MindFlex - How Do We Know the Torah Is True? The Unique Jewish Claim of Revelation

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello everybody welcome to today's program uh the discovery program of did sinai really happen sinai the events of har sinai did they really happen let's first see what the torah says the torah says that binay israel came to hasinai and here are the verses in the torah that describes the event everyone should be prepared for the third day says hashem to moshe god says to moses on the third day hashem is coming down in front of everybody on har sinai that's my spirit your test prosecute aleph if you're looking exodus 19 verse 11 then the torah says on the third day in the morning thunder lightning heavy cloud on the mountain the terror continues and says a very loud shay for blasts everybody trembled and then it's followed by the asera sadibrais hashem who took you out of egypt everybody knows it after the asera dibrays are given the torah continues and describes the event that just happened like everybody saw sees the kailis the thunder the lightning everybody experienced it the whole nation experienced it and the torah says in test berikoff hashem al-maisha hashem said to moshe mal of nay israel tell the jewish people [Music] you saw with your own eyes that i spoke to you from the heavens this is the synopsis of the sukiyam this is what the torah says and this is the event described in the torah so the title of the class is did sinai really happen did this really happen so the answer to the question is yes of course haasenai of course it really happened says it in the torah we've been reading the torah publicly in front of every jew since sinai the torah came with us into the land of israel it was in the time of the basa miktas it's already 2300 years ago since it was translated into greek and it's come with us in all our exiles and i ventured to say that you don't even have to be jewish to know this all the followers of major religions in the world all go back to senate the sinai event that happened to the jewish people and millions and millions of jews in every generation have been given this information from the previous generation the previous generation the previous generation all the way to sinai all the way to when the events actually happened these super gigantic events so the answer obviously is is yes it's it's a no-brainer it's simple it's unbroken chain all the way from sinai and it's not even exclusive knowledge to the jewish people so we could really end the class right here everything's fine yes this is tyramisi night and uh on the yanta for shavuous is the anniversary of the event but really it's a daily event because the torah says each day it should be new to you just like the day it was given so every day is the day of giving of the torah and every day is our connection to hashem and that's the end of everything so what's the class really going to be about what the class is going to focus on is actually clear and logical evidence that this has happened and this is clearly something that happened and therefore it's something for our lives in a daily basis to know about and to act accordingly let's start by saying the following hashem is some understandable entity to us it's hashem is beyond us but we're not beyond ourselves we know what humans are there's two ways basically to communicate with human beings if you're a deity if you're hashem one way is the sinai way one way is gather a nation and speak to the entire nation and tell the entire nation your message that's one way in fact according to our understanding the original intent of hashem was to give the torah to the entire world not exclusively to any particular group but hey if adam and java couldn't handle one mitzvah how they can handle hundreds of misfits so the terror waited until the time when there'd be some major group of people that would be on a spiritual level and on a that level capable of doing tyrant keeping torah that happened to the jewish people outside of egypt by harsina israel with one heart major event so one way of giving the torah if you're a god and you want to give the torah and you want to give rules regulations life instructions is gather an entire nation at that time the jewish people were about 2.5 million people because six hundred thousand people came out of egypt just men alone from twenty to fifty double it for women they had to see your citizens the children you got two three million people and come with a big sound and light show like it says at sinai and kailay suvrakem on uncovered and i tell everyone and everyone hears unequivocally the other choice is that hashem could come to one person a novi a holy person of some sort uh and come to that one person in a dream while he's awake while she's awake whatever and say this is hashem i'm appearing to you i'm talking to you this is my torah this is my teaching this is my message go and spread and tell everybody the message that's the other way which way is better would seem very logical to say the best way is gather everyone if i gather everyone then it's first hand to everyone everyone personally hears if i give it just to one person and say spread the word then everybody else is getting it secondhand already why do i need to do that i can give it first hand there's also another problem that if i give it secondhand through someone i have to be relying and believing that this person is credible that it really happened you know somebody comes one day and says i just experienced yesterday thunder and lightning and i was standing by the mountain and i heard hashem say hashem like and lays exile and lai cigna i have done killed on steel observed shabbos and it happened to me and i was all alone there and hashem told it to me and he said i should spread the word so the listeners have to believe you know maybe he's telling the truth maybe not i i can't really verify it so hearing it in a mass setting rather than one person is clearly the better way it also avoids the possibility of somebody having sort of hallucinations you know they're not even faking they think they had a revelation they really believed they had a revelation they did they didn't they think so when it's with everybody each person is hearing but each person also sees that there's someone next to him standing here and here and everybody's hearing did you hear did you hear yeah it's there's a sanity check element here so clearly the way hashem gave the torah at c9 to 2.5 million people is the best way to do it as opposed to to an individual no again we don't know much about hashem but we know about people and from a standpoint of that it's a no-brainer so the question then is the following how many religions are there in the world there's a lot i don't know 1500 religions uh the whole joke is that there's a religion out west in america uh that a guy named bob invented and he called the religion babism after himself supposedly his wife's name was judy but he couldn't use her name because the name was taken already judaism i don't know about bobbyism but there are 1500 religions in the world many religions and the odd phenomena is that only judaism makes the claim of this national revelation that hashem came to all of us and spoke to all of us and each one of us heard every jew today will say yes his ancestors stood at sinai and the claim of judaism is we all experienced national revelation we all heard the communication of hashem it's not surprising when you make that claim that's the better way to do it you're not going to start with one person it's much better to start with the whole group but we're the only religion that makes that claim very odd since it's clearly a better way to start than hashem appeared to all of us instead of that hashem appeared just to one person so why doesn't any other religion make such a claim make a claim you know whatever the religion was our religion started 2 000 years ago uh we stood in this place and our leaders were there and we were all there we all heard and we all saw and god said to us we should do this and this and we should observe tuesday as our day of rest and we should ride green motorcycles and whatever i don't know something but it was all to us now nobody makes such a claim even though it's clearly the best way to start a religion the best way to get credibility rather than i don't know god appeared to a prophet and he told my ancestors and they told me you know is he reliable is he credible is he telling the truth maybe maybe not maybe he really believes it but it's not true so here's the giant question how come nobody else makes this claim it's much better way to start even if it didn't happen make it up maybe we made it up we're smart jewish people are smart so we wrote in the torah look here columbra you miss a kite lice everybody saw you all saw the sun there lightning it's all clear to you everything unparalleled event everything i quoted earlier even there's a later quote in the torah in devarim parikh dalit in deuteronomy chapter 4 where the torah says has any event occurred like this ever here's the words in the torah has any ever and any other time been such an event or such an event been heard it's unique to you that you've had this experience and nobody else can make such a claim you've been shown to know that hashem is wow giant statements maybe it didn't happen we're making the claim because it's the smartest way to start the religion rather than moses should come one day and say hashem appeared to me he was a thunder and lightning was a great event i i was i wish you could have shared it with me but you know it was with me and he told me spread to everybody now make the claim national revelation why doesn't everybody else make the claim this is a huge gigantic question there's a gulf that separates judaism from everything else everything else starts with one person a small group of people a miracle nothing in the realm of a national revelation communication to everybody why not make the claim whether it happened or not such a great better foundation for the religion the answer is extremely simple if it didn't happen you can't get away with the claim if it didn't happen you can't get away with the claim too big an event to possibly get away with the claim if it didn't happen i could claim something happened to me i can claim something happened to my grandparents i could claim that i used to have in my basement some gigantic machine but a national universal gigantic acclaim that happened to many many people it's too big i can't get away with it how can i say that i can't say about mass experiences i give a simple example everybody's familiar with the united states history to an extent okay in 1776 benjamin franklin and uh thomas jefferson oh older people put together a declaration of independence and we have independence day i'd like to tell you the true story of 1776 united states independence what really happened here's the true story in 1776 benjamin franklin john adams aaron burr alexander hamilton and two and a half million pennsylvanians were standing at the foot of the delaware river and suddenly there was kailasa wrong thunder and lightning and the sound of hashem's voice and they heard the sound of hashem's voice i am your god george of england who has taken you out from under king george of england to make you the united states of america and a fiery declaration of independence came down into the hands of benjamin franklin that's the true history of the united states you heard it right here are you looking at me it was way before you were born way before i was born way before our grandparents great-grandparents were born maybe that's the way it happened how do you know what i just said isn't true very simple if that really would have happened it would be recorded in u.s history it would be in every textbook it would be in every school it would be all over it would be known not only in the united states but in the world everybody from maine to california would know in 1776 the most miraculous event happened it would have been written in all the books and if somebody comes to say now that it happened nobody ever heard of it but elio bergstein comes 240 years later or whatever number of years it is at this point and says that's what really happened you're going to say to me brixton you know you're trying to give an exciting class or you're trying to you know make it into a fictional kind of class but it didn't happen if it really would have happened we'd have known about it we wouldn't need you to be telling us this information now in new york a couple hundred years afterwards and we never heard about it how could that be if what it really happened independence day would be all week long with a halal who knows what it would be so you you can't make that claim that's why no other religion can claim national revelation because if it didn't happen you can't fit it or retrofit it into your history it's too big an event if you try to fit it in to your history at the time of the event and it never happened people are going to say what are you talking about it never happened if moshe would have written the torah himself and sinai never happened and kailis ovrakiman found sunder and lightning and everybody hearing never happened but he wrote it and he comes and presents this torah to the jewish people everybody would say moshe what are you talking about this didn't happen you're telling us we stood 40 days ago when we stood at the mountain and we heard another two million people you're a wonderful leader but this isn't true so he couldn't get away with it and if somebody would even try to do the same thing 500 or a thousand years later would be the same as my us history i show up one day 200 years later 500 years later a thousand years later i say here i have the torah of zouza this is the tar where'd you get it from oh our ancestors had sinai stood at the top foot of the mountain and they heard carlos who broke him they heard the ten commandments the whole nation was shaking it was it was an absolutely transformational experience it was wow out of the world it's not true it can't be true how would you know and know what none of us ever heard of this that's why nobody makes that claim that makes judaism's claim unique and it also makes it irrefutable and could be that's why every religion basically ends up going back to sinai for their starting point and all they can say afterwards was hachem changed his mind and he moved there a day of rest to sunday or friday or wednesday and changed the commandments etc etc very odd to say that since if hashem really wants to change his mind it would sort of require a new sound and light show a new revelation to everybody not uh one particular person a thousand years later or two thousand or whatever number of years me hashem i changed my mind you're coming to the people he changed his mind like let's come to us and tell us that do a rerun with different sequence or something so nobody makes that claim because it's too gigantic acclaim and basically what that's saying in very simple term terms is sinai is unique and it really happened and the torah is real i'll give you another example um everybody heard of napoleon not the cake at the weddings the emperor obviously napoleon the great emperor conquered france conquered half of europe went into russia great ruler not only french people know about him the world he's in world history obviously a giant leader of that caliber now i hope you also heard about the man who came after napoleon the great illustrious leader who ruled twice as long as napoleon conquered the world and made everybody wear purple shoes for 60 years because it was his favorite color i'm talking about none other than the great ba how do you know that napoleon was real and bafta is totally my imagination almost demented imagination that that's real how do you know you know simply everybody heard of napoleon what do you mean it's in the history books it's in french history books is it all of history books it's it's all over that hundreds of books of analysis and history written it was 200 years ago it was 300 years ago that doesn't change anything it could have been 3 000 years ago alexander the great was way before napoleon nobody denies his existence but before yeah can't be oh if you tell me that there was a a taylor who lived in the lower east side and he had a tailor shop for two years in his basement and he called it bafuftia's tailor shop maybe i don't know but then there was a great french emperor a national event of that nature it can't be these are all the same line of reasoning it can't be it's too big an event to fake and that's why nobody makes this claim claim of national revelation you might argue well you know what maybe somebody like ezra has so fair a couple thousand years after moshe rabino he was a scribe a leader of the jewish people um maybe he could have tried you know making it up and saying that you forgot maybe you forgot he'll come and say yeah okay it's a it's it's you never heard of it but really it's real but you forgot so we already talked about that the answer to that is simple what do you mean we forgot the entire nation of israel forgot mass amnesia and the only ezra you know about it but even more than that if they'll look into the torah itself and you go to devorim periglamid it says there this torah will be the tyrant will never be forgotten from its descendants and offspring the jewish people will never forget the torah ezra or anybody comes along and says you forgot the answer is what do you mean you forgot can't be it says it will not be forgotten checkmate how many generations is it back to sinai according to my calculation assuming that every generation is 33 years obviously some people are only 20 or 25 years junior to their parents and some people are 40 or 45 years junior to their parents but if you take a number in the middle 33 so it goes in nice and evenly into 100 years is three generations the great grandfather is born in 1900 the great-grandson is born in 2000 100 years later in between was the parents and the grandparents normal if we go with three generations in each hundred years there's less than 100 people back to sinai that means i could line up in my backyard a hundred couples and my parents grandparents great-grandparents etc etc up the line and the one at the top of the line that couple the old old old grandfather father grandmother say we heard hashem at sinai and it's not only my great-grandparents it's hundreds thousands tens of thousands millions of people's great-great-great-great-grandparents that are saying the same thing and there's not a million people back it's under a hundred couples back enough people i could line them up in my backyard enough people that if they were all alive i can invite them to my kids bar mitzvah and there's plenty of room for all of them it's not a giant amount of people and that's how we go back and that's sinai and they're all saying we ourselves saw and heard now you might say well okay that's good but don't other religions also have traditions and history and are their traditions true believe it or not the answer is that for many of these religions their traditions are absolutely 100 true also but you have to understand what their traditions is or what their doctrine is or what they're saying is if you ask somebody from a particular religion why is your religion being practiced how do you know your religion how do you know the authenticity of it etc they'll say because of my parents my grandparents my great-grandparents sound similar to what i said about us okay let's take it all the way up the line to whoever was the original grandparents at the time when that religion started two thousand years ago twenty five hundred years ago fifteen hundred years ago none of them quite go back i don't think till thirty three hundred years in lake sinai but significant amount of years okay what's the father telling you i believe in this religion i believe i believe let's go all the way to the first grandfather grandmother why are you a following of this religion oh you know why because that man over there is a prophet and he told me that god appeared to him and told him these are the tenants of the religion this is the dogma this is the religious thought and practice and i believe in him oh by us jewish people i'm going up and up and up and up the line and i'm getting to the great great grandparents and the great great parents they don't use that word believe we saw we heard we were there not somebody told us not moses for hold everybody hears everybody sees we saw oh two traditions but when you get to the top what are each one saying this one saying i believe i trust that man blind faith we're saying we don't believe we're talking about a historical event and experience the average american if he's honest and straight doesn't believe that abraham lincoln existed he knows that abraham lincoln existed of course he's heard it from everywhere what do you i mean i believe i have blind faith abraham i know i know he existed it's not a belief it's information handed down did pearl harbor happen very few people left that remember december 7th 1941 doesn't matter pearl harbor happened and people will know that pearl harbor happened 400 years from now also these major events so here's the difference belief or knowledge in fact there are many religions that are basically go with the idea that the less knowledge and the more belief the better you get more reward for more belief not arguing theology just pointing out that as far as did cyanide happen evidence says sinai happened and it's unique and it's not duplicatable don't others claim miracles too don't other religions start with an event that's maybe miraculous also somebody did this miracle that miracle that's why i believe that god communicated with him because he can show me a miracle well let's see does miracles really mean a lot there was a magician named harry houdini he died about 90 years ago 80 years ago houdini i think his actual name was weiss believe it or not he was a jewish guy houdini could do the most amazing things houdini could be put into a box with handcuffs on lead weights on his feet roped and tied completely absolutely impossible to escape this and thrown into the east river he would actually do this 1930 something anybody else is drowning i mean this is the end and five minutes later houdini comes to the surface and swims away and stands on the dock on the manhattan side of the east river everybody applauds harry houdini the great magician and maybe i'd be standing there before i was born obviously but i'm standing there and i say wow amazing and then houdini would turn to me and say did i do a miracle do you see that i said wow amazing just just i i don't know how to explain it it's just great so i want to tell you something houdini would say god gave me a message that i should tell you that from now on make kiddish wednesday evening come on friday evening wednesday evening that's the message from god i'm telling you what do i answer houdini i said mr houdini what you did getting out of that box is miraculous i can't explain it maybe it's magic maybe you're tricking me maybe you have a deal with the police and they're they're making a hoax it's just light of hand it's it's it's you know or maybe you even have some kind of powers or some kind of ability is what i beyond my understanding maybe i don't know i'm impressed but that has nothing to do with now you being a bona fide person to the extent that anything you say is the word of god these two things have nothing to do with each other i'm impressed with your miracles the miracles are really something but that doesn't mean that you now have license to say anything that comes out of your mouth and anything you say is the word of god these are two separate things there's nothing one with the other in fact that's why the jewish people really have had bigger miracles than sinai the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea maybe even bigger miracles than sinai the difference is those are miracles sinai's claim to fame is the communication of hashem to the people is everybody hearing and seeing and being heard and being taught i am the lord your god who took you out of egypt remember the shabbos i know your parents etc etc and of course maisha rabbano getting credibility there at sinai clearly the seal of approval from hashem so we really don't go with faith we really go with knowledge in fact the word emuno itself doesn't really mean faith a munda means that we take our knowledge and we know that based on that knowledge we have to act a certain way let me explain we use that word of munna in maidani every morning i'm thank you for giving back my soul in the morning after i slept through the night and then we say the two famous words great is your emunah we're talking to hashem great is your emuno what do you mean great is your ammuna is belief what are we saying god you have great belief so some try to say it means he has great belief in us doesn't say that you have great belief let's translate amuna correctly is from the word omane omane means somebody who supports somebody else esther who was called hadassah it says raised she depended on mordechai for her sustenance for her being raised she was an orphan why oh main omen is from the word omein means she relied on him she trusted in him he had dependency and that's the word emunah how great is your hashem how great is your reliability and muno is when i have the knowledge and now i use the knowledge to rely and trust on hashem who delivered that could be why the random says anima person have to say anima if it's belief i believe with full belief full belief not half belief not belief i rely and trust with full reliability i don't rely halfway on hashem halfway on something else fully on hashem bottom line really is a puzzle in the torah that we say on a regular basis deposit says the first passage we say on subhas torah when we're about to take out the torah what's the word mean hashem says ato you jewish people horay have been shown lo das to know ki hashem eli kim it doesn't say atohareso you've been shown sinai you should believe in hashem there's no belief attorney you've been shown that you should know it's an information it's a hysterical traditional event it basically separates judaism from everything else in the world sinai happened and for those who are tuned in it keeps on happening every day not even just shavuots but every day some should help us we should merit to understand it to internalize it and to live it amen thanks for listening have a great [Music] day you