Covenants abound in the ancient Near East, with kings making
pacts with vassals and with other kings. But as far as we know, no other ancient
society other than Israel ever imagined a god
entering into a covenant with a people. The heart of our parasha this week is
the cutting of the covenant between God and our people at Mount Sinai. We’ve
have covenantal moments before, in the Book of Genesis, between God and Noah,
and then God and each of the patriarchs. But this is the first covenant in
which both parties have a stake; this is the first one where, according to
Everett Fox, “mutuality and conditionality” are a part of the deal.
The scene in which the covenant is made is one of
revelation. Yet, this is not primarily a visual experience – it is an aural
one. God speaks directly to Moses in the hearing of the people, out of a cloud
of smoke atop a trembling mountain. Shofarot are blasting, and God’s words are
heard above the noise.
The very moment of the people meeting God is described in only
four verses. Yet many more verses are devoted to warnings about boundaries that
the people must not overstep lest God “burst out” against them. And the balance
of the parasha is made up of the laws that are revealed.
So, at the heart of the parasha is this moment of meeting,
but it is only four verses long. What does this mean about how we are to
understand our relationship with God? Is the experience of God’s presence more or
less important than following the laws and sticking to the covenant? Why do we
think that our ancient Israelite ancestors could imagine a covenant between a
people and a god, when no one around them was doing this? What does this say about
who we are and where we came from?
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