SHUVOO NEWSLETTER

Issue No. 30 – February 28, 2007

It is the desire of Shuvoo to awaken within all people the importance of mankind turning to the Torah at this time in history.  For Jews, there is a specific responsibility to Torah, but also for Gentiles.  The nations of the world are accountable to the Universal Laws of Torah.  In recent years, many 100’s of thousands of God-fearing and Torah-loving Gentiles have been struggling with their spiritual identities and seeking to find answers in the midst of much religious confusion.  These groups have created, been given, and co-opted various names of identification.  Shuvoo wishes to simply speak to the God-fearers of the nations,

and to speak especially to our own people, the Jewish nation, of our unique responsibility in sharing the Light of Torah

at a time when confusion and darkness increase with each passing day.

A colored pencil sketch adaptation of a photo of the mountain area traditionally regarded as Mt. Sinai. (© Ashirah Yosefah 2007)

TO BE A JEW – PART IV

Seventy Tongues of Torah

Over 3500 years ago in a barren desert plain surrounding the lowliest mountain in the area, an event occurred that literally shook both earth and heaven.  So great, so unlike any other occurrence known to man was this event that it was forever inscribed upon the minds of not a few, but 600,000 men, with their wives, their children and those sojourners who traveled in their midst.  Not one, not a few, as in other religions, but in excess of 2.5 million witnesses received a Divine revelation.

“If we are to begin to internalize the magnitude of the Giving of the Torah, which took place without media coverage, we must try to think ourselves out of our own noisy, sophisticated world. We must try to project ourselves back into the stark, awesome, silent grandeur of the "wilderness", the MIDBAR, where man's existential reality as a GER, a wanderer and a stranger in this world, is writ large. Out of the silence of the MIDBAR spoke a voice: MEDABER. And the voice was forever inscribed in the hearts of those who heard it and taught it to their children from generation to generation.”  (Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum, Parsha Yitro, February 10, 2007)

In the Talmud (Shabbat 88b), it states:

“Rabbi Yochanan asked, what is the meaning of the verse, ‘Hashem gave forth an utterance; [they became] announcements to a great host [of nations]’ (Psalms 68:12)? [Why does this verse switch from the singular ‘utterance’ to the plural ‘announcements’?]  Rather, every utterance that the Almighty spoke [at Sinai] split into seventy languages.

Rabbi Yochanan said, “The voice split into seventy voices for the seventy (basic) languages, in order that each Nation should hear the Voice in its own language.” (Midrash Rabbah to Exodus, 85:19)

We are told in Devarim 1:5 that “Moshe began explaining this Torah.”  Rashi actually translates this as “Moshe began clarifying this Torah” and continues in his commentary on the verse to explain “He explained it to them in seventy languages.”  (Rashi to Devarim 1:5)  Early commentators concur and state further that since the Jewish people had no use for the seventy languages, the languages must have been intended each one for its individual nation.

For the rest of this essay, go to:  http://www.shuvoo.com/articles/AY-to-be-a-jew-IV.php 

Ashirah Yosefah

Ad Matai / Shuvoo

Rehov Cremieux 6A/1

Jerusalem 93108

Israel Registration #580545870

www.shuvoo.com