Dr. Tzvi Novick points out in an insightful article in the Times of Israel (May 25,2023) entitled “Standing Under Sinai: On the Origins of a Coerced Covenant” that a famous rabbinical Midrash narrative in Talmud Shabbat 88a teaches that at Mount Sinai God made Israel an offer it could not refuse.

The Torah states: “And they took their places at the foot (תחתית) of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17) – Said Rabbi Avdimi ben Chama b. Chasa: “It teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a tub (גיגית), and said to them: ‘If you accept the Torah, well and good; and if not, there[1] will be your burial.’’

However, Rabbi Acha ben Jacob points out that by having the Israelites accept the Torah under duress, Rabbi Avdimi effectively gives them a way out. Not only that Israel could void its agreement to observe the Torah, but also, as the Babylonian Talmud clarifies elsewhere (‘Abod. Zarah. 2b), that the Jewish People cannot claim its acceptance of the Torah as a source of merit, because it was coerced.

What led Rabbi Avdimi to advance such a strange reconstruction of the Sinai covenant? Rabbi Avdimi’s exegesis was inspired, in part, by the word. כפה which means “to turn over, invert,” but it also means “to compel.” (At first sight I loved her hips, and after 58 years of marriage I still do.)

But why should God appear at Sinai in so scary a fashion? The biblical text puts forward its own explanation for the thunder and lightning at Sinai: “Be not afraid,” says Moses to the people, “for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of God be before you, that you not sin” (

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)