Synagogue Sermon
Sinai Desanctified (1963)
In preparation for the great event of revelation, or Matan Torah, at Mt. Sinai, the Almighty commanded Moses, ve’higbalta et ha’am saviv, “and you shall set bounds unto the people round about the mountain, saying, take care that ye go not unto the mountain or touch even the border of it; for whosoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death… Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live.” And then, immediately thereafter in the middle of this verse we read, bi’meshokh ha-yovel hemah ya’alu ba-har, “but when the ram’s horn sounds, then they may come up to the mountain.” One of the most incisive commentaries on the Torah (Meshekh Hokhmah, Yitro) has observed that whereas the Almighty is quite severe in warning the people to stay away from the mountain during the time of revelation, He rather abruptly grants permission to scale the mountain thereafter. Usually, when a strong prohibition is proclaimed, some time passes before an exemption or suspension is granted. Yet here, right in the middle of a verse, the Almighty switches from a marked prohibition to a clear permission: when the ram’s horn sounds, then they shall go up onto the mountain. Why the suddenness? Why is God, as it were, so anxious to provide the heter immediately after pronouncing the issur?The answer our commentator provides to this question touches on one of the fundamentals of our Jewish faith that is of perennial relevance and significance: it was, he says, a protest against the pagan mentality, both ancient and modern. Every religion, pagan as well as Jewish, knows of a category called “the holy,” something known as kedushah or holiness. There is, however, a vast difference between how the pagan and the Jew understand and conceive of the holy. The pagan identifies it as something magical, something objective, a miraculously inherent quality. The holy object was holy, to his mind, and always will remain so – it is the religion of totem and taboo. Kedushah is conceived as independent of and re…
