Efrat, Israel - “And he took the Book of Covenant and read it into the ears of the nation, and they said, ‘Everything which the Lord has spoken we shall perform and we shall hear” (Exodus 24:7).

In this age of internet, mobility and options, thinking individuals expect to receive a broad spectrum of information after which they would have the opportunity to make their own decision as to how to act. The Revelation at Sinai - and the entire legal code which follows the Decalogue and comprises this week’s Torah reading - seems to make a very different kind of demand. The Almighty did not provide the Israelites with Ten Possibilities or Six Hundred and Thirteen Choices; they received Ten Commandments and 613 Laws.

Is our Torah life-style imposed upon us or exposed to us? Does the traditional religio-legal system attempt to compel by coercion or convince by persuasion?

A passage in the Talmud would certainly come down on the side of coercion.

‘” And they stood beneath the Mountain (Mt. Sinai - Exodus 19:17)” Rav Avdemi bar Hama bar Hassa said, ‘From this we learn that the Holy One Blessed be He forced the mountain above them like a barrel. He said to them, If you will accept the Torah, that is good; but if not, there will be your grave-sites...” (B.T. Shabbat 88a).

What is especially problematic about this Talmudic statement is that it seems to stand in opposition to the simple reading of the Biblical text, which insists that the Israelites cried out, “Everything which the Lord has spoken, we shall perform and we shall hear” (Exodus 24:7). Indeed, it would seem from this very week’s Torah reading that this clear acceptance on the part of the Israelites was a necessary prerequisite for the Almighty to have entered into a covenant with these emigres from Egypt. And the fact is that the very word covenant (brit) connotes a pact of mutual acceptance, a contract freely entered into and agreed upon by both sides. How could any Talmudic Sage contravene the Biblical words themselves by painting a picture of a mountain above their heads making them an offer that they could not possibly refuse - at least not if they wished continued life!

Subsequent Biblical passages only confirm the plain meaning of the Biblical text which insists on a mutually agreed - upon covenant. So crucial is this freely-committed acceptance by the rank and file of the nation that whenever a fundamental change seems to affect the mentality of the Israelites, it is apparently necessary that there be a re-affirmation of this covenant. Hence, just before they are about to enter the Promised Land, after their 40 years sojourn in the desert, they are called upon to enter the covenant once again, at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eyval (Deuteronomy 27:11-26, 29:8-14). And then again, at the end of Joshua’s life after the wars for the conquest of the Promised Land have been fought and won, Joshua summons all the tribes of Israel to the City of Shekhem, giving them a choice between serving G-d or serving the Amorite gods, and intensively repeating the crucial importance of the commitment they are about to make. And it is only after the Israelites declare, “The Lord our G-d shall we serve and His voice shall we hear,” that Joshua responds with the establishment of yet another covenant. (Joshua 24)

After the destruction of the First Temple, when the Israelites returned to Judea from their Babylonian captivity, Ezra the Scribe publicly reads the Torah before them and initiates a most inspiring event of inspiration and instruction; this “happening” extends through a magnificent Sukkot experience, and culminates in an actual “signing off” on a re-confirmation of the Covenant (Nehemia 8,9). And lest there seems to be any question that our Holy Scripture prescribes a cyclical acceptance of the responsibilities of the Covenant by the Jewish people, there is a special commandment of the Torah that “at the end of each Sabbatical (seventh) year, on the Festival of Sukkot, ... the (entire) nation - men, women and children and the strangers in your gates - are to gather together in order that they may learn and revere the Lord your G-d, to observe to do all the words of this Torah” (Deuteronomy 31:1-12). The great 12th Century Sage Maimonides maintains that “the Torah established this practice (every seven years) in order to strengthen the true religion so that (each Israelite) will see himself as if he were now commanded to accept it and were hearing it from the mouth of the Almighty, rejoicing in trembling just as the day in which it was given at Sinai” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Hagiga, 3,6). In other words, every seven years there was to be a re-enactment of the Revelation at Sinai, including the re-affirmation of the Covenant.

It would seem that the Torah is very sensitive to the need of religious leadership to constantly re-inspire the Jews to re-affirm the covenant - for a religious act can only be meaningful if it is done out of free choice and with a devoted heart. So if that be indeed the case, how are we to understand the Talmudic passage which teaches that G-d "forced the mountain over their heads like a barrel?" That passage may be dealing with the laws of inter-personal relationships, between human beings rather than between humans and G-d, which must be coerced if an orderly society is to be maintained. Alternatively, that passage may be referring to individuals who have already accepted upon themselves the entire Torah in theory, but require the added incentive of legal punishments to keep them on the straight and narrow - much like our laws of proper vehicular conduct on the roads. After the Jews have declared that they accept the covenant, they often require a judicial system of enforcement to help them keep the details. But our fundamental task - as parents, educators and rabbis - is to inspire the next generation to want to maintain the treasured life - style of our time-honored tradition.

Shabbat Shalom.