According to some traditions, the journey up the mountain was even more perilous than we imagine.
Think about it. Moses, a mortal man, ascending to the very Throne of Glory, surrounded by angels... angels who weren't exactly thrilled to see him. Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews draws on a wealth of ancient sources to paint a vivid picture of this celestial confrontation.
So, there's Moses, standing before a host of Angels of Terror – not your fluffy, harp-playing cherubs, mind you, but the strongest and mightiest of the angelic realm. These angels, understandably, weren't keen on sharing divine wisdom with humanity. They saw Moses and basically said, "What's a human doing here?" The Zohar tells us these angels are beings of pure fire and light, beings of judgment. Imagine the sheer intensity of that encounter!
God, in His infinite wisdom, protects Moses, shielding him with His radiance and instructing him to hold tight to the Throne of Glory. But the angels aren’t backing down. "Why give the Torah to those who dwell in the dust?" they demanded. "Let the celestial beings have it!"
This is where Moses's brilliance shines. He doesn't argue about worthiness or divine favor. Instead, he uses the very commandments of the Torah against them. It’s a stunning moment of rhetorical judo.
"It is written," Moses says, "'I am the Eternal, thy Lord, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.' Were you enslaved in Egypt? Do you need this commandment?" He continues, systematically dismantling their objections. "'Thou shalt have no other gods.' Are there idolaters among you? 'Thou shalt not murder.' Are there murderers among you? 'Thou shalt not steal.' Is there money in heaven?"
Each question is a razor-sharp point, exposing the angels' lack of need for the Torah’s basic tenets. As we find in Midrash Rabbah, the Torah wasn’t designed for perfect beings in a perfect realm. It was meant for flawed humans living in a flawed world.
The brilliance of Moses's argument, as we read in the Legends, lies in its simplicity. He shows that the Torah addresses the very human problems that the angels, in their celestial perfection, simply don't experience. They don’t have parents to honor, no one to steal from, no one to envy.
Faced with this irrefutable logic, the Angels of Terror finally relented. They acknowledged that God was right to reveal the Torah to humankind. "Eternal, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy glory upon the heavens," they proclaimed.
Think about that for a moment. The entire fate of the Torah, the foundation of Jewish law and ethics, rested on this single, crucial exchange. Moses, armed with his wit and divine protection, persuaded the heavenly host that humanity was ready, or at least needed, the Torah. It makes you wonder about all the other unseen battles, the quiet moments of courage and conviction that shape our history and our faith. What other stories are waiting to be uncovered?