It is written in Exodus 19:17: “And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai.” But in the Gemara, in Shabbat 88a, the rabbis explain it this way: “Rabbi Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Ḥasa said: The Jewish people were actually standing under the mountain, and the verse teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, turned the mountain over the Jews like a tub and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial.”

The rabbis’ explanation in the Gemara was very different from what we read in the Torah. Therefore, the rabbis asked themselves: «If from this point on there is a warning that it is obligatory to fulfill the Torah, how does this explain the moment of Na’aseh V’Nishma (we will do it and we will listen to it), in Exodus 24:7, when Bnei Yisrael accepted the Torah unconditionally? Rabbi Mois Navon explains it by saying that the Jews in the desert were like children with respect to their relationship with God and His Torah. When children are developing, they need definitions for appropriate behavior, boundaries, in short, a system of morality. On the contrary, others, such as Rashi and the Mechiltah, explained it by saying that the giving of the Torah was like a wedding between God and the Jewish people, where the mountain was the Chuppah that united them in love, just as the Ahava Rabbah blessing in the morning prayer says, which speaks of integrating the love of God with His commandments.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik said: «Religious coercion is an oxymoron.» (An oxymoron refers to something absurd or incoherent, such as saying «luminous darkness.») When a ritual act is coerced by an external force, it ceases to have religious value or spiritual significance and, in fact, only increases anti-religious antagonisms and pushes the person to the opposite side.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin says: In a secular society, within the scope of laws governing relationships between people, the authorities who seek justice can and should use coercion and even force to establish a just society. People understand that these laws exist to help them comply with regulations they know are for the good of all. However, with regard to laws between people and God, forced adherence will have exactly the opposite effect and will only lead to resentment and anti-religious feelings.

Riskin questions those laws enacted in the State of Israel that compel a secular society to fulfill religious commandments by force, with «the mountain» above them, rather than with love. He suggests a different approach. It’s not the enactment of laws that secular Israelis neither understand nor accept that will increase respect for and observance of the Sabbath. Rather, it’s through getting the religious community to love and respect them, and seeking to get the religious to do their best, not so much to enforce the commandments, but to inspire. With halachic creativity, there would be a way, for example, in which the sanctity of the Sabbath could be maintained, and the beauty of our traditions, through songs, music, and food, could be brought to a large secular audience. Because by force, you cannot make everybody keep them.

By Marcos Gojman:

Bibliography: Articles by Shlomo Riskin, Mois Navon, Hannah Cowen, and other sources.