Yitro

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. Let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will descend in the sight of the entire people on Mount Sinai." - Ex 19:10-11

The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. - Edward de Gibbon, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"

Let's assume that you are a religious Jew. Now imagine I take you in a time machine back to the supposed date of the Revelation at Sinai, and show you that it did not, in fact, take place - that there was no Revelation at Sinai. Will you still be a religious Jew?

Consider your answer for a while. Ruminate on it a bit. Go for a walk, get a coffee, stare out the window and think. Go ahead, I'll wait.

~~~~~

For those of us who weren't raised on a generous serving of Biblical instruction, the Revelation at Sinai was the most defining moment in the history of the Jewish faith - that fateful day exactly 3,322 years ago when the Lord Himself descended upon a mountaintop and gave unto the newly formed Jewish nation the Ten Commandments. According to midrashic thought, the Almighty on that day gave the entire Torah to the Jews, a Torah which has allegedly remained in its precise original form, until this present day.

The Revelation at Sinai is especially significant to modern Jewish polemics and apologetics, because it provides an answer to the ever-awkward question: "Why should I follow your God?" The one element that sets the Jewish faith apart, this argument goes, the one single defining advantage that Judaism has over Islam, Hinduism, and Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, is mass tradition. In every other religion, the original revelation occurred to only a few people: a shepherd here, some disciples there, perhaps a science fiction writer, maybe a pirate or two somewhere along the way. But the Jews witnessed the original revelation en masse, as a nation of several million, and have faithfully passed the story of this original phenomenon from generation to generation until the present day.

So now that we understand Sinai's importance, let us return to our original inquiry: if you and I went back in a time machine, and I were to show you that the Revelation did not take place, would you continue to be a religious Jew?

Write your answer down. Speak it aloud. Call a friend or family member over and say, "hey, random thought, but if I were to go back in time and find out that Sinai didn't happen I would do such and such because blah blah blah..." Explain your reasoning. Sort out your thoughts. Know thyself.

Once you have your beliefs in order, come back here and I'll share my own findings.

~~~~~

I find that people to whom I ask this question to tend to fall into one of three categories:

1) "I would stop being a religious Jew, because the foundation of my belief system has been removed."

These are the Biblical literalists with academically rigourous minds. The people for whom picking a religion is a rational matter, like choosing a stockbroker or an insurance policy. To them, Judaism is a religion which is superior to all other beliefs (and non-beliefs) by strength of logical argument.

2) "I would continue to be a religious Jew, because your time machine is broken."

Category 2 contains those for whom Judaism is so self-evidently true that no argument can be brought against it. This belief can be predicated on cosmology ("the only way of understanding why there is something rather than nothing is through belief in God, and moreover, the Jewish God"), weight of evidence ("my cousin who had cancer received a blessing from our Rebbe, and the doctors found no trace of it a week later; it had simply vanished") or personal revelation ("if you had ever properly experienced a farbrengen, you'd be just as sure as I am"). Since Judaism simply cannot be false, the problem must necessarily lie elsewhere.

3) "I would continue to be a religious Jew, because my belief system does not rest on the historical reality of the Revelation."

This category is profoundly interesting to me. To a young me, (and to an old Bertrand Russell), this category was simply unfathomable. You believe something because it's true, not because it's convenient (please resist the urge to make an Al Gore joke). Studies in human psychology have shown me again and again that this simply isn't the case: beliefs are far from the binary, clearly-delineated artifacts we might like them to be; religious beliefs, and religious practice, doubly so. Those in category 3 understand this, and they understand that their own religious observance has as much, if not more, to do with their family, friends, society and their own wish-thinking and comfort zone, than it does with the fundamental truth or falsehood of the religion's underpinnings.

So how'd you go? Do you fit into one of the above categories? Do the categories themselves require tweaking? Or do you fall completely outside the listed options, in a fourth category which I missed entirely?

I'd love to know what (and how!) you think.