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In the Shadow of the Mountain: Consent and Coercion at Sinai

In the Shadow of the Mountain: Consent and Coercion at Sinai

April 2, 1992
The graphic description of God holding Mt. Sinai over the Israelites' heads, threatening to bury them under it unless they accepted His Torah, is familiar to many. Whatever the existential import of this tale, its literal sense is that the Jewish people were coerced into receiving the Torah. This essay analyzes other traditions about the Sinai covenant and indicates that these, in contrast, assert the consensual nature of the receiving of the Torah.