The Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai
Biblical law is something to be personally encountered and wrestled with, as well as obeyed.
Beside the iconic image of Moses descending the mountain with the Ten Commandments we must place the equally powerful images that present the face of law-giver – both God and Moses – as being hidden. In The Hidden Face of the Law-Giver: Revelation and Concealment in the Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai for the book Ben Porat Yosef: Studies in the Bible and its world, I draw attention to the way in which God’s face is hidden in various ways when Torah is communicated at Sinai, and at the Tent of Meeting, and that Moses’ face is hidden behind a mask of light when speaking the law to the Israelites. This form of giving law has the effect of emphasising the speaking voice and gives priority to the words of God. It also has the effect of mystifying what otherwise might be clear, even prosaic. This tells us that engaging with Torah involves a posture of openness towards that which is presently unknown as well as the limitations of what is presently known, including the mystery of God’s Name and character.
Engaging with Torah involves a posture of openness towards that which is presently unknown
Engaging with Torah involves a posture of openness towards that which is presently unknown, It means that Torah cannot be understood apart from a covenantal and relational framework within which questions of encounter and response are crucial, not just compliance.
It also assumes a dynamic relational anthropology in which Torah is received and understood in the context of intercession, discussion, rational argument and strategic risk-taking. This stance of commitment and advocacy – which Moses engages in on Mount Sinai and is unique to him – is, in a sense, to be replicated by all Israelites in their day-to-day engagement with Torah. Concealment is not incidental but is integral to how Torah is given. All of this has the effect of undercutting overly positivist and reductionist accounts of biblical law which tend to present the subject largely as semantic rules divorced from their narrative context. Together with the image of Moses bearing aloft the Ten Commandments, we must place the image of Moses’ shining face, his journey to the Tent of Meeting and his ascent into the cloud. It is always possible to go farther up and deeper in. The chapter thus repositions biblical law as something to be personally encountered and wrestled with, as well as obeyed.