Rabbi David Hartman, in his book “From Defender to Critic,” comments that from a religious point of view, the creation of the Universe and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai are undoubtedly the two most significant moments described in the Torah. Both imply the fact that God spoke. His Word created the Universe from nothing, and His Word, in giving us the Torah, also constituted the Sinai Covenant. However, these two events are very different from each other: the first can be represented as the speech of an artist and the second as the speech of a teacher. On the one hand, we have God the Creator and on the other, God the Teacher.

The artist, when creating something, is not concerned about whether others understand what he is doing. What he needs is to give vent to his creative impetus. Picasso, Van Gogh or Mondrian, when they painted, were not thinking about whether people would understand their work; what they wanted was to get out what they had inside. His speech is a monologue.

On the other hand, the teacher’s speech seeks to communicate with the other, what he seeks is for his student to understand him. And when speaking he thinks of the other, so that his message fulfills the objective of guiding and persuading. The good teacher takes into account who his «student» is and his ability to understand. It is not a monologue, but a dialogue.

Using these two models we can see that Creation reflects the model of the artist, where divine speech is a monologue. On the other hand, the Covenant at Sinai reflects a speech that is directed to an audience in order to influence and guide it. In Creation, humanity plays no role; at Sinai it plays the role of the listener, of the one who receives the message. The speech at Sinai has the objective of having the other participate in the dialogue.

And the Creator’s speech at Sinai takes into account who he is speaking to. He is not speaking to platonically perfect beings. The Torah accepts that dialogue occurs between divine aspiration and human imperfection. The Torah is not a heavenly law directed at perfect beings. The Torah is an answer to what man is, a being who has passions and jealousy, who steals from others or who desires the neighbor’s wife.

Our sages understood this and reflected it in the Talmud. The first Mishnah that many people study deals with the problem of two people who have a garment in their hands and both say: “It’s mine!” Perhaps the Mishnah should be rewritten and the two characters should say: “No, please, keep it for yourself.” But the sages knew that this ideal world does not exist. What exists is the world of conflict and scarcity.

On the one hand we can contemplate the beauty of the universe. The Artist God achieved his goal. But on the other hand we must continue learning from the Master God. Because his lesson is not over yet.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: David Hartman “From Defender to Critic”,