Giving of the Torah

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The giving of the Torah is an event described in Exodus 19–20 and Deuteronomy 5, in which God gives the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Accompanied by fire, smoke, a cloud, thunder, and lightning, God commands the Ten Commandments. The event is considered a foundational moment in Jewish tradition and is celebrated on the holiday of Shavuot.

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With a Mountain over Their Heads

TALMUD

The moment of revelation at Mount Sinai was a foundational event in the history of the Jewish people. This talmudic story explores whether the people accepted the Torah freely and willingly or whether they were coerced into acceptance.

The Gemara cites additional homiletic interpretations on the topic of the revelation at Sinai. The Torah says, “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lowermost part of the mount” (Exodus 19:17). Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: the Jewish people actually stood beneath the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial…

Shabbat 88a:5-6

On the Mountain or in the Heavens?

MIDRASH

Torah is a divine gift, but how exactly was it given? Did God’s presence rest on Mount Sinai, or did God speak from the heavens? In this early midrash, three rabbis consider these questions.

(Ibid.) "that from the heavens I spoke to you": One verse states "that from the heavens, etc.", and another (Ibid. 19:20) "And the L–rd went down upon Mount Sinai!" How are these two verses to be reconciled? A third verse reconciles them, viz. (Devarim 4:36) "From the heavens He made you hear His voice to exhort you, and on the earth He showed you His great fire, and His works you heard from the midst of the fire." These are the words of R. Yishmael. R. Akiva says: We are hereby taught that the Holy One Blessed be He bent the upper heavens over the top of the mountain…

Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 9:22-24

Passing the Torah to the Next Generation

MISHNAH

According to rabbinic tradition, the giving of the Torah included both the Five Books of Moses, or written Torah, as well as oral traditions that were meant to be passed on from generation to generation. A description of the chain of transmission is the opening piece of the ancient collection of ethical teachings known as Pirkei Avot.

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be patient in [the administration of] justice, raise many disciples and make a fence round the Torah.

Pirkei Avot 1:1

Black Fire on White Fire

TALMUD

The Torah given at Mount Sinai was not like the Torah scrolls used in synagogues today. This passage from the Jerusalem Talmud includes a teaching on the mystical nature of the Torah revealed at that time.

Rebbi Tanḥuma said, I asked before Rebbi Phineas: It is acceptable following Rebbi Jehudah, it is not acceptable following Rebbi Meïr. What is the reason of Rebbi Jehudah? “To take this Torah scroll”. In the opinion of Rebbi Jehudah, who said, where the Torah scroll was put? They made for it a kind of case outside and the Torah scroll was put into it. What is the reason of Rebbi Meïr? “You should put the cover on top of the Ark.” In the opinion of Rebbi Meïr who says that there is no earlier and later in the Torah, “in the Ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give to you…

Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 8:3:12

The Ten Commandments

TANAKH

The people have prepared and the stage has been set for the moment of divine revelation at Mount Sinai. This Torah passage from the book of Exodus contains what is commonly called the Ten Commandments.

God spoke all these words, saying: I יהוה am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I your God יהוה am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me…

Exodus 20:1-14

Accepting the Torah, Creating the World

COMMENTARY

According to rabbinic tradition, there is a spiritual connection between the creation of the world, the revelation at Mount Sinai, and the date on which Shavuot is celebrated. In his Torah commentary, Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz of 17th-century Prague explains the relationship.

And it appears that we can resolve [the difficulty] with this version, based on what our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Shabbat 88a:6), "'The sixth day' (Genesis 1:31) - to say that everything is suspended and waiting until the sixth day of Sivan: If Israel accepts the Torah, it is for the better; but if not, the world will return to chaos and disorder." And it follows that since we see that heaven and earth exist today and that they did not return to being chaos and disorder, it is a sign that the Israelites accepted the Torah…

Kli Yakar on Deuteronomy 32:1:2

What Was Revealed at Mount Sinai?

TALMUD

The Jewish canon is vast, and so many rabbinic sources debate exactly what was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Babylonian Talmud in tractate Berakhot records a popular traditional answer to this question.

And Rabbi Levi bar Ḥama said that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: God said to Moses, “Ascend to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets and the Torah and the mitzva that I have written that you may teach them” (Exodus 24:12), meaning that God revealed to Moses not only the Written Torah, but all of Torah, as it would be transmitted through the generations.
The “tablets” are the ten commandments that were written on the tablets of the Covenant,
the “Torah” is the five books of Moses…

Berakhot 5a:3

Perpetual Giving

COMMENTARY

Torah is traditionally understood not as a one-time gift, but as something to be continually revisited. This late 19th-century legal code explains that this is why some recite the Ten Commandments each day.

Passage of the Binding - Before the passages of the offerings. One may say the passage of the Binding and the passage of the Manna even on Shabbat. It's not enough to just read them, but one should contemplate what he's saying and recognize the wonders of Hashem. And so too what is written in the Talmud: "Anyone who recites: 'A Psalm of David' (Psalms 145) three times every day is assured of a place in the World-to-Come" (Berakhot 4b:17) - it is in the same vein. And the reason for reciting all these is: [regarding] the passage of the Binding…

Mishnah Berurah 1:13

A New Understanding of Torah

CHASIDUT

Rabbinic tradition describes a Torah that is new, even while it is fundamentally unchangeable. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (18th-century Ukraine) describes how this idea is expressed through the physical way in which the words of the Torah are written.

In Tractate Megillah (16b:11), [it teaches], “All the songs are written a half brick arranged upon a whole brick and a whole brick arranged upon a half brick.” At first glance, we should wonder about that which is written (Vayikra Rabbah 13:4), “A new Torah will go out from Me”: Is it not one of the Thirteen Principles [of Faith] that this Torah will not be switched and that there will no other Torah? Rather [its] content is like this - that behold, it is known that the letters of the Torah are the aspect of inner (penimi) lights…

Kedushat Levi, Likutim 174

An All-Night Celebration

KABBALAH

The revelation on Mount Sinai is sometimes described using the imagery of a wedding. The Zohar, the central work of the Jewish mystical tradition of kabbalah, uses this metaphor to explain why Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai spent the night learning Torah, which later inspired the practice of engaging in an all-night study session on Shavuot.

R’ Simeon was sitting and studying the Torah during the night when the bride was to be joined to her husband. For we have been taught that all the members of the bridal palace, during the night preceding her espousals, are in duty bound to keep her company and to rejoice with her in her final preparations for the great day: to study all branches of the Torah, proceeding from the Law to the Prophets, from the Prophets to the Holy Writings, and then to the deeper interpretations of Scripture and to the mysteries of Wisdom, as all these represent her preparations and her adornments…

Zohar, Introduction 14:125-126

Seventy Languages

JEWISH THOUGHT

The idea that the Torah was given simultaneously in seventy languages is found in multiple places in rabbinic literature. The symbolism of the concept is discussed in this theological work by 16th-century scholar Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague.

The explanation is that it is because the word that came out from God, may He be blessed, divided into seventy. Since that is the way of something that goes out from God, may He be blessed, in this world - that it divides into seventy, just like there are seventy nations and there are seventy languages. And hence the utterance and the language that came out from God, He be blessed, divided into seventy. And we have explained this in another place - that it is only possible like this: That that which comes out from God, who is singular, is necessarily multiple…

Tiferet Yisrael 31:2

A Law Transmitted to Moses on the Mountain

TALMUD

What exactly happened when Moses ascended the mountain to receive the Torah? In this talmudic story, Moses visits not only the Heavens but also the second-century study hall of Rabbi Akiva and is surprised by what he sees.

§ Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions? God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot…

Menachot 29b:3-5

Torah from the Heavens

MISHNAH

The idea that Torah is divine is an essential concept in Jewish literature, and has been discussed, analyzed, and debated for generations. The Mishnah below is one early source indicating the significance of this belief.

All of the Jewish people, even sinners and those who are liable to be executed with a court-imposed death penalty, have a share in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “And your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever; the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, for My name to be glorified” (Isaiah 60:21). And these are the exceptions, the people who have no share in the World-to-Come, even when they fulfilled many mitzvot: One who says: There is no resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah…

Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1

What Came First?

COMMENTARY

Many biblical commentators note the apparent contradictions in the Torah’s description of the order of events that took place around the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. In his commentary on the Book of Exodus, Ramban (13th century, Spain) explains how he believes the events unfolded.

AND ALL THE PEOPLE PERCEIVED THE THUNDERINGS… 16. AND THEY SAID UNTO MOSES. In the opinion of the commentators, this happened after the Giving of the Torah. It is with reference to this that Scripture says, And ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and ye said: Behold, the Eternal our G-d hath shown us His Glory, etc. If we hear the Voice of the Eternal our G-d any more, then we shall die.
But such is not my opinion, for it says here, but let not G-d speak with us, and it does not say “any more…

Ramban on Exodus 20:15:1

With a Mountain Over Their Heads

TANAKH

On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for יהוה had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder…

Exodus 19:16-20

It was on the third day, in the morning, that there was thunder and lightning.. (Exodus 19:16) This was the frontispiece to a mahzor for Shavuot printed in Sulzbach in 1827 by S. Arnstein and Sons. Artist was Joseph Herz 1776 - 1828.

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