Israel and Humanity - Rabbinic ideas on the revelation at Sinai

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CHAPTER FIVE

UNIVERSAL RELIGION

REVELATION IN THE MOSAIC

I.

Rabbinic ideas about the destination of the revelation at Sinai.

§ 1.

We understand here by revealing the promulgation of the Mosaic Law on Mount Sinai and what the circumstances are attributed by tradition to the historical fact that we review, in order to find, if possible, traces of religion universal far we have not failed anywhere. It is clear that the evidence we can gather on this occasion will have a value greater because this is a momentous event exceptional.

One can only admire the conduct of the Pharisees in front of this page capital of biblical history. It is touching to see these doctors often despised and maligned even give themselves infinite pains to discover throughout this account of the revelation at Sinai, even when the text seems to lend itself to any, evidence of a universal purpose. Thus they seek what was the language God used to speak to his people and although the form of the Decalogue is in this respect strictly Jewish, since it contains words purely Hebrew, the rabbis do not allow to find the imprint of several languages and they strive to build on it a whole system interesting for our present study. According to them, The Lord gave his law to Israel on Sinai spoke not only in Hebrew but also in other languages and, according to them, are precisely those languages those that play a role in pre-weighting the ancient history of mankind, namely: Arabic, Latin and Aramaic. "The Lord is come ( ba ) of Sinai," is, they tell us, the Hebrew language, "he stood up ( zarah ) on them Seir "is the Latin," he shone ( hofi'a ) from Mount Paran "this is the Arab" and it came out ( veatha ) of among the myriads holy, "is the Aramaic .

It should be noted here that this is obviously not the more or less doubtful etymology of words, is the cosmopolitan spirit that inspired these curious researches. Neither national pride or religious beliefs, nor the most legitimate grievances against the oppressors bent on trampling the rights of the Jewish sacred, could not suppress these concerns and on the ruins of all prejudices we see rising majestic image of the universal law given to humanity through Israel. For these four languages that we speak the rabbis, although they represent the most significant civilizations of the ancient world, do not express the extent of their thought which embraces a much wider horizon. They are soon to become in effect in their comments all the languages of the universe and is, according to them, to all peoples without exception that addresses the voice of Sinai. R. Johanan noted that the text does not say: "All the people heard the voice", but "all the people heard the voice , because, he says, the sound of the voice of God was divided into seventy voices, so that all nations can hear. There is nothing to add to such words, they say that eloquently enough, according to the Jewish religion, the revelation of Sinai and is destined for even their only flaw is to confuse Israel among other peoples of removing one stroke any difference between the secular religion of humanity and the rule of priestly people priest. But we have seen that the design of the dual aspect of God's law is too deeply ingrained in the minds of doctors Pharisees to make it possible to interpret their meaning Universalist professions of faith. For them the Mosaic law contains that of humanity and the latter is placed under the protection of the religion of Israel.

The rabbis were so eager to prove that God, manifesting itself in the Sinai, speaking to all people and he did not disdain to use languages other than Hebrew that, in return for the Pentateuch traces of the most important languages of antiquity, they have not hesitated to attribute text mosaic of true barbarism. They even make use of these etymologies Foreign basis for certain laws, certain sacred rites, as the Greek criminal laws, Arabic for the ringing shofar , the African the precept of tefillin

But what is equally significant is the simultaneous employment of Jews in both languages, Aramaic and Hebrew, being probably one and the other in the service of religion, this historical phenomenon seems to take the same cause as mythical and theological research on the language of Doctors of the Mosaic revelation. We leave to philologists the task of elucidating the problem of the existence of Hebrew as the vernacular at the time of Moses. It seems more probable that the Aramaic idiom paternal legacy of the patriarchs and imported from Mesopotamia, was now generally used, but the Jews were no less at that time already in possession of Hebrew, as well as 'demonstrated some pretty convincing evidence, among other names. If one argues instead that it was Hebrew, which had been inherited from ancestors, or because it should be seen as a particular dialect of Aramaic, or because the Israelites had passed since their stay in Canaan, and that Aramaic remained as a memento of Mesopotamia as a foreign language or in contact with Phoenician or Canaanite peoples, it remains always found that the use of both languages was preserved in Israel. Judaism innovated and the truths he preached and that this divine law which he was trustee, were not restricted to a small number of insiders as the teachings of the Egyptian mysteries, they were not more heritage Exclusive of the Israelites, but instead they were destined to shine beyond the borders of the Jewish people and extend their beneficent influence on all other races on earth.