Ever feel like you're studying something, pouring your heart and soul into it, but it just... isn't sticking? Imagine that happening when you're trying to learn the entire Torah! That's what happened to Moses, according to some fascinating threads in Jewish tradition.
We often think of Moses receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai as a moment of instantaneous understanding. But some stories suggest a different picture, one where Moses struggled, really struggled, to grasp God's teachings. The text recounts that Moses devoted himself "both night and day" to studying the Torah, yet "he still learned nothing." Can you imagine the frustration? He'd learn something, and then poof, it would vanish from his mind. After forty days of this, Moses, understandably, cried out to God in despair.
And what did God do? He bestowed the Torah upon Moses. That's it. Suddenly, Moses understood. He remembered everything. Now he could descend from Sinai and share this incredible gift with the Israelites.
But the story doesn't end there. Enter Satan, the accuser. According to this legend, Satan was kept busy elsewhere during the revelation at Sinai, so he didn't know what had happened. The text suggests that God strategically kept Satan away so that he couldn't accuse the Israelites of their impending sin with the Golden Calf!
When Satan finally gets around to asking where the Torah is, God tells him, "I gave the Torah to Earth." So Satan goes on a wild goose chase. He asks the Earth, the sea, the abyss – even Destruction and Death! But no one knows where it is. As it says in Job 28:24 and 22, respectively, "He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven" and "We have heard the fame thereof with our ears." Finally, he returns to God empty-handed.
God then directs Satan to Moses. When Satan asks Moses where the Torah is, Moses replies with incredible humility, "Who am I, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should have given me the Torah?"
Now, here's where it gets really interesting. God essentially calls Moses out, saying, "O Moses, thou utterest a falsehood." But Moses defends himself, saying, "O Lord of the world! Thou hast in Thy possession a hidden treasure that daily delights Thee. Dare I presume to declare it my possession?"
God, pleased with Moses' humility, declares that the Torah will be named after him. And so, it became known as the Torat Moshe, the Torah of Moses.
What can we take away from this? It's a powerful reminder that even the greatest among us, like Moses, can struggle with learning and understanding. It also highlights the importance of humility. Moses' initial difficulty in retaining the Torah and his subsequent humility in denying its possession ultimately led to him being forever associated with it.
The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah, often emphasizes the hidden meanings within the Torah. This story adds another layer to that idea. It shows us that the Torah isn't just a set of laws and stories; it's a living, breathing entity that requires humility and dedication to truly understand. And as Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, it's a reminder that even our struggles can be a path to deeper connection with the divine.