Mt. Sinai: Believe it or not!
The week's Torah portion, Yitro, reaches a climax with the central event of our religious mythology, the giving of the law/Torah at Sinai. It is at Sinai that the former slaves finally bind themselves to God as a people. At Sinai the nation/people of Israel is born.
At this point I must confess to you that I am not concerned with Sinai as a historical event. What concerns me is not the facts of these mythic narratives, but rather, the truths of them. I care what message the tale is meant to teach. I care what ethics, values and beliefs underlie the story, and not whether or not a mountain named Sinai ever existed. As my teacher Rabbi Lawrence Kushner says, “The Torah is not real because it happened, it’s real because it happens.”
So what is the value of Sinai? Tradition says that we all stood together at Mount Sinai at that fateful moment when God interacted with the world in a way that changed the course of Jewish and human history forever. The wording suggests that the Torah is not referring to an event that happened only once, but rather to an ongoing or recurring event. This sense of timelessness is also alluded to in the blessing before the Torah reading, when we say "that has given (natan) us Torah. . ." and then again ". . .that gives (notain) Torah." Traditionally this teaches the timeless nature of the covenantal moment, which includes all who come to stand at Sinai, in every generation. It is our task as a community to study Torah and find ways to bring Torah into our own lives with our actions and deeds. This is what it means to be part of a Jewish community and what it means to stand at Sinai.
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I like the part of the story when Moses is called up the second time and invited to bring up others (Levites if my memory is correct).
ReplyDeleteMoses has to remind G-d that G-d promised to kill anyone else who came up the mountain.
G-d changes the instruction for the Levites to only come to the base of the mountain.
A G-d that is absentminded at times. Makes my memory not seem so bad.
I stand with you strongly on your distinction between the mythic and the "factual". As a teacher, I place the nature and power and prevalence of myth (the myth of America, the myth of the American dream, the myth of the meritocracy, the myth of markets and capitalism, the myths of the various religions) high on the list of things I want my classes to consider. I respect these myths very, very highly...although I have at times been challenged by those who couldn't hear the word "myth" as anything but the outright denial of historicity.
ReplyDeleteMany people are probably not comfortable with your lack of "concern" -- the ideal word, in my opinion -- about the narrative's historicity, either. Some are probably shocked to hear you say that. Have you encountered people who see your distinction as one that is (and I don't think I'm overstating when I use this word) treason to the biblical tradition? How do you deal with such a challenge? Our congregation may not be rife with fundamentalism but it's an interesting challenge, even if it's only a hypothetical one!
Curious to hear your thoughts on this.
In general I would say the comments are not heretical...in fact at this point in Reform Judaim I think they are main stream.
ReplyDeletethanks for your thoughts!!
best