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Parashat Yitro - Exodus 18:1-20:23
A conversation between Amy Klein, Reconstructionist rabbi, and Daniel Rose, Orthodox educator God spoke all these words, saying: I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods beside me... (Exodus 20:1) [from The Ten Commandments] AMY: The question "What exactly did the people hear at Sinai?" presents two difficult personal challenges. First, I prefer to read this parasha for its emotional effect, and second, intellectually speaking, I do not believe that God spoke the words of the Torah or even the Ten Commandments to either Moses or the people of Israel. Rather, I believe that the Ten Commandments, and the whole Torah, were written down at a later time by human beings, with different versions then edited and compiled. To answer the question, however, Rambam comments that the people heard inarticulate words, which Moses then had to interpret. That comes close to expressing the emotional experience I find implicit in this scene. It also fits into my understanding of God as an entity that can't be anthropomorphized in any way, and so there wouldn't be any words to hear. I would agree even more with Rosensweig's statement that everyone at Sinai had an overwhelming sense of God's presence, as opposed to hearing actual words. It is this presence, I believe, that demands of Jews to live the upright, moral life described in the Ten Commandments and in the Torah. DANIEL: I disagree with your reading of Rambam. He specifically reflects on the unintelligible words because he believed, as did many other medieval commentators, that God actually spoke all Ten Commandments simultaneously. I think Rambam would agree with my understanding that Moses had the ability to decipher what God said and communicate it to the people. All of the medieval commentators agree that the commandments were God's direct revelation to the people. I think that what we should be focusing on is how our difference of opinion impacts our personal approach to Jewish observance today. AMY: For me, it is very important to note that, even though I don't think that God spoke the commandments directly to the people, we do have a central Jewish myth of 'Sinai' and that myth continues to play a huge role in my life. Even though I have a certain rational, intellectual opinion of what did or did not happen at Sinai, the myth is still a powerful presence. To sum it up, at its best, the Torah is a true dialogue between the people of Israel and God. At its worst, when the Torah reveals its sexism and homophobia, the text represents more of a monologue by God. DANIEL: Regarding the myth of Sinai, in the world of Orthodoxy in which I live, the intellectualization of Judaism is very important to me. But it is just as clear that intellectual Judaism can only go so far. And at that point, faith must take over. I believe that God spoke all of the commandments, and therefore there's a binding strength attached to them. I think it's only fair to say that I find I have the same difficulties that you have. But I can only deal with mine through faith. Let me pose a question: you said that the myth carries a strength that allows you to participate to a certain extent in the commandments. Could you define the limitations of that myth? Does it carry you only to the point where your intellect disagrees with something, or can the myth carry you beyond that? AMY: It's hard to state exactly where the myth takes me. I can say for sure that it feeds my soul in a very important way and it connects me to the Jewish people. I would add that, on a day-to-day level, it doesn't enter into my thought process of whether I should do a certain 'traditional' mitzvah, but it does enter in a general way, to the extent that the Torah is a holy work. If I am struggling with a particular mitzvah, my starting point is always Torah, and the traditional belief or practice regarding that mitzvah. What I do take very seriously in the myth is that the revelation took place in a communal setting. I don't think that individual autonomy is the highest value in Judaism. Just the opposite, I think that community is a much higher value. For me, the community can function as a border between ourselves and God. Of course, it can also make demands on us, forcing us to act to our best potential. MODERATOR: Daniel, how do you respond to Amy's view that there is an inherent holiness in the text, even though that holiness is derived more from the Jewish people than from the more traditional source of divine authorship? DANIEL: I believe that the text is holy because of its divine source. However, I can fully buy into this powerful idea that the text can become holy through its association with people. To put it simply, I can understand and embrace the viewpoints of others, but I also believe that someone who thinks this is truly missing out on the essence of the text that we have. For me, that essence is something innately divine - its source is the source of all divinity and spirituality. Therefore, in terms of lifestyle and practice, I feel that the implicit authority behind God's words is stronger than any other authority one might find in the text. |