We were all at Mt. Sinai
To fully understand the Ten Commandments, one must not only explore the law, but also the spirituality attached to it.
Legally, the Decalogue presents as a contract; a covenant.
With contracts, there are parties. The Ten Commandments’ two parties are God and the Children of Israel. These two are not the usual parties to a contract. Not only is God theologically based, according to the Torah Portion Nitzavim, so is the other party; the Children of Israel.
Moses, in the Torah Portion Nitzavim, raises a theological designation for the Children of Israel. In doing so, the spiritual realm is entered. The Children of Israel, as an entity, is transformed into a body of collective souls. Within Moses’ valedictory speech, his words allude to a moment in which time collapsed for a temporal convergence.
While Moses’ words were theologically relevant, it is also important for those not theologically inspired to take the moment to understand what occurred. The Nitzavim passage is the basis for religious assertions concerning the commandments. Upon reading Nitzavim, those of secular interest will understand the claim’s source.
How did Moses’ words spark this theological controversy?
Theology
Belief, faith, and spirituality play a role with the human psyche. In this instance, Moses’ assertions defied both the laws of physics and law itself. His words expanded the Decalogue covenant’s parties. His words sparked dreams, visions, and imagination. What he presented, in the normality, was inconceivable.
This theological leap’s genesis is from a single line from sentence; most particularly, one word.
Nitzavim’s Passage
Moses, in continuing with his final speech with the Children of Israel, explains God’s position on the Ten Commandments: “And I am not making this covenant and this oath with you alone, but with the one who is here standing with us today in front of the Lord, our God, and with the one who isn’t here with us today.” Deuteronomy 29:13-14. [emphasis added]
Analysis
With this passage, physical or temporal presence does not define the contract’s parties. The concept of not being here today has essentially been widely interpreted to being any time- past, present or future. The challenge with making that assertion leads to the question as to “how can someone in the present also exist in the past?” A time machine?
With this, theologians tackled time travel.
The Theological Solution
Conceptualizing time travel is not for the faint of heart. Who or what could travel through time? Theologians employed the soul as what could be transported. Thus, there is the religious belief that all Jewish and Convert’s souls from all times were present at Mt. Sinai. Theologically, they could all receive the Ten Commandments at the designated time and place.
Conclusion
The Ten Commandments has essential secular and theological aspects. The parties to the Ten Commandments involve a theological element which must be appreciated. The Torah Portion Nitzavim passage created theology related Decalogue matters. The passage gave rise to a theological aspect of the Ten Commandments’ covenant.
The Torah Portion Nitzavim is the root upon which the traditional belief that souls are not restrained by time. With that belief, it was possible that a soul could make its presence at a particular time and place.
In this instance, the Ten Commandments’ delivery from Mt. Sinai was the time in which souls converged. This concept allows individuals from other time periods to assert that they are parties to the contract; the covenant; their souls stood at the base of the mountain collectively.
Be well!!
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