At the foot of Mount Sinai, when Israel answered the Torah with five Hebrew words — na'aseh v'nishma, "we will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7) — they did something strange. They committed to obey before they knew what obedience would demand. They said na'aseh first, nishma second.
The Talmud (Shabbat 88a) says heaven responded immediately. Six hundred thousand ministering angels descended, one for every adult Israelite, and each angel placed two crowns upon the head of each Israelite: one crown for na'aseh, one for nishma. For one hour, every Jew at Sinai wore the regalia of a being who had said yes before asking for the clause.
Then Israel sinned. The Golden Calf rose from the furnace. And the Torah says (Exodus 33:6), And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. What ornaments? These crowns. Twice six hundred thousand destroying angels, the Talmud continues — one million two hundred thousand of them — came down and took back what had been given.
Resh Lakish refused to let the story end there. He quoted Isaiah 35:10: The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. Upon their heads. The crowns, Resh Lakish said, are not lost forever — they are in storage. In the future, the Holy One will return them, and the ransomed will come home wearing the very joy they wore in the hour when they said yes before asking why.