How God Teaches the World

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

When  you please investigate prior eras that came before you, ever since God created humankind on earth, from one end of heaven to the other: has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known? Has any people heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have, and survived? Or has God ventured to go and take one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts, by signs and portents, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and awesome power, as your God Hashem did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? It has been clearly demonstrated to you that Hashem alone is God; there is none else. From the heavens [God] let you hear the divine voice to discipline you; on earth [God] let you see the great divine fire; and from amidst that fire you heard God’s words. And having loved your ancestors, [God] chose their heirs after them; [God] personally—in great, divine might—led you out of Egypt, to drive from your path nations greater and more populous than you, to take you into their land and assign it to you as a heritage, as is still the case. Know therefore this day and keep in mind that Hashem alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other. Observe God’s laws and commandments, which I enjoin upon you this day, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may long remain in the land that your God Hashem is assigning to you for all time. (Deut. 4:32-40)

Moses isolates 2 matters: God’s single revelation to mankind at Mount Sinai, and God’s favoriting, selection and deliverance of the Jews from Egypt and His gift of Israel to us. As fire kills all biological life, millions hearing intelligence emanate from a fiery mountain proved beyond doubt that God exists, and what His will is for mankind. He gave only 1 religion, as there is only 1 man. Revelation at Sinai is proven like all historical events: mass attendees witnessed and transmit a single history of those attendees, at that place and date. Never again did God reveal Himself, or alter His Bible, Torah. There is no alternate historical record of the Jews at that time and place. If this event did not take place, we would certainly have an alternate story. The absence of such a story contributes to the proof of Revelation at Sinai.

Thus, God shared His will with monotheists, and He raised Israel’s status among the nations. Moses repeats these 2 matters in these verses. He tells us this is due to God’s love of the patriarchs who discovered God without Torah, and taught mankind to emulate God’s values of charity and justice (Gen. 18:19). To those who recognize reality—monotheism—and teach it, God shared His Torah and appointed them as a beacon to humanity so all mankind will be so impressed with Jews, to the point of saying about us, “Surely, that great nation is a wise and discerning people” (Deut. 4:6).

God’s will is that mankind recognizes His brilliant true laws and ideas, and gave Israel the task of embodying those principles and teaching the world. We are hated throughout time due to jealousy of this truth. And we will boldly continue teaching Torah undaunted as is God’s will, while man will either sustain their jealousy and anti-Semitism, or hopefully realize the truth and follow God. The Jews recognize all people are equal and we will sustain Torah study and practice so all who desire may learn and follow God.