“You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.”-Deuteronomy 4:15-18
Moses issues a dire warning to Israel to carefully guard themselves against idolatry.
He reminds the people that since Hashem did not appear to Israel at Sinai in any kind of physical form, Israel should never attempt to create a physical object that would in some way represent God.
This makes sense.
Because if you’ve never seen God, how in the world can you manufacture a representative of Him?
The short answer to that question is you can’t.
God made His Presence known to Israel by SPEAKING to them.
Thus, it was through the medium of WORDS that Israel would pass along the knowledge of God to their children…
…and NOT through symbols, images and physical objects as the pagans do.
Understand this was a radical departure of gargantuan proportions from the norms of all the world cultures at the time.
The prevailing notion among the gentiles was how in the world can you hand down your family’s god or gods to the next generation if you don’t have something tangible or physical to give them?
Now this leads to my next point which is…
…how can we know for sure that the Torah is…
…absolutely the ONE AND ONLY true word of God…
…compared to any other religion on the planet?
This is actually a very fascinating question and surprisingly there’s a very easy and logical answer to this.
So pay darn close attention.
Let me start off by asking you this question.
When describing the founding moment of any religion, what do all the other religions of the world except Torah-based Judaism have in common?
Do you have any idea?
Well, here’s the answer.
They all began with…
…ONE MAN AND ZERO WITNESSES.
That’s right.
They all began with some dude who claimed he had a vision or that God spoke to him.
Mohammed claims he was taken to the heavens on a flying donkey and then given the Koran.
Joseph Smith claims that the Angel Moroni gave him the Book of Mormon.
What’s the problem with these types of claims?
The problem is there were ZERO WITNESSES to the events that actually occurred.
I’m not kidding.
Out of the around 15,000 religions in existence since the time of Abraham, every single one of them starts with one man who makes the isolated claim that “The Lord spoke to me!” or “The Almighty God gave me these words!“
However, them dogs ain’t gonna hunt.
Why?
Because personal revelation is an extremely weak basis for a religion since one can never know if it is indeed true.
Now let’s contrast this with Torah-based Judaism with an emphasis on the words “Torah-based“.
What does the Torah say?
Moses told the Israelites…
“God spoke to you from the midst of the fire, you were hearing the sound of words, but you were not seeing a form, only a sound. He told you of His covenant, instructing you to keep the Ten Words, and He inscribed them on two stone tablets.” Deuteronomy 4:9-13
In this sense, Cecil B. Demille, the director of the classic movie “The Ten Commandments” made the greatest mistake in history.
And every professor of comparative religions who claims that Judaism is like all the other religions in the world because God gave to one man named Moses His Torah are also wrong.
Nowhere AND I MEAN NOWHERE in the Torah does it say that God only spoke to Moses at Sinai.
Nope…it was a NATIONAL revelation.
In fact, we’re told the ENTIRE NATION of Israel was shaking after hearing the voice of God.
“And the people said to Moses,
‘You speak to us,
and we will listen.
But don’t let God speak directly to us,
or we will die!‘”
-Exodus 20:19
The biggest difference between the Torah and every other religion on the planet is PERSONAL REVELATION versus NATIONAL REVELATION.
The difference is there were witnesses!!!
That’s the key question you have to ask to determine whether any given historical event actually occurred or not.
At Mount Sinai, we’re talking about close to three million witnesses of men, women, and children!!!
In this sense, it is NOT correct to call Torah-based Judaism a religion.
It would be more accurate to call it A HISTORICAL CLAIM experienced by millions of people.
Check out this quote from the great Maimonides.
“Israel did not believe in Moses, our teacher, on account of the miracles he performed. For when one’s faith is based on miracles, doubt remains in the mind that these miracles may have been done through the occult and witchcraft…What then were the grounds of believing him? The revelation on Sinai which we saw with our own eyes, and heard with our own ears, not having to depend on the testimony of others…“-Mishna Torah – Foundations of Torah 8:1
Or how about this quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Herschel, a man considered to be one of the greatest Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.
“The essence of Jewish religious thinking does not lie in entertaining the concept of God, but in the ability to articulate a memory of moments of illumination by His Presence. Israel is not a people of definers, but a people of witnesses.”
Rabbi Herschel’s point is clear.
The people of Israel as a collective population witnessed what God said to them and they witnessed all the great deeds Hashem performed on their behalf.
An Israelite’s faith in their God is not based on speculative thought and grand religious philosophies.
Their faith is based on an actual and historical experience with God.
And it was this eyewitness proof that was reliably passed on from generation to generation to the present day.
A big mistake the church makes is to assume that the religion of the Jews was based on the mechanical following of a legal code.
That’s just not true.
Again, as I have just said, it was based on a HISTORICAL EXPERIENTIAL RELATIONSHIP with the Living God.
Following God’s Laws and Commands was merely the response to this relationship…
…which incidentally should be your proper response to your relationship with the Living God.
Excellent article and very thought provoking. I would add that same is true for the Gospels, eyewitnesses!
Glad you liked this Linda. Also, think about the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove alighting atop of Yeshua. That was also done in front of witnesses. Be blessed!