Experience: The Basis Of Our Faith

We rely on the veracity of these reports based on:

A. Number of Witnesses

But, some may challenge, "there is only the word of the one document, the Torah, that is the source of all this information, saying that there were 3 million people there. How do we know that's true? It may be self serving!"

Think about it! We have this unique document, the Torah, in our possession today. How did it get here? It had to be given to some one group or generation. It had to be either that generation of Jews who actually experienced the redemption from Egypt, or any generation following that event.

If the Torah was given to the generation who presumably lived the exodus from Egypt and the trek through the desert to the Promised land, then had Sinai not occurred, but was a story foisted on them by a leader, Moses, they would have rebelled, as they often did, (see Concluding Notes, note 1). There would have been an outcry against such an outrageous proposition being imposed upon them... the lie of Moses imposing an obligatory yoke of G-d upon them in exchange for their redemption... when they knew the truth that no such event ever occurred!

They would have rejected the Torah, the document that recorded this fabrication, and IT WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN TRANSMITTED TO THE NEXT GENERATION. Only because it did in fact occur, and was true, could it survive and be transmitted to posterity.

If one's doubt still persists, and suggests the second alternative, that the Torah was given to Israel many years after the presumed event, and written by men with imaginations relating the past, of which there was no one alive to challenge them... let us then ask: why didn't that contemporary generation, being given that document, also scream aloud... ”What sort of lies are you telling us? Surely, if you claim that over 3 million people witnessed these events, someone would have heard about them. Someone's father would have transmitted that world-shattering saga to his children, and their children to the next generation. The written document is only the last step in the perpetuation of an historical event. The word of mouth transmission is the all-pervasive and universal source of past knowledge. Where is that word of mouth? Why didn't anybody know of it until you came with your 'document' of the past?"

But no one screamed, no one shouted that it was a lie... because the knowledge of Torah was extant and all generations from Sinai forward were continuously informed by their fathers, generation after generation, of that momentous event at Sinai. There was no need to shout in protest because it did indeed occur. It was true.

B. Consistency of Reports

Perhaps one group may have been duped by charlatans, believing this fairy tale of Sinai. But the story is universal, spread out among peoples living in every corner of the Earth, and consistent with each other. Jews living in Ethiopia for thousands of years, and the Jews of Yemen, separated from the main body of Jews for over 2500 years, have remarkably preserved the Torah intact during the millennia of dispersion. Their reports are entirely consistent with those of Jews everywhere else.

The fact of the matter is that there are only 8 textual variations found amongst all the copies of the Torah, and none of this impact on Halacha. Compare that with the over 6200 variations of the Christian Bible, throughout the world.

More remarkable is that despite the fact that Jews have lived through adversities over these millennia that should have crushed their heritage, the Torah remains scrupulously precise. Surely had the Torah been a lie, its discrepancies would have surfaced in different places over the globe.

C. Sources of Reports

Had we physically been at Sinai (although the neshama of every future Jew unto eternity was present) there could never have arisen a question of its truth. There is no one in the world that can dissuade a rational person from denying what all his senses have experienced. But we were not physically there, and we are forced to rely on the 'truths' told to us by our parents.

How true is the Torah they bequeath to us today?

We can better appreciate this powerful natural drive if we apply it to ourselves. It is inconceivable that we would bequeath a lie to our children that would threaten their survival and their future. Which father would lie to his son and tell him to travel to the arctic with light summer clothing? He would freeze to death! Which father would lie to his son and advise him to put his hand into fire? Which father would instruct his son to destroy his body by ingesting poisons? Which father would teach his son to rob, pilfer, murder? Which father, having stood at Sinai and experienced the beneficent hand of the Redeemer, would deny that to his children for their salvation?

If we create some fantasy and pound that into the minds of our children then we gamble with their lives. But if we convey to them a report of what happened yesterday, which we experienced, or, a hundred years ago, which our fathers experienced, or 3300 years ago, which their fathers experienced, as a guide for life, we are transmitting a 'truth' on which they can confidently rely, based on the unique love relationship of father and son.

The 'chazaka', that we are innately motivated by the vested interest for the survival of our children, is so powerful. Its force is further enhanced by its universal corroboration by all fathers, diversified in space and time, and by the precise preservation of the Torah, the 'log' recording the events, in all corners of the world. It is on these rock foundations that we base our trust that the Torah our fathers bequeath us is the truth. We thus are insuring our survival and that of our children.

And lastly, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We are here today... alive and well! We have defied the laws of nature; by all accounts we should have been decimated centuries ago. Gone are the ancients, the Chaldeans, the Hittites, the Jesubites, the Assyrians... all the regal powers of the ancient world, but we survive.

We are the living corroboration of the truth of the Torah. In the prescription for living, the Torah forcefully describes the moral ecology of the universe. G-d hands man the keys to his own survival. Preserve the ecology of nature, man will live. Destroy the air, poison the water, man will die. Preserve the moral ecology of the world, recognizing the worth and value of every human and dealing with him with love and justice... society will be preserved. Steal, rob, murder... and society destroys itself. Recognizing G-d as the author of it all is the essence of Torah. History, as described in the Torah and subsequently, is replete with the verification of these truths.

Jews are not exempt from these universal truths, with one exception. Jews will never be obliterated. Punished, exiled -- yes -- but never eradicated. Perhaps the other nations of the world who lived by immorality, dishonesty and by the various perversions the Torah riles against received their punishments in their respective times and were destroyed, as foretold. Perhaps our long, troubled, painful history of Galut is a blessing in disguise... pain in lieu of death... that no matter how long the suffering, as punishment for our straying from the Torah, we will never be destroyed. Our unique eternal existence is a vital testimony to the truth of the Torah. As long as Torah is in existence, it is our insurance policy for our survival.

In Summary:

1. The COMMONALITY of the knowledge of the events described in the Torah, the exodus from Egypt, the moment at Sinai, the Orl and Written Law given at Sinai. Jews throughout the world have this common knowledge; it is not limited to one locale.
2. The DISPERSION in time. Throughout our recorded history all people knew it at various periods of history. It is not curtailed to one period in time.
3. The CORROBORATION through the existence of the Torah and its meticulous preservation without error in every part of the globe.
4. The living TESTIMONY of the subject of the Torah... the Jewish nation.

All combine to establish the truth of Torah!