sinai take place exactly as described in the Torah?
But before the conversation progressed very far, one of the women asked:
“Were you told this growing up? That the Torah was given at Sinai in this miraculous way? What was that like? Because this was not a conversation we ever had in MY family.”
I tried to answer her question without the curse of knowledge.
And said:
I wasn’t told that it happened. It was like the oxygen in our air.
I wasn’t told “my grandparents” were at Sinai – I was told WE, our very souls, were at Sinai.
It wasn’t A Conversation. It was multiple conversations, off-the-cuff comments, references to faith, belief in miracles, and hope for the future, replaying infinitely and exponentially.
It wasn’t blind faith. I challenged, asked, insisted on consistency and cohesion and synchronicity and order. And got it.
What were you told?
I was told I was a Jew, nothing more. תשובה Teshuva, I Can't Relate to The Word as "Return"
This post made me think of the way my husband describes congregational Hebrew school at his childhood (conservative) shul:
"So Moshe was up on Sinai and we all received the Torah from Hashem… nah, I'm just pulling your leg! That didn't happen!"
For me, we learned Torah as something that actually happened, but by osmosis through my family I also understood that some people questioned the truth of it. I think I came to a place where I "chose" to understand it as historically accurate, and even later came to understand that whether or not it *actually* happened as written was pretty much beside the point (for me). Hmmm, something else for me to think on and blog about.
One question I always had was: When was the Torah actually written and finalized? Because either the Torah was 'given' on Sinai and then it should have stopped right there and then (and we 'received' only part of it on Sinai) or it was written during Moshe's lifetime but then Yehoshua finished it since he died before the end (I find the notion of Moshe writing his own obituary very far-fetched and unnecessary for emunah).
Your thoughts?
Cheski, I have been looking into your question. Here's what my husband replied:
"It was all given to Moshe at Sinai and written down during the last months of his lifetime – or, do mean the stories that occurred afterwards? Those were quoted to Moshe by Hashem to be included when Moshe wrote it all down at the end of his life. Regarding the last eight verses, one opinion is that Yehoshua did." Is that helpful?