Attention please! This is a test, this is only a test. Adonai/God is testing you and is putting the fear/awe of Adonai into you, lest you go astray… (Exodus 20:15-18)

For the Israelites, the revelation at Sinai — with its Ten Declarations — is an encounter with the Divine even more intimate and intense than was the Exodus. They saw, they witnessed the thunder and lightning, the shofar blaring, the mountain smoking…and they stepped back.

Even after Moshe/Moses tells them what Adonai is doing, they remain at a distance. Are they fearful? Wary? Awestruck?

Next, Adonai, acting through Moshe, begins presenting to the Israelites laws, regulations and blueprints that will serve as the foundation and framework of a new Adonai-centered religious, political and cultural society.

Here we sit, sharpened #2 pencils at hand, ready, thinking, “How will we know if we pass the test?”

Then the proctor announces, “This is a timed test. Once you begin, you are to complete it in one lifetime.”

Shabbat shalom ! שבת שלום