Tomorrow night we begin Shavuot, the holiday when we receive the Torah? You may know the Aseret Hadibrot, but what else do we know about מעמד הר סיני?
1 Using the internet, find out where most people say Mt. Sinai is. Where is it, according to these opinions?
2 What buildings are at the base of this supposed site?
3 Who built them and when did they build them?
4 Find scholars who have come up with two other possible sites, one in modern day Saudi Arabia, and one in the Negev in Israel. What evidence does each opinion bring to show that the traditional site of Mt. Sinai is not where the Torah was revealed.?
5 According to our rabbis, why was the Torah given in the desert and not in Israel?
6 We think of Mount Sinai as the biggest mountain in the area. Find other opinions?
7 What is the Hebrew for the thorn bush that Moses saw in the desert, the one that was burning but was not consumed? What is the relationship of this bush and its burning to the revelation on Mt. Sinai?
8 What is another name for Mt. Sinai?
9 If the most important event in Jewish history is the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, why weren’t there regular pilgrimages organized to that place in the times of the Tanach and the first and second Temples?
10 Who is the only person in the Tanach known to have visited Mt. Sinai (under it’s other name)? Using Sefaria, read 1 Kings chapter 19.
11 Why did this person go there?
12 When did he live (during whose reign)?
13 How was his revelation different from the revelation to the whole people centuries before?
English
1 Using the internet, find out where most people say Mt. Sinai is. Where is it, according to these opinions?
2 What buildings are at the base of this supposed site?
3 Who built them and when did they build them?
4 Find scholars who have come up with two other possible sites, one in modern day Saudi Arabia, and one in the Negev in Israel. What evidence does each opinion bring to show that the traditional site of Mt. Sinai is not where the Torah was revealed.?
5 According to our rabbis, why was the Torah given in the desert and not in Israel?
6 We think of Mount Sinai as the biggest mountain in the area. Find other opinions?
7 What is the Hebrew for the thorn bush that Moses saw in the desert, the one that was burning but was not consumed? What is the relationship of this bush and its burning to the revelation on Mt. Sinai?
8 What is another name for Mt. Sinai?
9 If the most important event in Jewish history is the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, why weren’t there regular pilgrimages organized to that place in the times of the Tanach and the first and second Temples?
10 Who is the only person in the Tanach known to have visited Mt. Sinai (under it’s other name)? Using Sefaria, read 1 Kings chapter 19.
11 Why did this person go there?
12 When did he live (during whose reign)?
13 How was his revelation different from the revelation to the whole people centuries before?
English