Most of us have undoubtedly seen Hollywood versions of Moses and the March of the Masses to the Mountain. But for fanciful and charming commentaries on the trip to the Ten Commandments, I'll take legend and folklore over Cecile B. DeMille. Who needs movies? We've got midrash!

A Sample

According to the sages, God originally planned to give the Torah to the Jews the day after they left Egypt. But then, realizing that giving the Torah so quickly would make it seem that its acceptance was done only in gratitude for freedom, God decided to wait. For fifty days. And thus, seven weeks later, when the Israelites got to Sinai, they accepted the Torah out of love for God and not because of the miracles, signs and wonders the Lord performed to secure their redemption from Pharaoh.

According to another midrash, God delayed giving the Torah so as not to appear like a groom who jumps hastily into marriage. A seven-week courtship and engagement does seem impulsive. Yet another folktale has God stalling for a different reason. Namely, the Torah is without blemish and must therefore go to a people without defects.

So, between the Exodus and Sinai, God healed the sick among the Israelites. To quote one source, "The blind could see, the ears of the deaf were unstopped. The tongue of the dumb sang and the lame leapt as deer." God's people were made whole so they could accept God's words with strength and vigor!

More Midrash

Not surprisingly, there were skeptics in Moses' band of wanderers. A few ex-slaves – or so goes the gossip – secretly took an idol with them when they left Egypt, just in case things with this new God didn't work out. But Moses discovered the idol and left it in the sand. And what sand it was! This desert was vast and teeming with horrific snakes! It is said that birds would fall dead from the sky if one of these snakes so much as crawled over the bird's shadow on the ground! But for the Israelites, the snakes meekly rolled over and formed reptilian bridges to help the people cross the treacherous terrain. They were probably thinking, "so far, so good."

But three days into the trip, the Children of Israel were not happy campers. There's no water, they whined. Moses prayed to God and God answered by sweetening the streams of Marah and producing wells at Elim which, it is reported, tasted not only like water but also like wine and honey and milk. Spirits quickly lifted.

But a month later, the bread, so hastily baked before the departure from Egypt, ran out. Moses has fed us promises and false hopes instead of food!

The people balked. Ever patient, Moses prayed again to God and VOILA! Manna poured from heaven, falling in heaps right at the feet of the pious. Granted, ordinary people had to pick manna from the fields and the wicked, if lucky, found a bit only after much searching, but still this manna was amazing stuff! It tasted like meat! Like fish! Like your favorite food!

According to these legends, God was courting Israel, His bride. He treated her as would a king who marries only after giving his beloved many gifts. In this case, the gifts were good health, sweet water and miraculous food. The greatest gift – the Torah – God withheld a bit longer. The ways of the Torah are ways of loveliness and all its paths are peace said God. The people got the message. They examined their ways and repented. Pettiness and doubt disappeared. Harmony reigned. By the time the Children of Israel reached Mt. Sinai, they had stopped behaving like children and were ready to accept responsibility and the obligation of Torah.

Now, tradition says that before God offered the Torah to Israel, He offered it to other nations. Each nation asked, "What is written therein?" And when God started listing the Thou-Shalts and Thou-Shalt-Nots, He got a resounding thanks-but-no-thanks.

The Israelites, on the other hand, said, "We've already been observing Your commandments for generations!" Jacob smashed the idols in favor of one God. Joseph kept the Sabbath even in Egypt (and did not succumb to Potiphar's wife, either.) Abraham didn't covet so much as a thread or a shoestring. Isaac proved how much he honored his parents by allowing his father to offer him up as a sacrifice. And so, when God offered the Torah to the Jews, they accepted.

Finally, the day of Revelation dawned. And what a day it was! According to commentary, nature stood still. The sea did not roar. No birds sang. No creature stirred or made so much as a peep.

But the universe, wrote the Jewish-Roman historian Philo, whirled violently. God bent the heavens and moved the earth. The air reverberated with thunder and horns. All morning the ground shook and groaned until, at noontime, the words, I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD! boomed down from Mt. Sinai. The words were understood by all the peoples of the earth and by the souls of generations yet unborn.

At the foot of Mt. Sinai, the people stood, flabbergasted and stupefied with fear. Slowly, apprehensively, they moved closer. As they drew nearer, God lifted Mt. Sinai and held it over the people's heads. IF YOU ACCEPT MY TORAH, FINE! God said. IF NOT, YOUR GRAVES WILL BE UNDER THIS MOUNTAIN! The people shouted, WE ACCEPT! Whereupon myriad of angels swooped down and gave each Israelite a crown and a girdle of glory (which were, by the way, unceremoniously taken back when the Jews built the Golden Calf.)

And then, to top things off, down from the mountain came Moses, carrying the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, says the legend, were made of sapphire but could still be rolled into a scroll. Each tablet was six hands wide and six hands tall, made by God on the dusk of the first Shabbat – Sabbath – after Creation. They were divinely engraved, not only with the Commandments but also with all the precepts of The Law. The Ten Commandments contained the kernel of the entire Torah.

And so, the day of Revelation ended. Tradition says it was twice as long as an ordinary day. It was, quite obviously, the quintessential "peak experience."