Synagogue Sermon
Neither Here nor There (1968)
Towards the end of the book of Esther, which we shall read this week, we are told that after their miraculous deliverance the Jews accepted upon themselves the observance of Purim forever after. Kiymu ve’kiblu, the Jews “confirmed and took upon themselves” and their children after them to observe these two days of Purim. Now, logic dictates that the two key verbs should be in reverse order: not kiymu ve’kiblu, but kiblu ve’kiymu, first “took upon themselves,” accepted, and only then “confirmed” what they had previously accepted. It is probably because of this inversion of the proper order in our verse, that the Rabbis read a special meaning into this term in a famous passage in the Talmud (Shab. 88a). When the Lord revealed Himself at Sinai and gave the Torah, they tell us, kafah alehem har ke’gigit, He, as it were, lifted up the mountain and held it over the heads of the Israelites gathered below as if it were as cask, and He said to them: “If you accept the Torah, good and well; but if not, sham tehei kevuratkhem – I shall drop the mountain on your heads, and here shall be your burial place.” Moreover, the Rabbis then drew the conclusions from this implication that the Israelites were coerced into accepting the Torah. R. Aba b. Yaakov maintained that if this is the case, then modaa rabbah l’oraita – this becomes a strong protest against obligatory nature of the Torah, it is “giving notice” to God that the Torah is not permanently binding, for the Torah is in the nature of a contract between God and Israel, and a contract signed under duress is invalid.The other Rabbis of the Talmud treated this objection with great seriousness. Thus, Rava argued that, indeed, the Torah given at Sinai was not obligatory because of the reason stated, that modaa rabbah l’oraita; but, Rava adds: af-al-pi-ken hadar kibluha bi’yemei Ahashverosh, the Israelites reaffirmed the Torah voluntarily in the days of the Purim event, for it is written: kiymu ve’kiblu, that the Israelites “confir…