Pemikiran Yahudi Keluaran 32:16: Akeidat Yitzchak & Guide for the Perplexed

Bamidbar Rabbah 16 states that at the time Israel proclaimed, "We will do and we will hear," G-d brought the angel of death before Him and told him, "The whole world is within your power, except this nation which I have chosen for Myself," since G-d had advised that this nation should live forever, as it says, "And you who have cleaved to G-d are alive this day...” (Deut. 4,4). Also, concerning the Divinely inscribed tablets, the verse states that the writing was the writing of the LORD, "free" on the tablets (Exodus 32,16). "Do not read engraved on the tablets, i.e. charut, but cheyrut, free, i.e. free from the authority of the angel of death, free from subjugation, from suffering. When Israel sinned, due to the advice of the spies, G-d said to them, "You have destroyed all My intentions. I had said you should live indefinitely like Myself, but you have shown a desire for death." This is the meaning of Psalms 82,6, "I have said you are divine, of superior descent, but alas you are like Adam, whom I commanded one commandment in order that he should merit eternal life." This is proven by the statement in the Torah "Here man has become like one of Us." Yet man corrupted his actions and nullified My decision, ate from the tree so that I said to him, "You are dust and to dust you shall return."

It is a well known fact that whenever someone makes extraordinary efforts to accomplish something, that something is of exceptional importance to the person making such a supreme effort on its account. If the Shunamite woman whose house the prophet Elisha used to frequent, built a private apartment for his use, then it is not surprising that the prophet tried to figure out the real reason she had gone to such trouble. When he failed to find the obvious answer such as acting as her attorney at the king's Court, he asked his assistant Gechazi. The latter noted that the woman was childless and had an aging husband. (Kings II chapter 4) After the sin of the golden calf, Moses used the argument that in order to justify all that G-d had done to release Israel from bondage in Egypt, His objective must have been extremely important, else why go to such trouble? To abandon such an objective and to annihilate Israel, would make all of G-d’s efforts look foolish, and this would diminish rather than enhance G-d’s image in the eyes of mankind. G-d relented and accepted that argument. The same argument may lead to our undeserved redemption in the future (Ezekiel chapter 36) to justify G-d’s "name," i.e. to justify the historic existence of the Jewish people throughout the many centuries of exile. At Mount Sinai then, all G-d’s preparations prior to the revelation, all the thunder and lightning accompanying the revelation must have had as its objective something completely beyond anything man had ever experienced. Seeing that the ten commandments do not contain any new philosophic insights, and in fact, most of these commandments could easily have been legislated by human legislators of average intelligence interested in a well functioning society, one wonders wherein lay the great purpose that produced such extraordinary effort. One might have expected answers to the mysteries of the universe, but they do not contain anything of the sort. Even the first two commandments stipulating the uniqueness of G-d etc., are matters easily arrived at by the human intellect as demonstrated by Maimonides chapter thirty three second section of his "Moreh." This in spite of the fact that these two commandments were heard by all the people directly from the mouth of G-d. Similarly, the fact that the tablets were G-d’s own handiwork as well as the inscriptions on them, all suggest that the purpose of the revelation must have been an all encompassing one. If it was not its purpose to teach new philosophical insights, what was its purpose? It was first and foremost to disabuse people of false philosophies, many of which were circulating freely. Although the vast majority of mankind may acknowledge the existence of G-d as the Creator, they deny His ability or willingness to guide the fate of man or the history of the universe. It was that kind of the denial of G-d’s role that the plagues in Egypt had targeted. It was also what the revelation at Mount Sinai was to impress upon Israel. The purpose was simply to demonstrate the presence and involvement in the personal fate of each and every Jew by G-d. This was demonstrated for all future generations to remember. It was not hearsay, historic fable or legend, but a living experience shared by the entire nation. Henceforth that truth could no longer be denied by speculative reason. The constant nagging doubt "is the Lord in our midst?" was stilled once and for all. A major reason for the reluctance of many Israelites to leave Egypt had been their doubt if the G-d of Israel in all His majesty would concern Himself with such trivial matters as the safety of a people on its march through the desert. Therefore they had preferred the authority of the Egyptian state and civilisation, whose acknowledged task it was to look after its subjects. If, in fact, G-d had indulged Moses at Mount Sinai in answering all the philosophical arguments, the result would have had meaning, at best, for that generation, whereas future generations would have each had to have its own revelation. Therefore G-d addressed Himself exclusively to the fears that lurked in people's minds, and demonstrated that G-d’s Providence did indeed extend to each one of them in whatever circumstances they might find themselves. He stressed the love He had demonstrated for them by releasing them from bondage to the cruel and arrogant Egyptian kingdom. He stressed that He wanted them to retain their freedom from any other deity by not worshipping such deity nor building altars or idols for them etc. Lastly, He demanded the honour due Him by not bandying about His name in idle oaths, and positively observing the Sabbath as a day of rest, emulating Him, since He had rested on the Sabbath. After that, He turned His attention to domestic problems between man and fellow man. When the Midrash discusses anthropomorphical problems such as G-d’s "right" and G-d’s "left," the writing on the tablets with G-d’s "finger" etc. it is dear that all these descriptions are allegorical. Let us take a closer look at the ten commandments themselves.

"You shall not have any other deities" then states that Israel is quite right regarding what cannot be a deity. Consequently, such non deities must not be idolised nor reproduced in a form that suggests idlolisation, or worse yet, actual worshipping of such a reproduction. This is the meaning of our sages telling us that charut on the tablets is actually cheyrut, i.e. we are free of such childish misconceptions about the nature of who controls the universe and is therefore able to inspire fear and terror. This includes the concept of being free from the threat of death, since sin, i.e. the angel of death himself is subject to the ultimate cause, the living Creator. It also includes the idolatry of the power of money and wealth, the most prevalent form of idol worship in civilised society. The denial of such idolatry is expressed in the final commandment. He who observes the commandment of "you must not covet,” reveals that he is free from that kind of idol worship. This is also the meaning of "do not make with Me any deities of silver and gold." G-d stipulates "I do not share power with money or material wealth." G-d describes Himself as our "husband," warning us not to look elsewhere for sustenance since He assumes exclusive responsibility for this. Also, as a wife, Israel must not commit adultery by consorting with any other deity in whatever manner, nor must Israel rebel against its "husband."