MOSES AT THE MOUNTAIN. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED THERE?

 SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 According to a famous rabbinic text, The Ethics of the Fathers, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai” (Av. 1:1; 2^nd cent. CE). This teaching is repeated in The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, “Moses was sanctified by the cloud and received the Torah at Sinai” (1: 1; 7-9^th cent. CE). However,  what really happened at Mt. Sinai is still a mystery.

 1.     Which mountain?

We don’t know where Mt. Sinai is located. In fact, according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, “at least a dozen different sites have been proposed” (Vol. 6, p. 48). Many Christians place it at Jebel Musa, where  St. Catherine monastery is located in the Sinai Peninsula. On the other hand, according to the book of Deuteronomy, the Torah was given to the Israelites on Mt. Horeb (Deut.4:10; see also Mal.3:22), somewhere in the Negev or even, in Midian, in northern Arabia. So, is it Sinai or Horeb? A medieval commentator, Ibn Ezra, combined the two: “Horeb is Sinai.”

 2.     Where is God?

In order to receive the Torah, Moses goes up the mountain (Ex.19:3) or down from it (Ex. 19:14). Where is God? On top of the mountain or at the bottom? According to Ex.20:19, God is in the heavens; according to Ex.19: 3, God is on the mountain. Nehemiah, the prophet, combines the two: “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven” (9:13).

3.     The Content:

What is the extent of the revelation of the Torah? Some say it is only the Decalogue (Deut. 5:2); another text says, it is “the record of the Covenant” (Ex.24:7, probably referring to Ex. 20: 19-23-33); for many others, primarily the Rabbis, it is the entire corpus of Jewish knowledge.

 4.     The Method of the Revelation:

Did God speak? In biblical Hebrew? According to one source, “Moses spoke and God answered in thunder” (Ex.19:19). According to another, the Israelites heard “a voice but perceived no shape of God’ (Deut. 4:12). The Rabbis say that at Mt. Sinai, “a voice went forth: I am the Lord your God”, namely, the first commandment (Shemot Rabba, 29:9). According to Mendel of Rybanov, a Hassidic master of the 18^th cent, the Israelites heard only the sound of the first letter of the Ten Commandments, namely the silent A. The rest was written by Moses.

So, we don’t know where it happened; how it happened; and we don’t even know the extent of the revelation. In reality, we are not dealing here with history, but with legends built upon other legends.

  In line with modern biblical scholarship, I maintain that the Ten Commandments and most biblical teachings that emerged among the early Israelites, were disseminated first orally, and then , for many generations afterwards, they were written down by unknown authors, going through many changes- ergo, the different wording of the Decalogue in Deut. The Pentateuch was finally attributed to Moses, and ultimately to God as a source of all wisdom.

Now, that I can believe in.

 (For more details, please see my article in my book, Did Moses Really Have Horns, URJ/Behrman, 2009, pp. 82-96. )