The Mountain Held Overhead and Accepted Again in Esthers Days

Another interpretation: "For your voice is sweet": "I will sing to the LORD" (Exodus 15:1); "And your appearance comely": at the sea, "From the mouth of infants and sucklings You have founded strength" (Psalms 8:3). "And they stationed themselves at the underside of the mountain": Rabbi Avdimi bar Chama bar Chasa said, this teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, held the mountain over them like a barrel, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, well and good; and if not, there shall be your burial. Rav Acha bar Yaakov said: from here there is a great protest against the Torah [a claim that the covenant was made under coercion]. Rava said: even so, they accepted it again in the days of Ahasuerus, as it is written, "The Jews confirmed and accepted upon themselves" (Esther 9:27)—they confirmed what they had already accepted. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: what is the meaning of what is written, "And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31)? Why the extra letter heh [the definite article in 'the sixth']? It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, made a condition with the works of creation, and so on, as written above.