Our world is host to a mind-boggling number of religions and sects. Each has its unique approach, so that there remains little that men of the cloth agree upon.
Nonetheless, there is one fact that all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a total of over 3.5 billion people – acknowledge: the historic fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai. Considering that the followers of these three religions constitute more than half of the world's population, this point of agreement is amazing.
In addition, we find that, to one degree or another, all three base their religious dogma on that same Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
No other event in world history has influenced the lives of so many people over the ages, and no event is so widely acknowledged as being true. Judaism is not the only religion to lay claim to a divine revelation, but only Judaism relates that this revelation took place in the presence of the entire nation rather than a single individual.
This distinction is of prime importance. More explicitly: Other groups claim that G-d revealed Himself to a single individual who then founded their religion. Jewish tradition describes a revelation that took place while observed by over three million people.
So massive an event as the giving of the Torah in the presence of the entire nation is thus unique. What is more, this claim is related to us in the Torah itself, and the Torah urges us to investigate the matter. It clearly tells us we should ask: Did any other nation witness a similar, wholesale revelation? Has any other religious group ever stated that they were party to a mass encounter with their deity?
The answer is an unequivocal "NO!"
Why should that be so? Consider the fact that Western religions have taken so much from Judaism: the Bible, with its universally recognized Ten Commandments, its concept of a weekly day of rest, the concept of immersion in a body of water as a means of purification, the ideals of justice, kindness, and charity; social morality; equal rights for rich and poor, and much more. In addition, Islam has adapted circumcision and dietary restrictions as well.
Why has no one tried to imitate the Jewish claim to a mass revelation from G-d?
The answer is quite simple: such an attempt would be doomed to failure. It is not so difficult to stage a private “revelation”. One can easily claim to have seen or heard a divine message. One can dress it up with divine voices, thunder and lightning to his heart's content, as no one else was supposed to witness it anyway.
Likewise, it is not so difficult to produce a document and then claim that it records divine revelations given to a single individual.
But a text presented by G-d Himself to an entire nation? Over three million people? Anyone putting forth such a claim would be flooded with questions and protests: “Why wasn't I there
