(The New Sinai – The New Tablets)
By Rabbi, Dr. Moshe Dror
When most of us think of Moses at Sinai, we generally tend to imagine Moses standing on top of the mountain with the people of Israel spread out at the base of the mountain. This is generally the description of the narrative as described in the Bible in Exodus and in Deuteronomy and in countless paintings, movies, and descriptions of all sorts over the centuries. It must have been an amazing sound and light multimedia show.
Take a look at the image painted by Phillip Ratner and let’s see how this relates to what we think we know about this happening.
First of all where is it happening?
We assume that we know where Sinai is. And even if I personally might not know, well then some scholars should know and of course the Bible and the Rabbis of the later tradition will certainly know. Right? Well, not so simple.
In the Jewish tradition there is no specific place or site that has been kept as the actual place of where Sinai is. This is rather strange, since the Bible and the rabbinical tradition have kept so many details of so many other events that have been remembered.
Yet this is different. Indeed, it seems to have been kept secret on purpose or the location was forgotten in later times.
This may parallel the rabbinic attitude towards Moses. There is a marked ambivalence in the Jewish tradition with regards toward Moses. On the one hand, Moses is the greatest of all teachers, the master of all of the prophets, speaks to God face-to-face. On the other hand, the utmost care is taken to avoid any semi-divine powers to Moses. Moses is a man with human faults and failings
Take a look at the entry in Wikipedia of Mount Sinai and you will see that that there are at least thirteen (13) different sites that are associated with the Biblical Mount Sinai. There are six in Egypt; four in Saudi Arabia; Two in Jordan; and one in Israel. So if you do not know where Sinai is join the club, no one does and it seems that the Bible and the Rabbis wanted to make sure that no one would ever know.
When we think of a mountain, we also tend to think of some thing that was always there and is permanent and never moves. Indeed, how can a mountain move? Well, Guess what? According to what we do know of the earth and the land masses of it- that is just what does happen. The suggestion is that plate tectonics the movement of vast sections of the earth that are in constant movement—slow and still moving, is how our earth is shifting all of the time.
We also remember the Ten Commandments that Moses received from God and gave to the Israelite community and ultimately to all of humanity. They feature prominently in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; and have parallels in most of the other religious traditions as well. They are listed in nearly identical passages in Exodus20:2-17 and also in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. In Hebrew they are known as the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Statements or Words and are also known in their Greek translation as the Decalogue.
Indeed , there are different traditions about the way in which the message was transmitted from God to Moses to the people:
God spoke directly to Moses, and the people of Israel overheard,
God spoke with Moses and then Moses transmitted God’s words to the people,
God spoke all of the words directly to the people.
The original Hebrew term that is used is Luchot Ha Brit, literally- Tablets of the Covenant. These tablets were two pieces of some special stone on which the words were inscribed in some very special way. According to some traditional Jewish teachings that are recorded in the Talmud, these were not ordinary stone- what you might find at any mountain. They were made of a special blue sapphire stone—a symbolic metaphor as a reminder of the blue of the sky, the blue of the sea and ultimately of God’s Throne. This is the same color as the robes of Moses.
According to the Biblical narrative, there were two sets of the Tablets. The first was inscribed by God Himself and given to Moses. But when Moses saw that the Israelites were worshiping the Golden Calf, he was enraged and smashed the tablets.
The second set was inscribed by Moses, rather than God, when he went up to Sinai a second time. Both the first and the second set were kept in the Ark of the Covenant (Hebrew- Aron HaBrit) in the Tabernacle and later in the first Temple.
The shapes of the tablets are also interesting. Look at the shape in this image. You will see that it has rounded tops, like an arch and are in a basic rectangular shape. If you ask anyone, they will probably identify them as the obvious shape of the Tablets as we all know them. How many Synagogues and Churches that display them use this standard shape—nearly all of them, but not quite.
But—according to the rabbinic tradition, they did not have rounded arch like shapes, but were rather perfect cubes, with sharp flat corners. Of course, no one knows what they actually looked like, But the Rabbis say that there was no empty space in the Ark, so that if they were curved, there would be empty space where the curves are.
Indeed. If any of you have seen the classic film of Cecil B. DeMille- The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston as Moses ( year?), you may notice that the tablets are indeed square and not with rounded tops. Cecil B. DeMille was insistent that all of his films be are accurate as possible as far as their historical settings were concerned. When he made the film, he engaged an entire set of historians to make sure that all of the sets were as accurate as possible… Indeed there is a Wax museum in Hollywood of classical film heroes, and the one of Moses Charlton Heston has square Tablets.
As far as we know the tradition of the rounded tops were developed in mediaeval Europe in the 13th century by the Christian community and it has caught on ever since. The Christian Church kept this tradition of the rounded tops and they came to symbolize the Jewish Israelite covenant and what the Church calls The Old Testament.
However, the orthodox Lubavitch Hassidic community goes back to what they see as the original shape and makes sure that in all of their Synagogues and literature only the flat top Tablets are used.
There is also a scholarly theory that associates the Square Tablets with the holiest shrine of Islam– The Kaaba, In Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The term Kaaba is an Arabic version of the word for Cube.
These tablets are even more interesting yet. According to another rabbinic tradition, the words themselves were not simply inscribed on the surface of the stone, but were bored through fully through the stone so that they could be read from both sides.
These tablets have come to be a vital part of the religious practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church which claims that the original Ark of the Covenant is still in safe keeping in the Church of Our Lady of Mary of Zion in Axum in Ethiopia till this very day. How did they get to Ethiopia? Read about the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in the Bible for a good Romance story (Bible reference)?. And , The last Emperor of Ethiopia was Helie Salassi (? Spelling) who was called the Lion of Judah- a connection still kept with Solomon and The Queen of Sheba, now called Ethiopia.
Now, back to the Ratner Image. So what seemed to be so obvious and simple is not so at all. There are many associations with these tablets and Sinai. If you stop to think about it just for one second you can see that one event that took place some where that no one knows where, with information that we are not at all sure with what has changed the lives of billions of people all over the world and is THE defining event of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The personality and deeds of Moses ( Musa) occupy an important place in the Koran. Moses is mentioned more often than any other Biblical figure in the New Testament, and the New Testament emphasizes the parallels between the ministries of Moses and Jesus.
Of all of the Old Testament Biblical figures in all of the arts of the Western world, the figure of Moses has inspired by far the largest amount of creative works in literature, music, visual arts, film and all of the creative arts.
Sinai was a mountain. What is a mountain made up of? Mostly rocks, stone and sand- just like today. What do rocks, stone and sand have in common, what are they all made up of? They are all made up of Silicon. So too the Tablets. In The Ratner Image Moses is using exactly the same materials then as we are using in our laptop computers today. Get the connection?
Moses is using the exact same material just in a new way.
The microcomputer works because it uses integrated circuits which are made of parts like resistors, capacitors, and transformers all packed on a single chip of silicon. Silicon is a semi-metallic element that is the second most common element on earth-after oxygen. Silicon consists of about 28% of the earth’s crust and in combination with other elements it makes up about 40% of all the minerals on earth. Silicon dioxide is the principle constituent of sand and in combination with other elements such as aluminum, calcium, and magnesium silicates are the chief constituents of all clay, rocks and soils. Exactly what a mountain is made up of.
In our day, it is precisely this element and our ability to control the electrical properties of silicon and its abundance in nature that has made possible the development and widespread application of transistors and integrated circuits used in the vast array of products that are used and that You and I use all of the time in our electronics industry. Indeed, the very place of the center of the information revolution is called Silicon Valley in California.
If you may think that I am just playing with the word silicon consider this. The Hebrew word for human comes from the Hebrew Adam the first human, which is derived from the term Adamah, which means earth, made up of? , you guessed it . Also, the very term human is derived from the Latin humus meaning earth. So we are made of the same stuff according to the ancient traditions.
Consider this. As you may know, Time magazine, every year chooses a person of-the year: a single person who influenced your life more than any other. For the year of 2006, who did they choose? YOU —– (add) just because it is YOU and ME using the Internet and all of the websites and the vast interconnecting information channels that make up our world of cyberspace. So which is the more obvious influence on your life than the up dated version of Sinai.
But it is not a particular Sinai, specifically. The Rabbis ask the question why was the Torah given in the wilderness? They ask so that they can offer an answer- The Torah was given in the wilderness because it belongs to no one. Since it belongs to no one—it belongs to everyone. What could be a better description of Cyberspace? So many of us now are citizens of a particular country AND we are also citizens of the world of cyberspace we are all Netizens as well citizens of the internet Cyberia.
Take a look at the description of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. Whatever happened it was accompanied with thunder and lightning and Moses was enveloped in light. Moses is dressed in blue and is surrounded with the color red- fire and lightning.
All of Jewish history is a function of the shifts from Light of the Creation epic in Genesis, to the light at Sinai, to the silicon of the tablets , to the parchment of the Torah still used during the Rabbinic period of the Roman empire, to the paper of the enlightenment and the industrial Era, to the Silicon of the early electronic age , to the uses of Light in our age of Photonics-light all centering on YOU
We have a progression of light-silicon-parchment-paper-silicon-light.
Moses provided through divine intervention a guide for living our lives that has worked more or less for over 3,500 years for half of the world’s population.
Moses receives the Torah from the Divine source and sends out God’s message through the five sets of tablets. His eyes are closed , so he is using his inner seeing , we are dealing with an inner vision here (mysticum) representing the five books of Moses, to the entire world with anywhere anytime access.
What and how can we use these as guidelines for our lives in these turbulent years of our future?
Martin Buber in his book Moses accepts the basic historicity of Moses and makes a distinction between saga and history. The saga may not be history but neither is it fiction. It follows in the footsteps of the historical events and describes the impact they had. Creative memory is at work in the saga. It is THE mythos grand story of the Jewish community until this day. That the Torah was written by Moses is everywhere assumed by the rabbis in all of the Talmudic and Midrashic texts, and indeed the term used is Torat Moshe—the Torah of Moses.
How are we to understand this? In the Talmud , revelation , like prophecy , comes to each individual in accordance with his particular capacities. When the voice went forth from Sinai, God addressed each person with a voice that he could endure and understand. This voice from Sinai( Kol Mi Sinai) is a characteristic Talmudic theme. According to some classical sources that voice from Sinai has not yet stopped and we are still hearing its echo going forth from Sinai each day.
