Timeless Torah

One always imagines the ancient assembly of Sages utilizing their brilliant powers of deduction combined with the guiding force of tradition to create the Rabbinic decrees…such as the holidays of Purim or Chanuka.
This prerogative we assume is limited to the scholars who were generations removed from Sinai….But in an era where G-d spoke directly to man…surely there could have been no justifiable cause for man to meddle…And yet…the humble and loyal shepherd Moses had the boldness to add to the Heavenly directive.

we now refer to as the Oral Law. It seems proper, even mandatory, that future scholars be given the right to implement additional safeguards that would ensure the continuing vitality of Torah. Otherwise the Rabbis would have been barred from adding the holidays of Purim or Chanuka which give valid expression of our gratitude to the ever-present Guardian of Israel.
Nevertheless, this prerogative we assume is limited to the scholars who were generations removed from Sinai and the period of prophecy. But in an era where G-d spoke directly to man, during the lifetime of Moses for example, surely there could have been no justifiable cause for man to meddle or enlarge upon the word of Hashem. And yet at the very outset of G-d’s relationship to His people, the spokesperson He Himself had chosen, the humble and loyal shepherd Moses, had the boldness to add to the Heavenly directive.
Where exactly do we find this discrepancy between G-d’s command and Moses’ transmission? Let us turn to the Book of Exodus, Chapter 19 where the Creator declared to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow...Let them be prepared for the third day.” In contradistinction, Moses orders the Jews to, “Be prepared after a three day period.”
Consider for a moment the implication. Moses receives a Divine command and on his own initiative alters the holy precept. “Audacious” some might say, others may even use the term “chutzpah”.
Irrespective of the specific accusation, the wonderment and surprise of Moses’ actions must be addressed. Our resolution will focus on the two not necessarily parallel events that occurred on that famous mountain some 3,312 years ago; namely the giving of the Torah vs. the acceptance of the Torah.
In classic esotericism, the Ramban in Genesis suggests that each of the six days of Creation represents one millennium of the world’s history. The authoritative 19th Century Rabbi of Pressburg, the Chasam Sofer, proposes that this concept equally applies to those fateful days prior to the Sinaitic Revelation.
G-d Almighty intended that the Torah be given on the third day, corresponding to the third millennium. Only two days preparation were required to demonstrate to the Hebrews the spiritual void of humanity’s first 2,000 years dominated by the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the great Flood and the Tower of Babel fiasco. And just as in the beginning of the third millennium G-d plucked Abraham out of a family of idolaters and chose him to be the first Jew, so too He felt that day three was sufficient and appropriate for Him to bestow upon Abraham’s progeny the twin legacies of physical freedom and spiritual prescription.
Moses demurred: Ever the protector and advocate of his stiff- necked charges, Moses felt that two days or two thousand years may be enough for the Giver. But, for the Receiver, it was hardly adequate. As the Talmud itself points out, another thousand years of Jewish history would have to unfold before the Hebrews fully accepted the Torah on their own volition. Indeed from Moses till Mordechai, Judaism was primarily a movement characterized as Heaven reaching down to lowly man.
Only with the advent of exile in the fourth millennium and the apparent obscuring of G-dliness during the dark days prior to Purim did our religion shift as earthbound men now propelled themselves on their own towards the celestial heights. Consequently the fourth day was deemed most fitting for the Israelites to receive the commandments, regardless of the fact that G-d was ready 24 hours earlier.
This Shavuos G-d will undoubtedly recreate the scenario whereby He gives us the Torah. What’s important and most relevant in our lives however is how much we are prepared to accept?