Q:
Why didn’t Hashem give the Torah to our Avos, Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, instead of waiting till Har Sinai?
A:
And the answer is that the Torah is the Torah of a people, the Torah of a nation. It’s not a Torah of an individual family. Only that this great family of the Avos were the foundation – it was their function in life to prepare themselves to be worthy of being the progenitors of a people that would accept the Torah. That was their function. They didn’t live for themselves. Like the Rambam says, the main purpose that the Avos had in mind in building a family was this function, to create a nation of servants of Hashem. Day and night the fathers and the mothers of our nation were thinking one thought, one intention, and that was להעמיד אומה עובדת את השם – to raise up a nation that would serve Hashem. That’s the language of the Rambam. So the Torah was to be given to a nation, and the function of the Avos was to prepare for that eventuality.
Now, if the Torah had been given to them and not later, the impact would have been dulled. Its impact would have been deadened if it had been given to a small family. So Hakodosh Boruch Hu waited until we were already a numerous nation. Only then did they assemble together for that spectacular event of Matan Torah, and then, when this great nation accepted the Torah together, it made its most impressive effect.
TAPE # 200 (January 1977)
