Why Sinai? R. Nissim Gaon and R. Yehudah Halevi in Kuzari -

In this post http://yediah.blogspot.com/2007/01/purpose-of-event-at-sinai-questions.html#links I laid out some of the difficulties with the various verses presenting the events at Sinai. One of the earliest comments on the issue can be found in the Megilat Setarim by Nissim Ben Jacob (Rav Nissim Gaon, 990-1062, Hebrew: ניסים בן יעקב) (courtesy answers.com) which can be found in the appendix to Kuzari, Even Shmuel edition. His idea is that until Sinai the existence of God was only a rational philosophical argument. It is only when one experiences God with his physical senses that one really believes. He takes all the Midrashim literally for example the writing of the words in the air inside the dark clouds. It is this physical experience that was the highlight of the event and proved the existence of God. The existence of prophecy was another idea that was confirmed at the event. The way he puts it, many people overtly showed that they believed in prophecy but deep in their hearts they had doubts. By God talking openly with Moshe and the people witnessing that, removed any further doubt. In another segment he discusses God’s physicality and admits that God cannot be seen and is therefore not a physical body. It seems to contradict the earlier statements. Without seeing God it is not clear how they knew God was doing all these things and not some other entity. I believe that we only have fragments of the Megilat Setarim. It is therefore impossible to fully explore Rav Nissim’s thoughts on the subject. What I find interesting is that he put such emphasis on the physical aspects of the experience.

Not much later R. Judah Halevy c.1075–1141, in his Kuzari (1:87) ignores the idea that Sinai proves the existence of God. He focuses in on Prophecy. He puts it in a very interesting way reminiscent of the Rashba I quoted in an earlier post. After all the miracles in Egypt and the Red Sea the people still doubted that God spoke to man. Is it possible that the Torah (I guess he refers to the ideas proposed by the prophecy) starts off in the prophet’s mind and only afterwards does he receive confirmation from God? The people could not accept that a non-physical entity like God could speak which is a physical attribute. After experiencing God’s speech with Moshe, where they heard Him giving the Ten Commandments, there was no doubt in their mind that prophecy is a miraculous experience from outside the self. It proved to them that the philosopher’s understanding of prophecy, an internal human ability, is incorrect. God speaks to his prophets just as he spoke to Moshe and the people experienced it with their own senses. He now has to confront the issue of god’s physicality. How does a non-physical entity talk? His answer is that it is miraculous. We cannot understand how that worked but it did. At the end he feels a little cornered and demurs a little. “I cannot guarantee that things happened the way I describe them, as it is possible that it was a much “deeper” experience. All we know is that there was an experience that whoever participated was convinced that the Torah is true and (now he adds surprisingly) that the world was created”. Every time I read this piece I am struck at how far he is from Rambam’s way of thinking. I am no expert on the Kuzari but I have read some comments of those who know him. Apparently his writings in Kuzari and his Piyuttim are completely different. He is much closer to Rambam’s thought in the Piyuttim.

What is interesting in both R. Nissim and R. Yehudah Halevi is that they do not address the obvious problem; if one cannot see the speaker how did they know it was God speaking? We will see that Ramban, who has at the core of his thinking some similarities to these two thinkers, addresses this in his discussions of Sinai. What is also interesting is Kuzari’s idea of prophecy. While he discusses it at length many times in his writings, he introduces us here to the premise that prophecy cannot result from a human capacity. It is tainted and needs to be from the outside totally. Only then can it be authentic. Prophecy is therefore a purely miraculous event. That is what Sinai proved.

Next I will discuss Rambam’s understanding of Sinai followed by Ramban.