The giving and the receiving of the Torah, according to the Bible itself, were not one and the same event. The revelation of the Torah and its acceptance where separated by ages of negligence and strife. In the desert, despite the people’s cry of “we shall do and listen,” the appearance of the Torah was followed by idolatry, by apathy, and near-fatal inner strife. When the people of Israel congregated once more – at long last and of their own accord – they found, not Moses and the pure and perfect Torah of the wilderness, but Ezra and his composite Torah, made maculate by centuries of human history. [1]
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[1] David Weiss Halivni, Revelation Restored (SCM Press: London, 2001), p. 84
Hi Daniel,
I wonder what the writer does understand with Torah. Maybe he sees it as a divine process working in the heart of man (or in this case the people of Israel) what makes time between delivery and finally the receiving of the whole. Or does he see it as merely the law which accepted finally by Ezra? For me I see a similarity with the feast of Shavuot, the giving of the Spirit, as a giving of the great Prophet Yeshua who knows and gives the Torah as well.
Jos