Passed Down Through Generations: How History Becomes Our Legacy

Some mistakenly think that religious people believe in the Sinai revelation merely because it's written in the Torah. But that's not true. Anyone can write whatever they want in a book, yet no nation would accept it as national history or celebrate festivals for events that never happened. For instance, if tomorrow someone wrote that they were Prime Minister of Israel for several terms and defeated various threats, such a book would be ridiculed and not passed down as Israel's history.

Here's the point: no book alone can prove the past. It's the people passing down the book through generations who confirm the history it contains. How? When millions share this testimony from millions of their ancestors, down to the first generation who witnessed events firsthand, this mass testimony is what proves what is written in the book.

The Jewish people have been transmitting the Torah for 3,300 years, celebrating holidays and commandments in its memory. Every year, we celebrate festivals like Passover and Sukkot to remember the incredible miracles Hashem performed during the Exodus from Egypt and in the Sinai Desert. The Torah documented events witnessed by millions of our ancestors, and we continue to affirm this testimony to our children in an unbroken chain.

This is how collective history is passed down generation to generation. For example, the French know there was an emperor named Napoleon, because they've received this testimony from millions of their ancestors, back to millions of those who witnessed his battles firsthand. The French refer their children to history books only because their forefathers confirmed this testimony as accurate and reliable.

Since it's the people who affirm their books, one cannot invent a mass history that never happened. For instance, if a French author wrote that Napoleon immigrated from Africa as a child and conquered Europe with an army of Zulu warriors, such a fictional book wouldn't be accepted by the French people but rather mocked, shelved, and forgotten.

Books are essentially recording tools, like a camera. Their purpose is to be accurate about historical events witnessed by the people, but their reliability depends on the nation's historical tradition. As the Torah explicitly says, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you" (Deuteronomy 32:7). This is how the Jewish people remember the revelation at Sinai.