The Only True Religion

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

God’s revelation of Himself and His Bible to 2.5 million Jews at Mount Sinai was the world’s greatest event. This event renders Judaism the only religion based on mass witnesses, and thereby, the only proven religion.

This event contained a few unique elements: God created a voice emanating from fire, He gave 2 tablets of sapphire bearing miraculous text of the 10 Commandments, and He caused lightning, thunder, earthquakes and the sound of a shofar. Can we understand why God orchestrated Revelation in this precise form?   

1. Why must revelation include fire? This question is strengthened as 9 times in Deuteronomy Moses reminds Israel that, “God’s voice emanated from inside the fire.” 

2. Why are tablets needed? Why can’t those 10 commands be written in Torah like all other 603 commands, and do away with the tablets? The need for these tablets is further seen, as after Moses breaks the tablets, God instructs him to hew a replacement set. 

Exodus 32:15,16 reads as follows: 

And Moses turned and descended the mountain and the two Tablets of Testimony were in his hand: tablets written on both sides, from this side and that side they were written. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, embedded (charuss) on the tablets. 

3. What is the plain meaning of the tablets’ script written “from both sides”? What purpose does this serve? Moses broke the tablets, as Rabbi Israel Chait said, lest the Jews worship them as they worshipped the Gold Calf. The tablets were significantly superior to other stones. How so? 

4. What is meant by “God’s tablets” and “God’s writing”? “Charuss” (Ibid. 32:16) can be understood as Maimonides states, naturally formed letters, not subsequent engraving upon the tablets: 

“The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing” (Exod. xxxii. 1:6), that is to say, they were the product of nature, not of art, for all natural things are called “the work of the Lord.” The writing may also have been produced by His direct will, not by means of an instrument (Guide, book I, chap. lxvi). 

Ibn Ezra offers no conclusive translation as he says Torah contains no other instance of “charuss.” Therefore, charuss need not be translated as carved or incised, but merely as somehow “present” in the tablets.  What is Maimonides’ message that the writing was “natural”?

5. Earlier (Exod. 31:18) Torah says, “When He finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of God.”  Why does God divide the tablets’ description into 2 Torah sections? 

Appreciating the details and hints about Sinai’s astonishing miracles, God’s precise Torah formulations direct us to the answers…

Fire: The Source of Torah is not Biological

In front of 2.5 million Jews, God created a voice to emanate from the fiery mountain. Maimonides says the Jews heard no distinct words, only the “sound” of words, following the verse, “The Lord spoke to you out of the fire; you heard the sound of words but perceived no form—nothing but a voice” (Deut. 4:12). 

Life exists in all substances and regions, in ice, under sand, and in water. But all biological life perishes in fire. A voice emanating from fire teaches that this intelligence is not earthbound. But as Maimonides says the Jews heard no distinct words, only the “sound” of words [intelligent patterns], validation was yet required that Torah’s “content” was divine. The voice emanating from fire taught that God is not physical. But how was God’s communication verified?

“Tablets written on both sides, from this side and that side they were written”

 “From both sides” cannot not refer to surface etching, as wrongly depicted in medieval paintings. If that were the case, the Jews could have suspected it was not God, but Moses who fabricated that writing, thereby stripping the tablets of their divine nature. And proof that this was possible was that as Moses “hewed” a second set of stones (Exod. 34:4), certainly he could etch letters on their surfaces. 

Rather, “From both sides” means this: as sapphire is translucent, the internal sapphire grain is viewable from both sides, from all angles. God selected a translucent object for this purpose. As these 2 bricks of sapphire formed during creation (Avos 5:6), sentences also formed “naturally” (through God’s will) inside the sapphire. This is a feat impossible for Moses to have fabricated; there is no manner in which Moses could have written “inside” the stones. Only the One who formed sapphire, also authored Torah text within the sapphire. These stone tablets must have been an amazing sight. It is akin to cutting a tree open to find the rings inside are composed of Torah text! The creator of trees is Torah’s author. 

This means that the sapphire—creation—is subordinated to Torah. That is, nature is harnessed to share Torah…the physical world is subservient to Torah. The message at Sinai was that Earth was designed for a goal: for man to find God through studying Torah and nature. This message of nature facilitating the greater goal of sharing Torah is also demonstrated in the voice God created emanating from fire: God harnessed fire and sound, and enabled Torah to emanate.

 The Rabbis teach, “God viewed Torah and created Earth.” Meaning, Torah is Earth’s blueprint; Torah is prior and superior to Earth. Rashi on Avos 2:8 says, “If the Jews don’t follow Torah, God will reverse creation back to voidness.” 

Additionally, the verse says they were “tablets of God.” This means that each individual tablet was naturally formed. Naturally-formed complete tablets with no human tampering complements the proof that the writing was not created by Moses, as the tablets were in their complete “natural” form.  

All Creations are His

Shofar blasts cannot be produced naturally, but only by intelligent life. At first, Torah records that the shofar accompanied the thunder and lightning (Exod. 19:16). This demonstrated that the natural thunder and lightning was not separate from an intelligence (shofar). Torah then isolates the shofar, this time adding that it grew louder and louder (Ibid. 19:19) to stress that this was not a human production. When man blows a shofar, his breath weakens until he must stop and inhale once again. Thus, this endless shofar blare conveyed the presence of a divine intelligence.

God also “descended” on Mt. Sinai (Ibid. 19:20), and Deuteronomy 4:36 says that God spoke from the heavens to demonstrate His control is not limited to Earth alone. And the mountain shaking (Ibid. 19:18) displays God’s control over Earth as a whole. All in heaven and Earth are shown to be guided by God’s will.

2 Accounts of the Tablets

“When He finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the pact, stone tablets…”

Here, the operative word is “finished.” Yes, God finished speaking to Moses, but He did not wish this lesson to be “finished.” This explains why only here God mentioned the tablets “stone” nature. God selected stone as a means to encapsulate His commands in an eternal substance. His prophecy to Moses finished, but His lessons for man live on eternally.  

But the second account of the tablets does not mention stone at all. Rather, it highlights the tablets’ miraculous nature. Why? As Moses descended Mt. Sinai to the idolatrous Jews, God highlights the tablets’ miracle, in contrast to the imagined deity of the Gold Calf. The tablets’ miraculous nature was now relevant to contrast the inanimate Gold Calf and teaches a lesson about what to deify: God alone. 

Summary

Sinai’s lessons were now complete: Fire taught that God is not physical, not biological, not of this world, and that He is the source of Torah. The miraculous stones and their writing taught what are His commands, and that they were not Moses own inscriptions, but were miraculous writing which only God could have created inside the translucent stones for all to see. And lightning, thunder and shofar demonstrated God’s complete control of the world. 

A theme emerges: fire with intelligence (voice), stones with intelligence (writing), and heavenly and earthly phenomena with intelligence (shofar). The lesson is that the physical world is subservient to God, whose will is that man pursues Torah over all else. When giving the Torah, God compromised the nature of fire, earth (sapphire tablets) and the heavens (thunder and lightning) to share His Torah. The Jews learned that all that is, exists only for man to study God through Torah. 

God proved His supernatural existence amidst flames, Torah’s commands were validated as divine, and the tablets “testified” as such, earning their title “Tablets of Testimony.” And God demonstrated His dominion over heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth were put in service of God imbuing mankind of Torah’s vitality.

3334 years ago, God gifted mankind a system to direct our lives towards the most happiness and fulfillment, in pursuit of God via His wisdom shared in His Torah. God orchestrated Revelation on Mt. Sinai to serve as everlasting validation of His metaphysical existence, His Bible authorship, and His control over creation. Harnessing creation to display Torah through tablets and God’s communication through fire, teaches man that Earth is subservient to Torah. Our earthly lives were created for the purpose of Torah study. 

No other religion offers mass witnesses of divine revelation; they demand blind faith, and faith is not proof. Judaism remains the only religion offering proof of divine origin.