Posted on 05/16/2010 11:17:43 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Our world is host to a mind-boggling number of religions and sects. Each has its unique approach, so that there remains little that men of the cloth agree upon.
Nonetheless, there is one fact that all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a total of over 3.5 billion people – acknowledge: the historic fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai. Considering that the followers of these three religions constitute more than half of the world's population, this point of agreement is amazing.
In addition, we find that, to one degree or another, all three base their religious dogma on that same Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
No other event in world history has influenced the lives of so many people over the ages, and no event is so widely acknowledged as being true. Judaism is not the only religion to lay claim to a divine revelation, but only Judaism relates that this revelation took place in the presence of the entire nation rather than a single individual.
This distinction is of prime importance. More explicitly: Other groups claim that G-d revealed Himself to a single individual who then founded their religion. Jewish tradition describes a revelation that took place while observed by over three million people.
So massive an event as the giving of the Torah in the presence of the entire nation is thus unique. What is more, this claim is related to us in the Torah itself, and the Torah urges us to investigate the matter. It clearly tells us we should ask: Did any other nation witness a similar, wholesale revelation? Has any other religious group ever stated that they were party to a mass encounter with their deity?
The answer is an unequivocal "NO!"
Why should that be so? Consider the fact that Western religions have taken so much from Judaism: the Bible, with its universally recognized Ten Commandments, its concept of a weekly day of rest, the concept of immersion in a body of water as a means of purification, the ideals of justice, kindness, and charity; social morality; equal rights for rich and poor, and much more. In addition, Islam has adapted circumcision and dietary restrictions as well.
Why has no one tried to imitate the Jewish claim to a mass revelation from G-d?
The answer is quite simple: such an attempt would be doomed to failure. It is not so difficult to stage a private “revelation”. One can easily claim to have seen or heard a divine message. One can dress it up with divine voices, thunder and lightning to his heart's content, as no one else was supposed to witness it anyway.
Likewise, it is not so difficult to produce a document and then claim that it records divine revelations given to a single individual.
But a text presented by G-d Himself to an entire nation? Over three million people? Anyone putting forth such a claim would be flooded with questions and protests: “Why wasn't I there when it happened? Show me a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand people who attest to the same event.”
"Ah, you claim that it happened decades or centuries ago? Show me where it was recorded. Why did my father/grandfather/aunts and uncles never hear about this momentous event until now? Why didn't they tell me/my parents/my grandparents about it? An event of such major significance, destined to transform the lives of millions of people, could not remain a secret for hundreds or thousands of years if it really happened!"
In short, one may be able to “fool some of the people, part of the time” but not all of the people for over three thousand years. Judaism lays claim to a revelation that has been known to the world for over three millennia, and over half of the world validates this claim, so much so that it is willing to predicate its religion upon it.
No one but the Jewish People can claim a mass revelation such as the events at Mount Sinai, and no one has ever attempted to do so, because it didn't happen to them. It's just too big a hoax to pull off. There will always be some forthright, honest child who declares that, despite his “wondrous new clothes” the emperor isn't wearing a thing! Similarly, claim that there were originally fourteen, not thirteen states, when the United States declared its independence from the British crown, and no one will believe you, for lack of cold, hard, historical evidence.
Similarly, the founders of other religions realized that it would be folly on their part to claim a divine revelation to millions of people a hundred years ago; someone would sure to call them bluff and demand historical proofs, which they could not provide. Even charismatic founders of new religions realized this basic truth, and refrained from trying to stage an imitation of events of the magnitude of those recorded at Sinai when the Jewish People received the Torah directly from G-d.
There is another point which substantiates the Jewish claim to revelation even more. Over three thousand years ago, the Torah itself predicted that this is the way world history would develop: no individual and no ethnic or religious group throughout the history of mankind will ever lay claim to such a mass revelation. In the words of the Torah itself:
For ask now of the days past, which were before you, since the day that G-d created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether there has been such a thing as this…Did ever a people hear the voice of G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
It was shown to you, that you might know that the L-rd, He is G-d; there is none else beside Him.
Out of heaven He made you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; and upon earth, He made you see His great fire; and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
By presenting the Torah to the entire nation, rather than designating one person to serve as an intermediary, G-d ensured that the Revelation at Sinai could always be logically proven to be true and valid.
An event of such proportions and of such magnitude could not have been "staged" by even the most talented entrepreneurs. Only the Creator Himself could bring about such events. The testimony of the Torah about the day the entire nation stood at Sinai remains irrefutable yet to this very day.
The Jewish People of the generation of the Exodus passed their experience on to their children and grandchildren, as G-d had commanded them to do. Each subsequent generation was commanded to transmit the tradition on to its descendants, so that the chain of faith continues down to this very day.
As the result of this revelation, Jews have continued to live their lives according to the Torah for the past three thousand three hundred years!
Another distinction: Other religions require a “leap of faith” which they claim is beyond the realm of logic. Not so, Judaism. The Jewish religion is unique in that it bases acceptance of its doctrines on proofs which can be demonstrated logically to be true and rational. Rather than forbidding questions, or discouraging them, the Torah urges us to investigate the validity of our beliefs and the logic behind them, and to make certain that they are based on reason and logic, not a “leap of faith.”
The Torah assures us that there is no location, "from one end of the Heavens to the other end of the Heavens", and throughout all of human history: "From the day on which G-d created man on earth until the end of days, there will be no other religion that will ever claim that G-d revealed Himself to an entire nation as He revealed Himself to the Jewish People at Sinai."
The Torah's account of the Revelation at Sinai cannot be refuted logically. Only the Creator Himself could bring about such events before an audience of millions of people. Thus the testimony of the Torah about the day when the entire nation stood at Sinai remains irrefutable yet to this very generation. The Jewish People continue to re-affirm the faith instilled in their hearts on the day they stood at Sinai, and changed the history of the world forever.
Shavu`ot ping.
The author must have been watching a rerun of "The Ten Commandments" -- he clearly did not even glance at the Bible before making such an absurd statement.
Those who so often attack the Catholic Church for its traditions should question other traditions as well.
Although Exodus 12:37 refers to 600,000 adult Israelite men leaving Egypt with Moses, plus an unspecified but apparently large "mixed multitude" of non-Israelites; Numbers 1:46 gives a more precise total of 603,550.
If taken literally the total number involved, the 600,000 "fighting men" plus wives, children, the elderly, and the "mixed multitude," would have been two million or more, equivalent to more than half of the entire Egyptian population of around 3-6 million. The loss of such a huge proportion of the population would have caused havoc to the Egyptian economy, but no evidence of such effect has been found in the relevant time frame with the commonly held chronology. Archaeological research has found no evidence that the Sinai desert ever hosted, or could have hosted, millions of people, nor of a massive population increase in Canaan, estimated to have had a population of between 50,000 and 100,000 at the time. The logistics involved also present problems, with Eric Cline pointing out that 2.5 million people marching ten abreast would form a line 150 miles long, without accounting for livestock.
Hebrew University professor Abraham Malamat has proposed that the Bible often refers to 600 and its multiples, as well as 1,000 and its multiples, typologically in order to convey the idea of a large military unit. "The issue of Exodus 12:37 is an interpretive one. The Hebrew word eleph can be translated 'thousand,' but it is also rendered in the Bible as 'clans' and 'military units.' There are thought to have been 20,000 men in the entire Egyptian army at the height of Egypt's empire. And at the battle of Ai in Joshua 7, there was a severe military setback when 36 troops were killed." Therefore if one reads alaphim (plural of eleph) as military units, the number of Hebrew fighting men lay between 5,000 and 6,000. In theory, this would give a total Hebrew population of less than 20,000, something within the range of historical possibility.
Those who profess a belief in ancient, immemorial traditions should be open to the ancient, immemorial traditions that preceded their own.
only Judaism relates that this revelation took place in the presence of the entire nation rather than a single individual
The author must have been watching a rerun of "The Ten Commandments" -- he clearly did not even glance at the Bible before making such an absurd statement.
You have it exactly backwards. In the movie G-d spoke to Moses alone. In the Torah G-d spoke to the entire nation at once.
You obviously did not understand my comment. Try again.
What's to understand? You said that the author's position that G-d spoke to the entire nation was based on the movie rather than the Bible.
In the movie Moses went up to the mountain alone and heard G-d speak. According to the Torah this is not what happened. All Israel heard the voice of G-d.
I get the feeling NewJerseyJoe doesn’t realize that he got it backwards or a least is communicating his comment backwards.
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/torahnarratives/
The Torah’s Revelation Narratives
...G-d spoke these words in a loud voice to your entire assembly from the mountain, out of the fire, cloud and mist…
When you heard the voice out of the darkness, with the mountain burning in flames, your tribal leaders and elders approached me.
You said, ‘It is true that G-d our lord has showed us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that when G-d speaks to man, he can still survive. But now, why should we die? Why should this great fire consume us?
If we hear the voice of G-d our lord any more, we will die!’ (Deuteronomy 5: 19-22)...
Though non-Jews are forbidden from observing Jewish holidays in the way that Jews do (or from creating their own holidays), they are nevertheless to orient their lives around the Jewish calendar, and Shavu`ot is very apropos for them, as it was at Sinai that the Seven Noachide Laws were proclaimed in their final, eternal form.
Shavu`ot is also the most ignored of all the Jewish holidays. It has no external characteristic rituals as the others do (being instead a celebration of the source of all the mitzvot). Chanukkah, reinterpreted in a sort of ACLU fashion, has become the biggest holiday of the year while Shavu`ot is strenuously ignored.
Shavu`ot has two other strange characteristics: the event it celebrates is not explicitly connected to it in the Written Torah, and its maftir portion doesn't include a description of all the special offerings for the holiday (one is mentioned only in Leviticus 23).
There are only two kinds of religion in the world: the mythological and the historical. Of the latter, all but one were founded by people who claimed to have been authorized by G-d or to have (chas vechalilah!) been an avatar of G-d. Only one religion in all world history has a historical founding in which the invisible, unincarnated G-d spoke to an entire nation. Only one.
You can spin it all you want, but that says it all, my friends. That says it all.
Believing is one thing. But knowing--that's what it's about!
The author says that ONLY Judaism teaches that God revealed His commandments to the entire nation (not just to one man). Christianity teaches this same thing very clearly; it's in the book of Exodus.
The statement that "only Judaism" teaches this is absurd. As I said in my first comment. The author obviously has no "understanding" of what Christians believe or don't believe.
“Shavu`ot is also the most ignored of all the Jewish holidays”
As an Orthodox Jew, this is an extremely important “2 days” (one of the disadvantages of still living in the disapora :(
It is an extremely moving service. May HaShem prove to the entire world that there is ONLY ONE G-d, the G-d of Israel, as he did at Sinai.
Maybe this Jewish organization is not speaking to Xtians.
From the website:
In 1979, a group of Israeli scientists and educators joined forces to form Arachim, an organization dedicated to renewing authentic Jewish values.
NJJ, it’s not always about the Xtian. B’H
The author says that ONLY Judaism teaches that God revealed His commandments to the entire nation (not just to one man). Christianity teaches this same thing very clearly; it's in the book of Exodus.
The statement that "only Judaism" teaches this is absurd. As I said in my first comment. The author obviously has no "understanding" of what Christians believe or don't believe.
::Sigh::
Yes, but then chr*stianity claims that Judaism was superseded by another religion founded by a man claiming to be G-d (chas vechalilah!). This makes chr*stianity's basis no different from any other religion founded by a human being.
Judaism is the only religion in the history of the world founded by the Invisible G-d publicly, before an entire nation. Therefore its foundation is certain (unlike religions founded by individuals).
Take your pick. Since the Book of Deuteronomy is known to be a forgery created in the time of King Josiah, you might pick the former. Of course, since the Exodus itself never happened, you might prefer to pick the story in 3 Nephi (ch xi) where Jesus appears to a few million inhabitants of North America. Or not.
My take on all this: as the romans said, Mundus vuli decipi.
You are misreading. Exodus Chapter 20 shows Israel asking Moses to speak after they had experienced the terror of God’s voice. And then Moses begins to repeat other things that God intended the people to hear.
Did I forget to ping you to this?
Those, a good footnoted Torah, and good physics texts, and geology and math and cosmology....
Chag Shavu`ot sameach!
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