Torah Mi-Sinai

“Who controls the past controls the future.” – George Orwell, 1984

Jewish and Christian tradition ascribes authorship of the Pentateuch to Moses in the 13^th century B.C.E. Is this what the Pentateuch itself implies about who wrote it and when?

Contemporary Jewish polemics use the term “Torah mi-Sinai” to mean a doctrinal belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Torah. The Sages, however, use the term differently, to claim that all of Torah, written and oral, including their very own words, come from Sinai. But is this claim meant to be taken literally?  

Ancient scribes would write as if Moses was the author, or they would claim that a tradition was originally stated by Moses, but they did not intend to convey a historical fact with this description. Instead, they meant that a given tradition was “authentically” Jewish, or God’s will and that Moses would have approved. I call this phenomenon “Mosaic Discourse.”

No biblical text states that the Torah was given on Shavuot. What does it mean then that Shavuot is the “time of the giving of our Torah”?

The Sinai theophany is virtually absent from the Bible outside of the Torah and the very late book of Nehemiah. This absence reflects an alternative tradition that sees Israel’s laws as deriving from multiple small revelations from prophets throughout history. 

Torah Mi-Sinai and other dogmas compelled me to reconsider my place within the Orthodox world.

A Personal Reflection

Na’aseh Ve-Nishma

By considering two moments in the Bible at which the people gather to hear God’s word: the revelation to Moses at Sinai in Exodus, and Ezra’s assembly in a Jerusalem square in Nehemiah, we can contrast the clear revelation we yearn for with the hidden revelation that upon reflection we should accept.