Renewing our oath of loyalty and faithfulness via our covenant to God on Shavuot

To belong to the people of the Lord, one must uphold the standard of absolute and exclusive loyalty to God. A Look at Shavuot.

The revelation at Mount Sinai מעמד הר סיני is considered a formative event in the history of the people of Israel. For it was during this moment that God revealed Himself before the entire nation and directly conveyed His words to them.

But what distinguishes God’s words given at Sinai? One might expect that the Ten Commandments עשרת הדברות to be unique, yet each commandment—except for the tenth,  לא תחמוד “You shall not covet”— has a parallel elsewhere in the Torah, often more than one.

Moreover, the Ten Commandments do not encompass all areas of religious life. They make no reference to ritual practices or national commandments.

Additionally, they are presented in absolute terms, without any stated sanctions or punishments, making it unclear whether they represent the gravest sins in the Torah.

What, then, is the status of the words spoken at the Sinai revelation?

To understand this, one must recognize that the covenant at Sinai is modeled on the treaties of ancient Near Eastern kings, which demanded loyalty and commitment. The covenant—riksu in Akkadian—is a bond, a kind of binding tie between a sovereign king and a vassal ruler. Accordingly, the covenant opens with a historical introduction explaining the context of the relationship being established (Exodus: 20:2 & Deuteronomy 5:6):

.אנוכי ה׳ אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”

For this reason, it is formulated in the second person singular, addressing each individual personally, so that no one can hide behind the collective to evade responsibility.

Yet these commands are not ordinary laws with associated rewards or punishments; rather, they are conditions for entering into the covenant. One who wishes to belong to the people of the Lord must uphold the standard of absolute and exclusive loyalty to God. But—this is the unique feature of the Sinai covenant—one must also adhere to a moral standard governing human relationships: “לא תרצח You shall not murder לא תגנוב You shall not steal,” and so forth.

These conditions echo Psalm 15, which describes who may enter the sanctuary:

א מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד ה׳ מִי-יָגוּר בְּאָהֳלֶךָ מִי-יִשְׁכֹּן בְּהַר קָדְשֶׁךָ. ב  הוֹלֵךְ תָּמִים וּפֹעֵל צֶדֶק וְדֹבֵר אֱמֶת בִּלְבָבוֹ. ג לֹא-רָגַל עַל-לְשֹׁנוֹ לֹא-עָשָׂה לְרֵעֵהוּ רָעָה וְחֶרְפָּה לֹא-נָשָׂא עַל-קְרֹבוֹ

“A Song of David: God who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.”

In the ancient Near East, covenants were reaffirmed annually.

Similarly, on the festival of the giving of the Torah חג השבועות (מתן תורה) , we are called to renew our oath of loyalty and faithfulness to the covenant with God—and to meet the high moral standard it sets before us.

חג שמח!

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