Mount Sinai
The Key to Jewish Survival
The annual month of reserve duty in the Israeli army brings together men from all segments of society who would typically not meet. But, since we are all dressed in green and depend on each other, we get along, accepting each other’s...
Shavuot and Jerusalem: Revelation Then and Now
On June 15, 1967, Rabbi Norman Lamm delivered a lecture at The Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was the second day of the festival of Shavuot and five days after the Six-Day war had ended. In his passionate speech,...
Shavuot: Receiving the Torah and Saving the World
In the story of Creation, God ends every day by noting the day and saying it was good. The formula established on the first day reads, “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day” (Genesis 1:5). One notable divergence is...
Do Jews Have Horns?
After coming down from Mount Sinai, Moses’ face was so radiant that he had to wear a mask when speaking with people: And when Moshe had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moshe went in before Hashem to...
A God of Gold
In a divine tour de force, God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt with miracles and wonders including the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea. Never before had men witnessed such direct proof of God’s actions. Nonetheless,...
The Covenant at Sinai
The Exodus from Egypt would not have been complete without entering into a covenant with God. In this covenant, the nation of Israel swears to keep the Torah. Just like the covenant made with Abraham, the covenant at Sinai was sealed with...
Seeing the Sounds At Sinai
The revelation at Sinai was undoubtedly intense and all-encompassing. But one verse in the Torah describing the experience suggests that the Children of Israel had a sensory experience of an unrivaled level. All the people witnessed the...
Standing Under Sinai
The experience at Mount Sinai was an unprecedented revelation of God’s glory that pushed the limits of human perception. This is reflected in the descriptions offered by the sages. When it came time for the people to approach the...
How the Burning Bush Foreshadowed the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai
The Burning Bush described in this week’s Torah portion has become the archetypal symbol of the divine call to action. Referred to in theology as a theophany, the bush was the appearance of the infinite God in a form that is visible to...
The Portion of Va’etchanan
In this week’s portion, Moses continues his farewell speech to the people. Here, he repeatedly warns the people against falling into the trap of idolatry. He reminds them of the incident at Ba’al Pe’or, in which the people sinned and a...
