Musar su Esodo 19:17

This is the reason why we also find the revelation at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah alluded to in this dream, as mentioned in Bereshit Rabbah 68, 12. We read there that the words "the ladder stood on the ground, its head reaching heavenwards," describe the ladder as at the foot of Mount Sinai, with its top reaching into the fiery mountain top up unto the heart of Heaven, as described in Deut. 4,11. Another version in the same Midrash points out that the numerical value of the letters in the word סלם, ladder, is equal to the numerical value of the letters in the word 130= סיני. The מלאכי אלוקים, heavenly messengers, are perceived as Moses and Aaron. Proof that prophets are called מלאכים is found in Chagai 1,13: ויאמר חגי מלאך ה' במלאכות ה' לעם. "Chagai, the angel of the Lord, fulfilling the Lord's mission, spoke to the people." When the angels are described as עולים, ascending, this refers to Moses of whom the Torah wrote (Exodus 19,3): ומשה עלה אל האלוקים, Moses ascended to G–d." When the Torah describes the angels as descending the ladder, it also refers to Moses, of whom the Torah wrote: וירד משה, Moses descended (Exodus 19,14). Next, G–d is described in the dream as standing above the ladder, and we know that "G–d descended to the top of Mount Sinai" (Exodus 19,20). Thus far the two versions of the Midrash.

I therefore believe that the Jews re-dedicated themselves to the practice of these four commandments as something they would place more emphasis on than before Haman's decree. Our sages (Shabbat 85) comment on Exodus 19,17: "They stood underneath the Mountain," that G–d had threatened that if the Jewish people would not accept the Torah the Mountain would crush them to death. This proved that acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish people at Mount Sinai was an act performed under duress. Not until after the decree of Haman was cancelled did the Jewish people accept the Torah on an entirely voluntary basis. This is what is meant when the Book of Esther describes that תורה had now become אורה, that what had previously been a burden now became like a ray of light for them. An allusion to this revolutionary change in the Jewish attitude to Torah is found in the words והדת נתנה בשושן הבירה, "and the law (religion) was really given in Shushan the capital" (Esther 3,15).

To come back to the statement of our sages that the Jewish people accepted the Torah voluntarily only because of their miraculous salvation from Haman's decree. I can think of three reasons why this acceptance occurred at that particular time in Jewish history. The sin they had committed at the time when they went to participate in the feast given by king Ahasverus was one committed totally voluntarily. The Jews had not been under any physical or political pressure to attend that feast and eat forbidden foods. The Book of Esther 1,8 goes to some length to stress that there was no religious compulsion regarding the drinking of non-kosher wine, nor was there any compulsion to eat treif: on the contrary, the Megillah emphasises that the king had given orders לעשות כרצון איש ואיש, to comply with every guest's wishes" (ibid.). Our sages (Megillah 12) comment on this that the king had given orders to comply both with the wishes of Mordechai and those of Haman; this is the meaning of איש ואיש in the verse. The Jews, having sinned voluntarily, now resolved to accept Torah voluntarily as an act of rehabilitating themselves.