Standing Under Sinai for a Must Loving Covenant

Dr. Tzvi Novick points out in an insightful article in the Times of Israel (May 25,2023) entitled “Standing Under Sinai: On the Origins of a Coerced Covenant” that a famous rabbinical Midrash narrative in Talmud Shabbat 88a teaches that at Mount Sinai God made Israel an offer it could not refuse.

The Torah states: “And they took their places at the foot (תחתית) of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17) – Said Rabbi Avdimi ben Chama b. Chasa: “It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a tub (גיגית), and said to them: ‘If you accept the Torah, well and good; and if not, there[1] will be your burial.’’

However, Rabbi Acha ben Jacob points out that by having the Israelites accept the Torah under duress, Rabbi Avdimi effectively gives them a way out. Not only that Israel could void its agreement to observe the Torah, but also, as the Babylonian Talmud clarifies elsewhere (‘Abod. Zarah. 2b), that the Jewish People cannot claim its acceptance of the Torah as a source of merit, because it was coerced.

What led Rabbi Avdimi to advance such a strange reconstruction of the Sinai covenant? Rabbi Avdimi’s exegesis was inspired, in part, by the word. כפה which means “to turn over, invert,” but it also means “to compel.” (At first sight I loved her hips, and after 58 years of marriage I still do.)

But why should God appear at Sinai in so scary a fashion? The biblical text puts forward its own explanation for the thunder and lightning at Sinai: “Be not afraid,” says Moses to the people, “for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of God be before you, that you not sin” (Exodus 20:17).

The Ancient Near Eastern motif of earth-shattering theophany has here been repurposed to give expression to the Torah’s distinctive interest in the alternatives of submission to God’s will versus transgressions of God”s will.

Isaac Oliver points out the importance of Deuteronomy 4:11 for the passage in Song of Songs Rabbah.  See Oliver’s study, “Standing under the Mountain: Jewish and Christian Threads to a Qur’anic Construction,” in New Perspectives and Contexts in the Study of Islamic Origins (ed. Guillaume Dye et al.; Berlin: De Gruyter, forthcoming) (non vidi).

If a man makes love to his wife with the intention of unifying the heavenly realm as he unifies the earthly one, he and his wife enact a great Tikun- a spiritual mending or uplifting activity which can also affect other people.

This Tikun is woven together with similar Tikunim from other married couples into a crown for the Holy One who also unites with His Shekeenah on Shabbat and Yom Tov-Jewish holy days. Just as the prayers proclaimed in each Synagogue are woven into a crown for the Holy One of Israel, so too are the holy unifications (Tikunim) of each married couple woven into a crown.

The active intention of the husband is required to start the Tikun process, although it is the Shekeenah wife who provides the transforming energy. As the Zohar says, “A male desiring to cling to a female emits a seed of anointing (his holy intention) from the top of his brain into his phallus; it pours into the female who thus conceives. Thus, every smooth member of his body joins the female, and the female embraces all.” (2:86a)

A Shekeenah wife embodies and radiates joyful holiness to others, elevating and inspiring them over time. In the past the esoteric details of how to elevate their lovemaking into a Tikun were transmitted orally and very discretely from mother to daughter. We are the first generation to live in a world that is being transformed by gender equality.

She was named by her mother after her beloved grandmother; and after Miriam, the Prophetess of God (Exodus 15:20), sister of Moses; and after Mary the mother of Jesus, the Prophet and Word (Qur’an ) of God.

None of these Marys was the Mother of God, no human can become the mother of God; although some chosen humans have given birth to human word images of God that have helped many other humans draw closer to the infinite, imageless One.

As Rabbi Maimonides said: What is the proper form of the love of God? It is that he should love [God] with a great, overpowering, fierce love as if he were love-sick for a woman and dwells on this constantly… As Solomon says allegorically: ‘For I am love-sick’ (Song of Songs 2:5) for the whole of Song of Songs is a parable on this theme.” (Hilchot Teshuvah, 10:3)

When I met her, Mary was a lover of God; and one of God’s closest consorts. And she thought that I met him he was, like Jesus, a Rabbi and a Kabbalist. Then he fell in love with me, and began to worship my Divine soul.

To be specific, he was a Reform Rabbi, because he taught that ‘how kosher are the kind words that came out of our mouths; is more important than how kosher is the kind of food and drink that goes into our mouths. (Deuteronomy 8:3).

He was a Neo-Hassidic Kabbalist because he was more focused on worshipping the Shekinah (his God given wife) and achieving Tikun (healing) for himself and his society; than on speculating about the ten emanations of God (the sephirot).

Together, we studied the Song of Songs which is really a song of holiness, or of holy holistic relationships imbedded in love and in life. What follows is the result of fifty eight years of Torah study and love.  “It is better to live outside the garden with Eve than inside it without her. Blessed be the One who brought us together and taught me to know the goodness of her heart and the kindness of her soul! Wheresoever she was, there was Eden.” (Adapted from Mark Twain)

If, in addition to this attitude, a man also makes love to his wife with the intention of unifying the heavenly realm as he unifies the earthly one, he and his wife enact a great Tikun- a spiritual mending or uplifting which can also affect other people.

This Tikun is woven together with similar Tikunim from other married couples into a crown for the Holy One who also unites with His Shekeenah on Shabbat and Yom Tov-Jewish holy days. Just as the prayers proclaimed in each Synagogue are woven into a crown for the Holy One of Israel, so too are the holy unifications (Tikunim) of each married couple woven into a crown.

The active intention of the husband is required to start the Tikun process, although it is the Shekeenah wife who provides the transforming energy. As the Zohar says, “A male desiring to cling to a female emits a seed of anointing (his holy intention) from the top of his brain into his phallus; it pours into the female who thus conceives. Thus, every smooth member of his body joins the female, and the female embraces all.” (2:86a) A Shekeenah wife embodies and radiates joyful holiness to others, elevating and inspiring them over time.

In the past the esoteric details of how to elevate their lovemaking into a Tikun were transmitted orally and privately from mother to daughter. We are the first generation to live in a world that is being transformed by gender equality. Thank God!