כפייה ובחירה במתן תורה

"And they stood at the bottom of the mountain (Exodus 19:17)-" Rabbi Avdimi the son of Chama the son of Chasa said, "This teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, held the mountain over them like a barrel and said, 'If you accept the Torah, it is good. And if not, here shall be your graves.'" Rav Acha Bar Yaakov said, "From here there is a great claim against the Torah!" Rava said, "Even so, they accepted it again [willingly] in the days of Ahasuerus, as it is written, (Esther 9:27) 'They upheld and accepted' - they upheld what they already accepted." Hezkiah said, "Why is it written?" (Psalms 76:9) "From the heavens was heard judgement. The earth was frightened and quiet." If frightened, why quiet? If quiet, why frightened? Rather in the beginning they were frightened and in the end they were quiet. And why were they frightened? According to Resh Lakish, it is written: (Genesis 1:31) "Then it was evening and it was morning of 'the' sixth day." 'The' is extra. Why do I have it? It teaches that G-d made a condition with the act of creation and said to it, "If Israel accepts the Torah, you will exist; if not, I will return you to chaos."

[The nations] said before God, "Master of the Universe, did you give us any [mitzvot] that we didn't accept?" But how can they ask that, behold it is written, "And he said, God came from Sinai and shone to his nation from Seir." And it says, "God will come from Teman..." What does God want in Seir, and what does God want in Paran? Rabbi Yochanan said, "This teaches that God went to every nation and they didn't accept [the Torah] until God came to Israel and they accepted it. Rather, they said thus, "Did we accept anything that we didn't fulfill?" [But God could respond] 'That is why I'm punishing you! Why didn't you accept it? Rather they said thus, "Master of the Universe, did you overturn the mountain above us and we didn't accept it, as you did for Israel? ...

"Overturned it above them like a tub" - and even though they had already said "We will do and we will listen," they might renege when they saw the great fire that caused their souls to go out. And when it said in Mesechet Avoda Zara, [the Romans said to God:] "You did not overturn the mountain over us like a tub [and we were not forced to accept the mitzvot]!, meaning that if God did overturn it above them there would be no way for them to answer [this challenge], and here is said that there this is a great caveat to [accepting] the Torah, rather is that there may not be an answer to [the objection that] they did not really accept it, but there is an answer to the objection that they did not keep it"

And behold, Boaz came from Beit Lehem. Rabbi Tanchuma said in the name of the rabbis, three things were decreed by the earthly beit din and agreed to by the heavenly beit din. They are: to greet by the Name, Megillat Esther, and tithing...

Where do we learn this about Megillat Esther? Rabbi Yirmiyah taught in the name of Rabbi Shmuel son of Yitzhak, what did Mordechai and Esther do? They wrote letters and sent them to all the exiles and said, receive upon yourselves these two days. They wrote back and said, The troubles from Haman are not enough for us, but you must burden us with observing these two days as well? They said to them, if you are afraid of this thing, behold it is written in the books, as it says, Is it not written in the Book of Chronicles. What did they do? They wrote a second letter and sent it to them: This second letter of Purim. Rabbi Chelbo said in the name of Rabbi Shmuel son of Nachman, eighty five elders, and among them were thirty some prophets, and they were troubled by this verse (Leviticus): These are the commandments that God commanded Moses. These, meaning it is forbidden to add or detract, and no prophet was permitted to add anything from that time on, and yet Mordechai and Esther wanted to add a matter. Until the Holy One enlightened them and they found it written in the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. In the Torah, as it is written: Write a remembrance in the book. In the Prophets, as it is written: then the God fearing will speak to one another and God will listen and hear and write a book [of remembrance before God]. In the Writings, as it says: Is it not written in the Book of Chronicles. Rav and Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Yonatan and Bar Kapra and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, this megillah did not come from a court but from Sinai, as there is no early or late in the Torah.

And how do we know that the Holy One agreed with them? Rav says: 'the Jews upheld and accepted it' is not written, rather 'he accepted it' (singular) is written, the Master of the Jews accepted it...

(4) The Israelites did not accept the Torah until the Holy One, blessed be He, arched the mountain over them like a vessel, as it is said: And they stood beneath the mountain (Exod. 19:17). R. Dimi the son of Hama stated that the Holy One, blessed be He, told Israel: If you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, your grave will be there. If you should say that He arched the mountain over them because of the Written Law, isn’t it true that as soon as He said to them, “Will you accept the Torah?” they all responded, “We will do and hear,” because the Written Law was brief and required no striving and suffering, but rather He threatened them because of the Oral Law. After all, it contains the detailed explanations of the commandments, both simple and difficult, and it is as severe as death, and as zealous as Hell. One does not study the Oral Law unless he loves the Holy One, blessed be He, with all his heart, with all his life, and with all his means, as it is said: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy life, and with all thy means (Deut. 6:5).