There Is a God
Were the Israelites Primitive? Rethinking the Wisdom of the Generation of the Exodus
Why the people who received the Torah were among the most intelligent, independent, and critically minded in human history
(Photo: shutterstock)It is often claimed that the generation of the Exodus were simple, primitive people who blindly followed their leader Moshe (Moses). According to this view, modern humanity is enlightened and rational, while our ancestors were naïve and uneducated.
However, this claim collapses under serious examination. The Torah and the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), with their unmatched depth, literary brilliance, and thousands of intricate commentaries written over millennia, are not the work of a primitive culture. They reveal an extraordinary intellectual and spiritual civilization.
If the people who received and understood the Torah in its original form were truly primitive, how could they have grasped, preserved, and transmitted such a work of divine genius?
A Nation of Independent Thinkers
The Israelites were a nation of free, intelligent individuals. The Torah itself repeatedly describes them as stubborn, proud, and strong-minded, possessing both wisdom and a fierce love of freedom.
When Moshe offered them the Torah, he did not impose it upon them. They were not coerced or manipulated. The 600,000 men counted in the census — each representing a household, were 600,000 independent minds who voluntarily accepted the covenant with God.
These were not docile slaves, but a proud and discerning people. They had lived under Egyptian rule, yet they despised the idol worship and moral corruption of their masters. They refused to revere a civilization that worshipped sheep as gods.
Amidst a world steeped in superstition, violence, and idolatry, Israel stood as an island of reason and spiritual clarity.
The Critical Spirit of the Israelites
Even Moshe, the greatest of prophets, did not receive blind obedience. The Torah records multiple occasions where the Israelites challenged and criticized him openly:
At the Red Sea, they said: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?” (Shemot 14:11)
After the miracles of the plagues and the Exodus, they still complained repeatedly about food, water, and danger.
When Moshe despaired of their constant rebellion, he cried out: “They are almost ready to stone me!” (Shemot 17:4).
Even after Korach’s rebellion was miraculously punished, the people accused Moshe and Aaron: “You have killed the people of the Lord!” (Bamidbar 17:6).
These are not the reactions of blind followers, but of a nation that thinks, questions, and demands proof.
The Revelation at Sinai: Seen by All
At Mount Sinai, God did not reveal Himself privately to one mystic or prophet. He revealed Himself before the entire nation: “On the third day, the Lord descended before the eyes of all the people on Mount Sinai.” (Shemot 19:11)
“And all the people saw the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking.” (Shemot 20:18)
“And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop, before the eyes of all Israel.” (Shemot 24:17)
Every individual experienced this revelation firsthand. And remarkably, despite their critical temperament, no one in all subsequent generations ever denied that this event occurred.
A Thousand Years Without Doubt
Throughout a thousand years of biblical prophecy, no prophet ever needed to prove the event of Sinai. They rebuked Israel for many sins including idolatry, corruption, and injustice, but never once for doubting that God revealed Himself at Sinai.
For nearly three millennia, until the Enlightenment era just 200 years ago, no Jewish philosopher, scholar, or prophet expressed even a shadow of doubt about the divine origin of the Torah. The continuity of this collective conviction is itself a historical miracle.
“We Will Do and We Will Hear” — The Greatest Declaration in History
When the Israelites stood before Mount Sinai and declared, “We will do and we will hear” (Shemot 24:7), they made one of the most powerful commitments in human history.
They promised to follow God’s law even before hearing all its details. This was not blind obedience, but a conscious, passionate declaration of faith and purpose, born of gratitude for deliverance from Egypt and awe at the divine revelation they witnessed.
Their love for God was so great that they valued His commandments more than freedom, comfort, or even life itself.
Throughout the ages, their descendants proved it, by sacrificing wealth, honor, and safety to preserve their faith.
Rediscovering Their Greatness
Rabbi Avigdor Miller and later Rabbi Uri Zohar both emphasized that our ancestors were not primitive, but spiritual giants. Rabbi Zohar wrote in U’vacharta Ba’Chayim (And You Shall Choose Life): “We tend to think of earlier generations as primitive or childlike, while we are enlightened. But when I realized that we come from a nation of countless spiritual giants — creators of the deepest works of wisdom on earth — it became clear that they surely wrestled with the same fundamental questions we ask today. And yet, throughout all generations, they remained steadfast in their devotion to the Torah. That alone proves its truth.”
The True Enlightenment
Modern progress may have given us new technology, but not new wisdom. In depth, clarity of thought, moral courage, and spiritual insight, the generation of the Exodus stands above us.
They were not primitive believers in myth; they were eyewitnesses to revelation, critical thinkers who tested truth and embraced it only after it was proven. The people who declared “We will do and we will hear” were not followers of a man, but seekers of God — the most enlightened generation in human history.
