Ever feel like you're on the verge of understanding something profound, something that would change everything... and then you just can't quite grasp it? The Israelites might have felt that way after receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.
According to Ginzberg's undefined, after hearing those earth-shattering pronouncements, the Israelites thought, "Yes! This is it! God's going to reveal the entire Torah [the first five books of the Hebrew Bible] to us right here, right now!" Can you imagine the anticipation?
But Sinai was no ordinary experience. The text describes it as a place where they "heard the visible and saw the audible." Intense, right? And Ginzberg adds that even the slave women present experienced a level of prophetic insight that surpassed even the greatest prophets who would come later. It was that powerful.
But here's the thing: the experience was so overwhelming, so all-consuming, that it utterly drained them. According to the legend, another word from God and they would have simply... perished.
So, what did they do? They turned to Moses. "Moses," they pleaded, "you have to be our go-between. You talk to God for us!"
And God? He approved. The text says He found their wish "right." Not only would Moses act as His intermediary, but God decided that in the future, He would always send prophets to Israel to deliver His messages. It's like establishing a divine communication system.
Then, God turned to Moses and said, "All that they have spoken is good. If it were possible, I would even now dismiss the Angel of Death, but death against humanity has already been decreed by Me, hence it must remain. Go, say unto them: 'Return to your tents,' but stay thou with Me."
Think about that for a second. God acknowledges the intensity of the moment, even wishing He could undo the decree of mortality. But some things, even for God, are immutable.
The instruction to "return to your tents" was significant. It was a signal to the Israelites that they could resume their normal lives, including conjugal relations, from which they'd abstained for three days in preparation for this momentous event. Moses, however, received a different directive: "stay thou with Me." This implied a lifelong dedication, a constant connection with the divine, and a denial of earthly indulgences. It's a striking contrast: the people return to their lives, and Moses enters a new, permanently elevated state.
What does this tell us? Perhaps that profound spiritual experiences aren't always meant to be sustained at their peak intensity. Maybe we need periods of integration, of returning to our "tents," to truly understand and embody what we've learned. And maybe, just maybe, there are always those among us, like Moses, who are called to remain a little closer, a little more constantly, in the presence of the Divine.