And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they were shaken, and stood far away. And they said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people stood far away, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. (Shemot 20:15-18)
The nine verses that follow the revelation of the Ten Commandments in Parashat Yitro and form the end of that parasha (Shemot 20:15-18) are quite cryptic. During the overwhelming experience of the bringing of the law the people beseech Moshe to stand between themselves and God. At this point, Moshe's response to the people should give us pause: "Fear not: for God is come to test you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not." What is this nisayon (test)? There are a number of different interpretations (see Rashi and Ramban), but the simple meaning remains "test". What is this test about and what is its outcome?
We need some perspective to approach this question. Before the Giving of the Law, God and Moshe have an exchange that is difficult to understand:
And the Lord said to Moshe, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, who come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them. And Moshe said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for you did charge us saying, Set bounds about the mountain, and sanctify it. And the Lord said to him, Go, get you down, and you shall come up, you and Aharon with you, but let not the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break forth upon them (Shemot 19: 21-24).
God enjoins Moshe to warn the people not to rush up the mountain, lest they be struck down. Moshe, it seems, knows the people better. The people, says Moshe, will not rush up the mountain, for you, God, have forewarned them.
I get the impression here that God is "anxious" (as it were) for the people to rush forward. He anticipates a burning desire within the people's hearts to come close to Him. He desires our desire and needs to restrain it.
Moshe, however, doesn't see it. God desires the people to seek intimacy with him, an intimacy that at the same time is tragically impossible, God being infinite and eternal, humans being time-bound and mortal. The chasm between the created and the Creator is unbridgeable.
Ma'amad Har Sinai, then, is a great disappointment for God. Instead of an ecstatic rush up the mountain the people recoil and turn to Moshe: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die". Desperately, Moshe attempts to save the situation. "Don't run away, this is a test. Do you desire closeness to God? Ascend the mountain with me." The next pasuk, seen from this perspective, is painful: "And the people stood far away, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was". Moshe goes it alone, without the people.
What follows is a paradigm shift in the relationship that we have with God:
And the Lord said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the people of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make with me gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make to me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen; in all places where I cause my name to be pronounced I will come to you, and I will bless you. And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of a cut stone; for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have polluted it. Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed there. (Shemot 20:19-23)
No longer thunder, lightening and sudden incursions of the divine realm. We must build an earthen altar, an altar without steps, which we ascend gradually and deliberately.
That these events were traumatic and disappointing for Moshe is expressed in Parshat V'etchanan when Moshe tells the tale:
The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire . I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to tell you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and went not up into the mount… (Devarim 5:4-5)
Forty years later when Moshe recalls Matan Torah, what he remembers so vividly is the fact that the people remained at the foot of the mountain, content to hear God's Torah from afar. God's assessment there, however, is different:
And the Lord heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and the Lord said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! (Devarim 5:25-26)
How,then, does the Torah relate to these events? The answer depends on the perspective. Sefer Shemot tells the story from the vantage point of God. From the divine, real, perspective, we should exist on a spiritual level of simply being with God. This is the state described in the Garden of Eden as "The voice/sound of G-d walking in the Garden", and in the end of Sefer Vayikra as "I shall walk amongst you…". From God's perspective, as expressed in Sefer Shemot. God is ready and willing and we failed him. The perspective of Sefer Devarim, however, is the human one. We are not there yet. We need to develop, to refine ourselves spiritually in order to bask in the Divine Light. The process of refining ourselves, spiritual "fine tuning" if you will, is an arduous process symbolized by an altar of earth" not to be ascended by steps, but rather incrementally.
In Sefer Devarim, while Moshe indicates that he was dismayed, God endorses the self knowledge and maturity displayed by Am Yisrael as expressed in their request for some distance from God: O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
I believe that the Torah demands of us to integrate these two complementary perspectives. The desire for the ideal - an intimate relationship with God - together with the knowledge that the process is an arduous one. The desire alone, without the rootedness of Avoda -- which is to be found in the nitty-gritty of the Halachah -- easily degenerates into a narcissistic spirituality. On the other hand, without the vision of the ideal relationship with God - without a sense of where we are going with all this - the observance of Halachah is in danger of becoming an obsessive activity devoid of real meaning.
Rav Herzl Hefter
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Rav Herzl Hefter teaches at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He studied under Rav Yeruham Gorelik, zt"l, Rav Yosef Soloveitchik zt"l and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein. He taught the semicha shiur at Gruss Kollel for 17 years. and is currently Director of the Bruriah Scholars Program for Women at Midreshet Lindenbaum, in Jerusalem. |