OU TORAH YU TORAH and NAALEH.COM The Experience of Sinai By Shira Smiles
CLICK HERE FOR SHIUR AND SOURCE SHEETS ON PARSHAS YISRO(MP3 HERE).(NOTE THIS DIVAR TORAH FEATURES In Logic of the Mind Logic of the Heart by Rabbi Ahron Soloveitchik)
In this Torah shiur (class) on Parshat Yitro, Mrs. Shira Smiles examines the passuk that says that the Jewish People stood under the mountain, and the gemara that explains that Hashem held the mountain over them, forcing them to accept the Torah. This Torah class is available online in streaming video and for download in mp3 and ipod video formats.
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
“Had He brought us close at Mount Sinai but not given us the Torah, it would have sufficed us.” (Haggadah)
This line from the compilers of the Haggadah seems counterintuitive. Wasn’t our presence at the foot of Mount Sinai intricately intertwined with receiving the Torah, with our proclaiming, “We will do and we will listen?” Yet the Sages of the Great Assembly felt that the Sinai experience was not identical with receiving the Torah. After all, only the Ten Commandments were enunciated at Sinai, while the other laws were revealed by Moshe during their sojourn in the desert, and mostly toward the end of that era. Since that is the case, what exactly does the Sinai experience mean to us as a people and as individuals?
There is yet a further question that confronts us. The Torah states that Bnei Yisroel stood “under the mountain”. The Medrash tries to elucidate this apparent impossibility by explaining that Hashem uprooted the mountain and suspended it above Bnei Yisroel, giving them an ultimatum: “If you accept the Torah, good – but if not, there will be your burial place.” Under these circumstances, how can we laud our acceptance of the Torah; we were coerced into it.
CLICK HERE FOR SHIUR AND SOURCE SHEETS ON PARSHAS YISRO(MP3 HERE).(NOTE THIS DIVAR TORAH FEATURES In Logic of the Mind Logic of the Heart by Rabbi Ahron Soloveitchik)
In this Torah shiur (class) on Parshat Yitro, Mrs. Shira Smiles examines the passuk that says that the Jewish People stood under the mountain, and the gemara that explains that Hashem held the mountain over them, forcing them to accept the Torah. This Torah class is available online in streaming video and for download in mp3 and ipod video formats.
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
“Had He brought us close at Mount Sinai but not given us the Torah, it would have sufficed us.” (Haggadah)
This line from the compilers of the Haggadah seems counterintuitive. Wasn’t our presence at the foot of Mount Sinai intricately intertwined with receiving the Torah, with our proclaiming, “We will do and we will listen?” Yet the Sages of the Great Assembly felt that the Sinai experience was not identical with receiving the Torah. After all, only the Ten Commandments were enunciated at Sinai, while the other laws were revealed by Moshe during their sojourn in the desert, and mostly toward the end of that era. Since that is the case, what exactly does the Sinai experience mean to us as a people and as individuals?
There is yet a further question that confronts us. The Torah states that Bnei Yisroel stood “under the mountain”. The Medrash tries to elucidate this apparent impossibility by explaining that Hashem uprooted the mountain and suspended it above Bnei Yisroel, giving them an ultimatum: “If you accept the Torah, good – but if not, there will be your burial place.” Under these circumstances, how can we laud our acceptance of the Torah; we were coerced into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment