Bad Timing

Questioning the Timeliness of Divine Wisdom

I was walking home from shul tonight and found myself grappling with the sheer insanity of it all. The belief that God came down on a mountain 3,500 years ago and handed over the Torah - etched on stone, no less - and that this is what we hold in our hands today. It’s the kind of thing that stops me in my tracks, not because it’s awe-inspiring, but because it’s impossible.

There’s nowhere to start with this.

I remember something a math professor once said. He was working out a problem on the board when he made a mistake. He paused, looked at the mess he’d made, and said, “Sometimes, the numbers are so off that you know it’s wrong without even solving it.”

That’s how I feel about this whole 3,500-years-ago business.

Think about it. This was the Bronze Age. Forget paper and pen - parchment and quill weren’t even a thing yet. We’re talking about people chiseling on rocks. And we’re supposed to believe that’s when God chose to deliver the ultimate, eternal message for humanity? On rocks?

And it’s not just the method, it’s the moment. The people of that era believed in everything. You told them there was a thunder god? Sure. A rain god? Why not. The snake you saw in the garden could talk? Totally checks out.

And yet we’re supposed to take their word seriously? 3,500 years is a long time ago.

We landed on the moon 60 years ago, with video footage to prove it, and still, people don’t believe it. But we’re supposed to buy into a story from the pre-iron era, when written language itself was still in its infancy?

What’s more likely? That an all-powerful God came down on a mountain and delivered His eternal wisdom to a group of people chiseling rocks? Or that this is just another myth - a story that evolved over centuries, shaped by human hands and minds?

If God were going to make a grand entrance to deliver a Torah, why not wait until, I don’t know, now? Imagine the possibilities. Livestream it in 4K, broadcast it globally, let the whole world see. Get some high-resolution footage of the divine on TikTok and YouTube. You’d have believers coming out of the woodwork in minutes. There’d be no room for denial.

But no, God apparently decided to show up when humanity was just figuring out the wheel.

The sheer absurdity of it boggles my mind. And yet, here we are.

So, yeah. That’s where I am tonight. The sheer absurdity of it boggles my mind. And yet, I keep walking home, playing my part, wondering if I’ll ever make sense of it all.