Shavuot is associated in Jewish tradition with the giving of the Torah, and, as I once observed long ago in this column, the New Testament’s story of the “holy spirit” — the ru’aḥ ha-kodesh, as it is called in Hebrew — coming to rest on Jesus’ followers on Pentecost, is an account of a second revelation, paralleling the first at Mount Sinai. Yet even while pointing this out, I failed to notice that the parallel is far closer than just that.The parallels with the story in Acts 2 are obvious. Philologos suggests that the story in Acts is based on an incident of glossolalia ("speaking in tongues"), which is possible. But it's also possible that the story is entirely made up on the basis of that midrash (combined with the well-documented early Christian penchant for glossolalia - see, e.g., 1 Corinthians 14). I suppose that would make it would be a midrash on a midrash (a meta-midrash?).
The midrash, parts of which were already in oral circulation in the time of Jesus, has many interpretive stories about what happened at Mount Sinai and about the “thunderings and lightnings,” the kolot u’vrakim, that the Bible tells us were heard and seen by the Israelites assembled at the foot of the mountain. One of these stories has to do with the fact that the biblical word for “thunderings,” kolot, also means “voices” in Hebrew. The midrash states:And all the people perceived the thunderings.” Since there was only one voice, why ‘thunderings’ in the plural? Because God’s voice mutated into seven voices, and the seven voices into seventy languages, so that all the nations might hear it.Similarly, we read elsewhere:Just as a hammer that strikes a rock causes sparks to fly off in all directions, so each and every word that issued from the mouth of the Holy One Blessed Be He divided itself into seventy languages.This is a profound commentary, one that, taken metaphorically, has sometimes been read as a statement that the Torah speaks to every individual differently and that each of us has the right to interpret it by his or her own standards. Generally, however, it has been taken more literally by rabbinic tradition to mean that although the Torah was revealed in Hebrew, it was translated aloud at Mount Sinai into all the languages of the world, believed to be 70 in number, and thus made available to the entire human race.
Pentecost Sunday is today. More on Pentecost and the recently concluded Jewish festival of Shavuot here. It would have been helpful if Philologos had given the exact references for the rabbinic midrashim. Does anyone know what they are?
(For some reason the current issue of The Forward is not yet showing up on Google, so thanks to Joseph I. Lauer for noting it.)
UPDATE (24 May): Reader Jim Darlack e-mails to say that the first reference is Exodus Rabbah V.9 (commenting on Exodus 4:27) and the second is t. Shabb 88b.
