G‑d's home on earth, the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) in Jerusalem, lay in ruins, its rebuilding, ordered fourteen years earlier by the emperor Cyrus, halted by Achashveirosh's decree. In terms of any open signs of the divine presence in our lives, the events of Purim were the diametric opposite of the revelation at Sinai. As the Torah tells it, "G‑d descended upon Mount Sinai" and we "saw the G‑d of Israel." On that day, we were "shown to know that G‑d is the Supreme Being there is none else besides Him" "Face to face G‑d spoke to, on the mountain, from within the fire" ( Exodus 19:20 and 24:10 Deuteronomy 4:35 and 5:4). In the words of the Book of Esther (9:27), they "established and accepted" - meaning, says the Talmud, that they established as valid and incontestable that which they had accepted a millennium earlier at Sinai.Īt Sinai, G‑d revealed His very essence to man. How does one stand beneath a mountain? The Talmud interprets this to mean that "G‑d held the mountain over them like a jar and said to them: If you accept the Torah, fine if not, here shall be your grave." But a most basic rule of Torah law is that a contract entered into under duress is not binding hence, concludes the Talmud, there was a standing contest to the legality of our commitment to observe the Torah.īut during the events of Purim, the Jewish people reaffirmed their acceptance of the divine law without any hint of coercion from Above. The Torah tells us that prior to the revelation at Sinai, the people of Israel "stood beneath the mountain" ( Exodus 19:17). It was only nine-and-a-half centuries later, with the events of Purim, that our acceptance of the Torah was established upon an unshakable foundation. As formulated at Sinai, the contract between G‑d and Israel contained certain vulnerabilities in fact, its very validity was contestable. The Talmud ( Shabbat 88a) points out, however, that nearly one thousand years were to pass before our covenant with G‑d was sealed. There G‑d chose us as His people and we committed ourselves to observe the laws of life as outlined in His Torah. On the sixth day of Sivan in the year 2448 from creation (1313 bce), the entire nation of Israel assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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