The Sinai Ornaments the People Removed in Mourning

Midrash Aggadah Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 33:4 View source

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 18, 2025

When the people heard that the Shekhinah would not travel with them, they mourned. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, tells us what they took off to mourn.

"The people heard this evil word, and mourned. And no man put on his accustomed ornaments, which had been given them at Mount Sinai, and on which was inscribed and set forth the great and holy Name" (Exodus 33:4).

The Targum is revealing something extraordinary about what happened at Sinai. The people had not only received the Torah. They had received ornaments, some kind of sacred adornment, engraved with the Shem ha-Mephorash, the great and holy Name. Every Israelite wore a piece of that Name on his body. The Sinai experience was not only words spoken. It was armor given.

Now, in mourning, they removed them. The Name could not be worn by a camp the Shekhinah would not enter. To wear the Name while the Presence withdrew would be a lie.

This is Jewish mourning at its most theologically precise. You do not only tear garments. You remove the signs of intimacy you have lost. The ornaments came off not because the people were ashamed but because the Name had, for the moment, withdrawn its willingness to be carried.

Takeaway: When God's Presence withdraws, we do not pretend. We remove the ornaments. We let our bareness match the bareness of what has been lost.

Themes

Repentance Exile Community Sin

Biblical References

Exodus 33:4

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