Prelude to the lawgiving: is Judaism a regular religion?

As we look ahead and prepare ourselves for the upcoming festival it is striking how much attention is focused on the Ten Commandments – the nature and content of the great revelation at Sinai. There is very little mention, by contrast, of the careful preparation which took place among the nation in the days leading up to the lawgiving: a process of purifications and distancing of the people from the mountain.

The people were first instructed, three full days in advance, to prepare and purify themselves for the forthcoming divine revelation. Then, at the time of the law-giving, they were warned not to approach the mountain. These rules are described and repeated in detail: God instructs Moshe, who instructs the people. Moshe then confirms with God that the people have been separated from the sacred site. Not satisfied, God then issues a further warning that no person – or even animal – may approach the mountain. Presumably this emphasis and repeated warning is intended to relay a highly important message.

Judaism Reclaimed develops an idea of Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, who sees in these instructions a principle of profound importance. These laws, he understands, symbolise how Judaism is conceptually distinct from “religion” as it is commonly perceived. The fields of anthropology and sociology view religion, like arts and culture, as a mere projection of the social values of society. This approach treats religion as little more than a means by which we can understand the behaviour and beliefs of the social unit formed by its adherents. Emile Durkheim expressed this when he claimed that religion is a mere “projection of the social values of society".

R' Hirsch argues that, in this sense, Judaism stands apart and cannot be truly defined as a religion, since the Torah’s rigorous and demanding laws do not reflect the religious and moral status of the nation which first received them. God’s instructions to the Jewish people to purify themselves for several days in advance of receiving the Torah represent a principle of fundamental importance: that its recipients were not inherently worthy of hearing God's word.

Additionally, the prohibition against drawing near the mountain during the Ten Commandments reinforces the distinction between the source of the communication and the people to whom it was addressed, thereby emphatically rejecting the notion that the Torah emanated from the people themselves. Each of these rules was intended to emphasise the reality that the Torah was communicated to the Jews from an external superior source, and did not emanate from within them.

This message is powerfully reinforced by the episode of the golden calf which took place shortly after this revelation. With the Ten Commandments still ringing in their ears, the nation collectively disobeyed God’s word, creating and worshipping an idol. God’s immediate response was shocking and uncompromising: the people were considered to be thoroughly unworthy of the recently-received Torah. God even suggests to Moshe that He annihilate the entire nation, replacing it with a new chosen people to be drawn from Moshe's own descendants.

All of this points to the idea that the Torah did not emerge from within the nation as a reflection of their own values – its teachings profoundly challenged them and imposed laws which the nation as a whole would struggle to observe throughout Jewish history.

First posted to Facebook 1 June 2022, here.