Now I will Seal a Covenant

Now I Will Seal a Covenant
EXODUS 34: 1-26

Visiting Jerusalem brings many striking experiences for sober-minded Westerners. The celebration of a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall is an occasion of enthusiastic rejoicing, dancing, and singing as Torah scrolls are carried around in excited, boisterous procession. The fervor of this event also features in the Jewish people’s great celebration each September/October called “Rejoicing in the Torah.” There are processions around the synagogue with the Torah scrolls, singing, and dancing, and many people may share in carrying the scrolls around, reading from them, and declaring a prayer of blessing over them. The singing and dancing may spread out into the streets. These celebrations seem to have begun in the Middle Ages, but they are in keeping with the Old Testament attitude to the Torah. Whereas Christians often assume that the law must have been a burden and still is a burden to Jews, neither Old Testament Israel nor modern Jews see it that way...