Heading Toward Sinai – A Modern Midrash
The story of how God gave us the Torah. It started after the miracles of Passover…
The Israelites walked through the sea on dry land and came up on the other side. Then they had a big party! Hooray!
They started walking again. A few miles down the road Aron, Moses’ brother, raised his hand.
“Yes Aron,” Moses said, “What is your question?”
“Where are we going next?”
Another Israelite heard Aron’s question and decided to ask one of his own, “How much longer until we get to the next stop?”
Then a whole chorus of voices started saying: “I’m hungry, is there any fast food around here?” “My feet are tired, is there a shoe store around here?” “My donkey won’t move, can we take a 5 minute break!”
The voices kept getting louder and louder. Wagon wheels broke. People raised their hands and started to argue with one another. Animals mooed and clucked at each other. The people who kept walking started drifting in all different directions.
Just when the noise and arguments and mooing and clucking couldn’t get any worse, a voice echoed from all sides. The voice came from the ground and from the mountains. It came from the wind and the light.
“Stop! Everyone calm down!” Everyone heard the voice and realized that no one standing nearby could have spoken since everyone was silent. Everyone took a deep breath, stretched, and waited.
Only Moses, Aron, and sister Miriam recognized the voice. It was the voice of….God, the One we cannot see speaking to all the people, to every last person from the oldest to the youngest in the same moment, in the same breath, the same message.
“I have to apologize,” God added, in a gentle tone, “After you went free, and crossed the sea on dry land, Miriam and Moses led the people in beautiful songs and dances. There were drums and tambourines. I loved listening to the songs and prayers so much that I started dancing and singing myself.”
Moses asked quietly, “You were dancing too?
“I was! I danced so fast that the Earth turned even faster and it became night time two hours early. But that’s not why I spoke to everyone just now. I spoke to everyone just now to let everyone know that I will show you the way towards the holy mountain to give you a guidebook that will help you travel from here to the Promised Land.”
“Hooray!” everyone shouted, “Hooray for the book that will help us travel to the Promised Land!”
Everyone was relieved and happy, or so it seemed…a few minutes later everyone got ready to move again and suddenly everything fell apart just like before. One said to the other, “You went ahead of us while God was talking, we were first…” “Move your donkey off my blanket.” “Why should my kids quiet down when your ducks are making a racket over there!” Fingers pointed, hands were raised in the air, and Moses, Aron, and Miriam sat on a big rock and threw up their own hands.
And then the voice came a second time.
“Stop! Everyone calm down!”
Everyone stopped and listened again to the voice that came from all directions.
“The book I’m going to give you is called the Torah. It will show you how to get to the Promised Land, and now I’m adding a lot more to the book than just directions for traveling. I’m adding directions about how you should treat one another. You’ll have to wait until we get to the holy mountain first to receive the whole book, but I’ll give you something that will help you get there, just a taste…”
Everyone listened carefully to hear the important lesson from God. The animals seemed to be listening too as though God had spoken to them in a language they could understand.
“Love your fellow human being as you love yourself.”
And the animals heard, “Love your fellow animal as you love yourself.”
A collective, “Ahhhh!” soared over the desert, a sound of relief, a sound of understanding, a to sound of hope. God’s secretary angels – the angels who were charged with writing up God’s holy book -- happened to be listening to the conversation between God and Israel at that moment too and they said to one another, “God gave away the best idea in the whole book! Now when the Israelites receive the Torah book they’ll just turn to the page with that lesson on it and skip the whole beginning part of the story!”
The secretary angels decided to put God’s special lesson right in the middle of the Torah.
Once every person had thought about God’s lesson, each man, woman, and child helped one another to pick up their wagons and belongings and continue to walk. God gave Moses, Aron, and Miriam directions to the holy mountain. Moses pointed his special staff in the right direction and even the animals cooperated with one another to begin the journey once again.
Each and every person couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the Torah and learn more about what God wrote inside the special book.
And as they walked on under the warm desert sun, and as the clouds moved with them and sheltered them from the bright light, the small hills around them started to pop up and down, and the breeze swirled and hopped over stones and sand.
Moses, Aron, and Miriam noticed these strange sights, looked at one another and smiled. They laughed and walked forward together with the rest of the Israelites.
God was singing and dancing again!
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