David Hartman, founding president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, writes that Shavuot – the celebration of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai that begins this evening — can best be understood through Abraham’s argument with God about the fate of Sodom:
Upon considering the destruction of the city, God asks Himself, “Can I hide from Abraham that which I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17) This is the rhetorical question of a God who has conceived of Abraham as a full partner . . .
[W]hen confronted with God’s plan for Sodom, Abraham articulates a highly developed argument. He tells God, “Far be it for You to do such a thing. To bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty so the innocent and guilty fare alike.”. . . The text then continues as Abraham “bargains” God down to saving the city if just ten righteous people can be found. . . . The most crucial part of this narrative . . . is that God allows Abraham to continue. . . .
The covenant is often understood as God’s promise to watch over Israel and Israel’s promise to be obedient to God’s law; that’s the final chapter in Leviticus. I propose using it in a different way. From Abraham we learn that it is the very essence of the covenant to empower us, to allow us to trust our own moral convictions – and our ability to act. The covenant tells us to stand on our own two feet and not to wait patiently for God to save us. . . .
The covenant means we follow the Talmudic precedent Lo b’shamaim hi, that the Torah is not in heaven. That is the great achievement of the Zionist revolution. . . . Zionism extended the covenantal tradition of empowerment and marked the rejection of passivity as the hallmark of religious life. . . . This Shavuot, as we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai, we should pause to consider the covenantal relationship that Sinai represents. Understanding our relationship with the divine begins with understanding our covenant with Him: a covenant that presents us with a world that is waiting to be shaped by human initiative and action.