S u inlet
- -
pleasures

A Time For Torah

OZZIE NOGG
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

the trip, the Children of Israel
started pouting. "There's no wa-
ter!" they whined. So Moses
prayed to God and God sweet-
oon it will be Shavuot. ened the streams of Marah and
Z'man Ma tan produced wells at Elim — the wa-
Torahteynu. The time ters of which, it is reported, tast-
of giving the Torah. ed like wine and honey and milk!
Most of us have un- The people drank and stopped
doubtedly seen the complaining.
Hollywood version of
A month passed. And then the
Moses' march to the bread, so hastily baked before the
mountain. But I'll take legend departure from Egypt, ran out.
and folk tale and commentary on And again the people stamped
the Ten Commandments over their feet. "Moses has fed us on
C.B. DeMille's scenario any day! promises and false hopes instead
Who needs movies? We've got of food!" they complained. Ever
Midrash!
patient, Moses again prayed to
According to the sages,
God originally planned to
give the Torah to the Jews
the day after they left
Egypt. But He reconsidered,
realizing it might then seem
they had accepted the Torah
only in gratitude for their
freedom.
So God waited, and sev-
en weeks after the Exodus
— when the Israelites ar-
rived at Sinai — they ac-
cepted the Torah out of love
for God and not because of
the sign and wonders He
performed to secure their
freedom from Pharaoh.
According to another
Midrash, God delayed giv-
ing the Torah lest He ap-
pear like a groom who
jumps hastily into marriage.
And yet another folk tale
has God "stalling" for a dif-
ferent reason. The Torah, it
is said, is without blemish
and must go to a people
without defects. So, between
the Exodus and Sinai, God
healed the sick among the
Israelites. To quote one
source, "The blind could see;
the ears of the deaf were un-
stopped. The tongues of the
dumb sang and the lame
lept as deer." In other
words, God made his people
whole so that they could ac-
cept His words with
strength, vigor and a whole
heart.
Now, God may have
healed the Israelites in
body, but emotionally they
were not happy campers.
Just a mere three days into

S

God and ZAP! Manna poured greatest gift — the Torah — God therein?" And when God started
from heaven. It fell in heaps at withheld a bit longer.
listing Thou-Shalts and Thou-
the feet of the pious. (Ordinary
"The ways of the Torah are Shalt-Nots, He got a resounding
men, however, had to pick man- ways of loveliness and all its thanks-but-no-thanks.
na from the fields. The wicked, if paths are peace," said God. And
On the other hand, the He-
lucky, found a crumb only after the Jews got the message. They brews — when offered the Torah
much searching.) And this man- stopped grousing. Pettiness and — said, "Actually, we've been ob-
na was amazing! It tasted like doubt disappeared. The people serving Your commandments for
meat! Like fish! Whatever your repented. Harmony reigned. The generations. Jacob long ago
favorite food so did the manna Children of Israel stopped be- smashed the idols in favor of one
taste!
having like children. By the time God. Joseph kept the Sabbath
Yes, God — in a sense — was they reached Mt. Sinai, they were even in Egypt and did not suc-
wooing Israel, His bride. He be- ready to accept the responsibili- cumb to Potiphar's wife.
haved as would a king who mar- ty and obligations of the Torah.
Abraham didn't covet so much
ries only after giving his beloved
Tradition says that before God as a thread or shoestring. And
many gifts. In this case, the gifts offered the Torah to Israel, he of- Isaac — by allowing his father to
were good health, sweet water fered it to other nations. Each na- offer him up as a sacrifice — cer-
and miraculous food. But the tion asked,"What is written tainly showed honor toward his
parent.
"Yes. All that the Lord
has spoken we will do and
obey," they said. And so the
Jews accepted the Torah.
On the day of Revelation,
nature stood still. The sea
did not roar. No birds sang.
No creature stirred or ut-
tered so much as a peep.
But the universe, wrote
Philo, whirled violently.
Thunder and horns rever-
berated in the air. God bent
the heavens and moved the
earth until, at noon, the
words, "I AM THE LORD
YOUR GOD," boomed down
from Sinai. The words were
spoken in the 70 languages
of man and were heard and
understood by people every-
where. Even the souls of
generations yet unborn
heard the message from the
mountain.
And then, legend tells us,
God lifted Mt. Sinai and
held it over the heads of the
Israelites. "If you accept my •
Torah, fine," He said. "If not,
you graves will be under this
mountain!" And the people
screamed, "We accept!"
Then, myriads of angels
swooped down and gave
each Israelite a crown and a
girdle of glory and then
down from the mountain
came Moses, carrying the
Ten Commandments — di-
vinely engraved with all the
precepts of the law on glit-
tering tablets of sapphire.
Thus did the day of Rev-

TORAH page 33

STYLE • SUMMER 1995 *31

