Revelation didn’t only occur in top of Mount Sinai TB Baba Batra 110

Benjamin D. Sommer has written a very important book, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition especially for Jews who want to reconcile modern biblical study with the covenantal obligation of the observance of the commandments. Source criticism understands that the Torah was created by four different sources, J, E, P, and D. The J source uses God’s name YHWH (this theory was first introduced in Germany and J is used because there is no “Y” in German. God’s name was translated as Jehovah). The E source is the God’s name Elohim. P stands for the Priestly source while the D source was written by the Deuteronomist school. I also highly recommend Richard Friedman’s book Who Wrote the Bible? Friedman explains in highly accessible language the different sources and when they were written.

I would hazard a guess that everybody would say that Moses received the entire Torah upon Mount Sinai. Sommer’s analysis shows that different sources present different pictures. He writes:

“Thus, P’s memory of the location where Moses received the law differs from the better-known story found in E. Moses received no laws on top of Mount Sinai; instead, he received blueprints. He used those blueprints to build the Tent-shrine, and it was at that shrine that the lawgiving took place. To be sure, the Tent was located at the foot of Mount Sinai for seven weeks, during which all the laws in Leviticus and several in Numbers were given; for this reason, Leviticus 7, 25:1, 26:46, and 27:34 can speak of laws and statutes given ‘at Mount Sinai.’ But this does not mean on top of the mountain; it refers to acts of lawgiving when the Tent was located at the foot of the mountain. Furthermore, the lawgiving at the Tent continued even after the Israelites (and the Tent) left Sinai. That post-Sinaitic laws were imparted at the Tent is clear from Numbers 27:5, which tells us that Moses brought the legal query of Zelophehad’s daughters ‘into God’s presence.’” (Page 55)

This is a very long introduction for just one line in today’s daf TB Baba Batra 110. Today’s daf tries to ascertain why brothers inherit and not daughters. The case of Zelophehad’s daughters seems to be the exception of the rule. Zelophehad died while having no sons, but five daughters. These five women made the case to Moses saying “Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” (Numbers 27:4) Moses took the case to God and God told Moses “The plea of Zelophehad’s daughters is just: you should give them a hereditary holding among their father’s kinsmen; transfer their father’s share to them.” (Numbers 27:7)

Are the rabbis hinting that Revelation also occurred much later than when Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai? “But perhaps it was the daughters of Zelophehad who said this after God spoke to Moses, the Torah was given and a halakha was renewed (וְנִתְחַדְּשָׁה הֲלָכָה)” (my translation) I think so.