Timeless Torah

George W. Bush is discovering the old military adage that the only thing more dangerous than defeat is victory. The reason for this truth is because military, or even political, victories rarely settle any matter completely. All they accomplish is an opportunity for the winner to come up with a plan of how to best exploit that victory and convert it to a more permanent and winning situation.
This point is emphasized at the very outset of the Exodus story. That is why freedom from slavery itself would be insufficient cause for celebration. As G-d Himself states, “My people shall go free,” is not enough if unaccompanied by the end of the verse, “So that they may serves Me on this mountain.”
That the physical respite from Egyptian bondage cannot warrant etenal thanks should be obvious to anyone who knows anything of Jewish history. Since the Exodus our people have been militarily defeated, subjugated, exiled, burned, and gassed...so why commemorate a victory as temporary as the Exodus if it did not lead to a more lasting triump? It would be comparable to the southern Confederate States of America continuing today to celebrate its victory at First Bull Run! And yet, the Exodus remains as the centerpiece of all Jewish history, and its highly ritualized Seder is the most observed ritual in Jewish life. It is thus obvious that the Exodus must mean more than leaving the pyramids.
As already mentioned, when Moses encountered G-d at the burning bush, he was informed that the purpose of his mission was to bring the people of Israel to Sinai, to serve God and accept the Torah. So while the Exodus was the necessary preparation prior to the Torah, it was but the means to the end, and not the end in itself.

Would there be a Jewish religion today, or even a Jewish people, with only an Exodus minus the Sinai? Surely not! The former Hebrew slaves would have enjoyed a temporary and unexploited victory, an event that would ultimately dim and disappear in time, losing relevance and meaning. Only spirituality lasts, and for Jews, spirituality is meaningful only if it is based on Torah and Jewish tradition. Thus the L-rd’s message to Moses that when Israel is redeemed they will, “worship me at this mountain,” is the essence and entire significance of the Exodus.

In the most recent and bloodiest of all human centuries, the Jewish people have experienced abysmal and wholesale destruction. We have also witnessed unpredictable triumphs. In the Americas we have miraculously rebuilt ourselves and our communities. In Israel, Jews have reclaimed the Land as if Judah and his fellow Maccabees had risen from the dead to reenact the amazing feats of our glorious past. Like the pheonix, our generation of Jews has experienced a modern Exodus from the ovens of Treblinka. But have we as yet been able to truly exploit our triumph?
At Mount Sinai our people spoke with one voice when they responded to G-d’s call. “Na’aseh V’nishma- We will do and we will hear,” they thundered. What was crystal clear to them has become obscure for us. So thirty three hundred years later we find ourselves embroiled in a conflict for Judaism’s soul and direction. The search for national meaning, the unexpressed but omnipresent inner disappointment and spiritual emptiness of Israeli life, are the underlying causes for the divisiveness and turmoil that characterize current life in what is supposed to be a Holy land.
Many are searching for a contemporary Sinai. They will not find one. For while there have been many recreated Exoduses, there will remain but one Torah, one direction, one answer, and one panacea. Yes, we have displayed heroism and won miraculous battles; the War of Independence, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, etc. But the military successes will be without meaning, as we are witnessing even now, if we don’t raise the banner of Torah to guide our country.
Why has the Sinai of our time not been realized? Is it because we lack a Moses? Can we be so blind and not see what was so obvious to our ancestors? Perhaps all that is necessary is the realization that our modern and wondrous Exodus is not enough. and that G-d is waiting for our call of “We will do”. Finally then, “We will hear” that the Land of Israel has become a permanent blessing.