“lower part” or “foot of the mountain” - b’tachtit ha-har
- means literally “under the mountain.” Thus the midrash that as they gathered there, G-d lifted up the
entire mountain and held it over the Israelites' heads saying “If you accept
the Torah, all well and good. If not, this is where you will be buried.”
Nice midrash.
Of course, as the rabbis note, this set up a problem: as
R. Aha b. Jacob notes “This furnishes a strong protest against the Torah” –
that acceptance was coerced.
Raba answers:
Yet even so, they re-accepted it in
the days of Ahasuerus, for it is written, [the Jews] confirmed, and took
upon them [etc.]: (Esther 9:27)
[that is] they confirmed what they
had accepted long before.
Nice answer. Made even more powerful when we look at more of
the sentence:
The Jews confirmed, and took
upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all who joined themselves to them. . .
It is an agreement binding on future generations – and explicitly
includes converts! Clearly speaking to the realities of their time.
And I love that it is the story of Purim, that fairy-tale of
the Diaspora with its grave dangers and unlikely opportunities, which ultimately
confirms the agreement of the people to the covenantal relationship. G-d saves
us from genocide and the response is a voluntary recommitment to that divine
relationship throughout the generations.
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