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“Has any people heard the voice of
G-d, speaking out of the fire, as you heard, and remained alive? Or has G-d come
to take a nation from the midst of another nation, by proofs, by signs, and by
wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and by
awesome wonders, like all that which the Lord has done for you in Egypt, before
your eyes?” [Deut. 4:33-34]
On Monday, while Americans are enjoying the Memorial Day
holiday, Jews around the world will commemorate the anniversary of what must be
described as the most awesome day in the history of the world: G-d’s
revelation of the Ten Commandments, before the entire nation of Israel.
3300 years ago, the world was changed for all time. G-d
spoke directly to millions of people. He gave them the Torah, the blueprint of
creation, the rulebook for all the universe. He gave the Nation of Israel their
mission in this world. This mission was their source of life and also their
greatest test. They were commanded to demonstrate that the boundaries between
the physical and the spiritual were merely illusory; they were to show how
spirituality can be revealed in all material. “There is no place devoid of
HIM” was to be their rallying cry. They were to live in the world but not
bounded by it.
Before they could become “A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy
Nation,” the Israelites had to cast off the chains of emotional and spiritual
slavery of Egypt, as well as the physical. The preparation took seven weeks,
which is why the festival of Shavuot (Pentecost) is known as the “Feast
of Weeks.” For seven weeks after the Israelites left Egypt, they lived in a
universe of miracles. Manna and quails fell from the sky; a well of pure
refreshing water moved wherever the Israelites encamped, and clouds of fire
surrounded them. Natural law had been suspended: in this atmosphere of pure
holiness, the fledgling nation prepared itself to receive G-d’s Eternal Law.
When Moses asked the people if they were ready to accept
G-d’s Law, the entire nation replied with one voice: “Naaseh
ve’nishmah!” (We shall obey and we shall listen!), declaring
their readiness to do whatever G-d commanded. Moses gave the people three days
to prepare themselves to hear the Law directly from the Voice of G-d. The
Israelites gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai, enveloped in mists and lightning,
and heard above the thunder:
1. "I am the Lord thy G-d, Who brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
2. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou
shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them;
for I the Lord thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and
showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My
commandments.
3. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy G-d
in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
4. "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath
unto the Lord thy G-d, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy
son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh
day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day, and hallowed it.
5. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may
be long upon the land which the Lord thy G-d giveth thee.
6. "Thou shalt not murder.
7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. "Thou shalt not steal.
9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor.
10. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
Upon hearing the first word of the First Commandment, the
sound of G-d’s own voice proved too intense for the Israelites, and they
begged Moses to accept the remainder on their behalf. The Torah actually
contains 613 commandments, of which only the first 10 were proclaimed at Mt.
Sinai. With the mandate of the entire people, Moses spent forty days and forty
nights on the Mount, returning with the tablets of the Law and the “user’s
manual,” the Torah shel baal peh, or the Oral Law.
Despite the enormous magnitude of the Giving of the Law and
its unique significance for all time, the holiday of Shavuot is virtually
ignored except by Orthodox Jews. There are a number of reasons for this. Shavuot
does not occur at the same time as a major Christian holiday (as do Passover and
Chanukah), and the festival has no easily recognized external rituals or
symbols, apart from the Torah itself. Another reason, which can be inferred from
the recent pronouncement of a leading Conservative rabbi, that the Exodus never
really happened, is the reluctance of modern secularists to admit there is a
power greater than themselves, for with this admittance comes the obligation to
obey His Law.
The events commemorated by the holiday of Shavuot are
unique in that the Revelation occurred before the entire nation: men,
women and children. Like the Exodus, the gift of the Revelation at Sinai
has been passed down through the generations, as an eternal inheritance to the
entire Jewish nation, an inheritance even to those who want to pretend it never
happened. This gift, this beloved inheritance, is what has maintained the
remnant of the Jewish nation for over 4000 years, through millennia of exile,
and in their own Land.
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