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Judaism is unique among the other religions of what we continue to call, following the European custom, the “Middle East.” It provides a direct, unbroken (if occasionally fuzzy and meandering) connection across some three thousand years. Ironically, the Hebrews were far weaker than any of the mighty nations they survived. They were never an empire. Just imagine, this tiny band of scrappy, scrawny, illiterate sheep-herding nomads managed to go on after the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Celts, the ancient Greeks and Romans had faded into oblivion. They did not only go on, but became brilliant scholars and sages. While many among them were assimilated, enough of them maintained their identity to keep the tradition alive. They refused to succumb in countless hostile environments. In the present century they even survived Hitler’s assembly-line approach to obliterating the entire people. They have withstood seemingly insurmountable odds. One cannnot help wondering “why?” I believe a strong case can be made that the Jews have survived because of what we now call the “Sinai Experience” or the “Sinai Event.” Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Myth The Egyptian myth of Isis, Osiris, Horus, and Seth explains and supports Egyptian belief in the afterlife. Isis, Osiris, and Seth are siblings. Osiris and Isis are also married to one another (an accepted practice among Egyptian nobility to keep property -- which is passed down through the female line -- in the family. . Osiris is the life-giving God of the River Nile. Isis is the Great Cosmic Mother of fertility. Seth is the God of drought and consuming heat. Seth envies Osiris' position, and murders him through trickery. He asks Osiris to climb into fancy casket at a party and closes the lid. He then takes the corpse and cuts him up into little pieces which he distributes all over Egypt. Isis goes into mourning. She then searches for her husband’s body parts to raise him from the dead. She is finally able to find all the pieces, and through her love Osiris comes back to life. However this time he becomes the God of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead, always shown with a blue face. Horus, the son if Isis and Osiris, takes over his father’s role in the upper world and also becomes on of the sun-gods, portrayed as a falcon. Myth is special kind of analogical language that used established conventions in order to communicate peoples’ questions and insights concerning the nature of reality and meaning of existence. Issues of life and death are paramount. Among common cross-cultural motifs are fratricide (killing of one's brother), parricide, and incest. In order to keep from having to assume multiple separate acts of creation and several sets of prime parents the children of the first parents were generally envisioned as mating with one another, and there are many tales of sibling rivalry (cf. Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Romulus and Remus, and so forth). Another essential motif relates to agriculture which is necessary to sustain life. In the annual cycle of fertility, the time of growth (birthing) inevitable leads to a period of dormancy (dying) which is in turn followed by the re-emergence of life from what appeared to have been a death-bed or tomb. Annually, that which appears to have perished in drought or frost once again arises from death.. Isis in mourning represents agriculture’s dormant cycle. When she restores Osiris to life she takes on the role of a female savior figure. There are generally many variant versions of a single myth, all of which are considered “correct” in a non-literal sense by people for whom “truth” was a matter of inner meaning rather than mere superficial factual accuracy. Egypt was not the only civilization with myths of death and rebirth. Around the Spring equinox or Summer solstice the faithful all across the Middle East mourned the death of Tammuz (Dumuzi) the dead young husband of Ianna/Ishtar, with public events that resemble some of our Mardi Gras customs (which are also rooted in pre-Christian fertility rituals) , complete with noise-makers, wailing mourners, drums, flutes, frenzied priests who castrated themselves to ensure their permanent loyalty to the goddess, and an Easter night-like announcement that their Lord had risen from the dead. The ultimate message of all of these stories/rituals was the realization that birth and death cannot be separated, that like the round of seasons and the waxing/waning of the moon every birth inevitably leads to death and every death inevitably leads to a new birth in cyclic oscillations. Emergence of Jewish Self-Consciousness Judaism emerged from the same matrix, and defined itself against that same background., which is one reason there is such blatant hostility toward nature religions in Jewish scripture. On the other hand, the Hebrews actually kept almost all the Canaanite festivals, but changed their meanings to connect with events in Jewish history (this business of keeping forms but changing content is common as one religion takes over the territory of another; Christianity transformed pagan religions in a similar manner, as we can see as we study the roots of Christmas and Easter). To be Jewish means to have a sense of being chosen by God Himself. If you are the chosen people, the very gates of Hell can't prevail against you. Daily life has never been separated from religious life even today (in the observant Jewish community). The Jewish people became the People Israel by an absolutely overpowering encounter with the Holy One. We call this the Sinai experience. It is the central experience of Jewish identity; it is the experience which has welded the Jewish people together. We’ll never know what “really” happened in the superficial historical sense (there were no video cameras in front of the Burning Bush aor at the foot of Mount Sinai). But it doesn’t matter. It does matter what the people thought they experienced and passed on to future generations. The central message come through loud and clear: Through the divine word Elohim created the cosmos and the world’s pinnacle, humanity (formed in the divine image, male and female). The word is good; humanity is good. There is no battle between a personalized chaos and cosmos (Tiamat and Marduk in the Sumerian tradition), and humans are not formed from the blood of a rebellious fallen deity (Akkadian) but are viewed as fully God’s children. The God Who Speaks and Acts in History The Hebrew God is known as voice. God is heard. God spoke to Noah, the ancestor of regenerated humanity. But most importantly, God spoke to Abraham (from the Mesopotamian City of Ur) and Abraham spoke to God. After arriving in Canaan, the Hebrews began to call their God “El” (used in combination forms, such as “El Shaddai” [God of the fruitful mountain] or Gabriel [the “strong one of God”]). God also made a covenant with Abraham, binding himself to his people. Even as he was asked to sacrifice his son, Abraham had faith in God’s goodness and justice. Moses encountered God in the burning bush, and God identified himself as the “I Am Who I Am.” This new view of God may have been in part precipitated by Moses’ familiarity with the reforms of Akhenaton (which were, by the time of Moses, suppressed). The people heard Yahweh’s voice from the shrouded mountain top at Sinai. There is something about the event which would not permit one not dare question the authenticity of the experience. It is a living encounter with an anthropomorphic God (God in the form of human beings). The Hebrews saw themselves as the inheritors of a tradition which had begun with the creation of the world. The central characteristic of the Jewish religion which distinguished it from other ancient religions was the Jewish insistence on a personal God who is the creator of all of humanity but loves and protects His special people in a unique way, and will continue to protect them as long as they behave themselves. On the other hand, this God is so powerful that the people are forbidden to pronounce his Holy Name, except once a year when the chief priest utters "YHWH" (Yahweh). How do Hebrews (and now Jews) consider or imagine God? Not primarily as a God of nature but rather as a God who acts in history, a God who cares, interferes, guides. The Hebrew God is not in nature but rather above nature. And this God resembles human beings at their best. It is the task of humans to listen to the divine call and do the divine will. In a sense humans are God’s arms and hand that do God’s will in the world. This emphasis on history makes it important to keep in mind the main stages of the history of the Jewish people with their repeated pattern of exile/ disaster and home-coming/ restoration (for example: ca. 1250 BCE: Exodus, ca. 900 BCE: division into northern and southern kingdom; 587 BCE: Nebukhadnezzar destroyed the and took the People Israel captive; 70 CE: the Romans destroyed the rebuilt Temple and leveled Jerusalem; 133 CE: Romans retaliated to renewed Jewish rebellions by devastating all of Judah. From then on most Jews live in the diaspora, away from their “homeland” and only dream of one day returning to “Zion.”) The Sinai Event/Experience What really happened at Mount Sinai? At Mount Sinai the Hebrews encountered their God and had an experience so momentous, so mind-shattering, so powerful that it became the launching pad for Judaism and Jewish identity. Some of Jesus' followers had a parallel limit experience when they encountered the cross and the empty tomb. Eventually, a combination of those two critical experiences would evolve Christianity. Several centuries later, Islam grew out of the same context. Hence Sinai provides the explosive energy that began three world religions. The decalogue (Ten Commandments) also called the Covenant (anticipated by the earlier covenant with Abraham) is patterned after the template of the Hittite suzerainty treaty (a widely distributed treaty form which was concluded between those Hittite rulers who had conquered the territory and would then make arrangements for the relationships between the people of that territory and themselves.) These treaties had a particular form. They began with a statement of all the beneficent, kindly act this ruler had done for the people of that territory. The then continue with a complex set of rules the people are supposed to follow in order for the Lord to go on protecting them, and concluded with a stipulation that if they failed to abide by those provisions then he might turn from them and punish them. We have a personal relationship between God and his people. He is passionately in love with his people. He wants them to be loyal to Him alone. God pursues his People Israel like the bridegroom pursues his bride. There is a pattern that appears in the Jewish consciousness of human sin--the community being stricken by disaster (viewed as punishment for transgression) and God delivering his people from that misfortune. What was that energy? Not the commandments in themselves, no matter how many thousands of major and minor sages would spend their lives meditating on the minutia of God's law. A set of rules, no matter how noble, lacks the power to transform a motley collection of tribal desert nomads into a nation with a sense of mission and identity so strong that its effects are still felt three millennia later. The rules were a derivative if vital element, a punctuation mark, albeit essential, in a momentous, spirit-wrenching experience of cosmic proportions, and that experience was one of radical trust, hope, and love--the traditional threesome of faith, hope, and charity, but without charity's tendency toward dispassionate anemia. Yahweh had done many astounding deeds for Israel, and the most wondrous of all was his decision to love her, to choose her among the nations and make her his own. In love the Holy One had called the people of Israel to holiness, and out of his love he had given them a discipline that would finally, if practiced faithfully, set them free the way he had set them free from Egyptian bondage. Like the Empty Tomb would be for the followers of Yeshu/Jesus, the Sinai event was an intense, hope-renewing, empowering experiences that offered a dynamic promise for the future. Both experiences involved taking the risk of responding to the call of a personal God. They gave meaning to human existence. Most importantly for the forging of community and establishment of a religious tradition, they inspired people to tell the story to others. This way the core message was kept alive in various manifestations through the ages. Hence both Judaism and Christianity took advantage of people's natural tendency to turn experience into tale and tale into contemplation and tradition. Lived encounter precedes story, and story precedes theology and institution. Story-telling both builds community and depends on existing community. The relationship is reciprocal, complementary, and generative. Without common vocabulary we cannot successfully share a story and without shared stories there is no community. The confederation of the twelve tribes of Israel was essentially a bonding of imagination that grew out of the tales concerning the core experience at Sinai, remembered, interpreted, and retold over many generations and across vast geographic--and eventually cultural and linguistic--distances. For practicing Jews, the process continues every Passover Seder as family members sit down to their shared meal, read the Haggadah aloud as they perform ancient rituals, and re-experience the story of God's goodness to his people, his acts in the ongoing history of Israel. As mentioned earlier, the Sinai covenant is couched in language similar to the one used in various treaties among ancient peoples, especially one involving the Hittites, powerful enemies of the Egyptians. The so-called Hittite suzerainty treaty established the mutual positions of a Hittite overlord and his subject nations and promised the Hittite lord's favor toward the conquered people in exchange for having them fulfil such stipulations as military service and the ban on alliances with rival nations. By the time the Hebrews left Egypt, the treaty formula was generally known. Hence, the language of the Sinai covenant clearly grows out of contemporary political conditions. It also reflects imperialistic thinking common to ancient civilizations but out of tune with contemporary democratic ways. On the other hand, unlike treaties that bind tribes under a human ruler, the Sinai covenant does not involve stipulations of military assistance or costly tribute. Yahweh asks only for his people's loving loyalty in response to his prior loving loyalty. The Hebrew term is hesed, often translated as loving kindness and generally paired with the term zedek, righteousness. He expects his people to demonstrate their fidelity by appropriate behavior--such as refraining from murder, slander, stealing, and sleeping with someone else's spouse. Scripture The Hebrews/Jews are “People of the Book.” Jewish Scripture consists of three parts, the Torah (also called Pentateuch or “Five Books of Moses”), the Prophets, and the Writings. Together they are referred to as Tanakh and were composed between the 10th BCE and 2nd centuries CE. The entire set of books (Jewish canon) was not assembled until the 2nd century CE in a Greek version known as the Septuagint (which also contains some additional material not originally part of the Hebrew texts). In addition there are the sacred writings known as the Mishna (which contains the halakhha [legal matters and ethical codes] and the haggadha [legends and theological interpretations]), the Gemara (commentaries on the Mishna), and the two versions (Palestinian and Babylonian) of the Talmud (“teaching”) which contain the Mishna and Gemara along with further interpretations called midrashim (singular: midrash) and distinguish between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah [both believed to have originated at Sinai but one passed down in written form and the other passed on by word of mouth]. Summary Approximately 3000 years ago, in an area close to what we call Palestine, a miracle commenced: a disorganized collection of nomadic tribes started to turn into a single people. They became one in and through their relationship with their God Yahweh--as they felt themselves under Yahweh's special protection on their way out of Egypt, as they encountered Yahweh in the desert, and as they established themselves in the land Yahweh had promised them. At the very center of this human-divine bonding process is the covenant--received and sealed at Mount Sinai and freely entered upon by both parties. It is Abraham's agreement with his special family God reissued as permanent agreement between Yahweh and all the people of Israel. While it included all the tribes it did so without loss of that singular sense of intimacy that had characterized the relationship between family members and their personal clan deity in earlier times. After Sinai the various tribal gods--such as the Mighty One of Jacob or the Shield of Abraham or the Kinsman of Isaac--coalesced with El Shaddai, the God of the Fruitful Mountain, into Yahweh. The one who ensured fertility and ruled history was not only an honored king but a faithful protector, a cherished friend, a loving father, a passionate spouse, and a challenging sparring partner for rabbinic disputations. The people and their God were linked in a relationship so close, so intimate, so unique, so life-giving, that writers and editors of scripture compared it to a loving marriage in sections such as the Song of Songs. Their God Yahweh had freely bound himself to be their protector as long as his people demonstrated their love for him by keeping the moral law. In time, meticulous compliance with the law came to be substituted for the passionate, faithful love that was supposed to inspire that compliance. Ironically, the very eagerness to abide by the letter of the law resulted in some parts of the Jewish community in substitution of hollow form for living content and engendered the kind of idolatry Yahweh prohibited at the beginning of the decalogue. Nevertheless, the encounter with Yahweh at Sinai remains the central metaphor of Judaism and the source of Jewish strength. © 1997 Ingrid H. Shafer
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