Mount Sinai and the End of Doubt: Rambam’s Proof of True Revelation

Maimonides (Rambam) writes in Yesodei HaTorah 8 that Israel’s belief in Moshe (Moses) was not because of the signs and wonders he performed in Egypt — as such signs could theoretically be produced through illusions or sorcery, but because of the revelation at Mount Sinai, when they themselves saw the fire, the voices, the thunder, and the lightning. That direct experience left no room for doubt.

If the plagues of Egypt and the splitting of the sea could (theoretically) be attributed to sorcery, why couldn’t the thunder, lightning, fire, voices, and clouds at Sinai also be dismissed as sorcery?

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It's important to note that according to the Rambam, sorcery isn’t real power — it is mere illusion and trickery. Sorcerers only manipulated appearances to deceive crowds. The Torah warns us to stay away from these practices because they were used by idolaters to mislead people.

For example, when the magicians of Egypt seemed to turn sticks into snakes, Rambam explains that this was just sleight of hand — an illusion, not real transformation. The Hebrew word lahat (used in the Torah) literally means “trick” or “conjuring.”

When Rambam writes that the miracles of Egypt could be confused with sorcery, he doesn’t mean that sorcery could actually perform them, but rather, that ordinary people who are accustomed to believing in magic, might mistakenly think Moshe's acts were just another kind of illusion, like those of the Egyptian magicians.

Why the Miracles Could Not Be Sorcery

Of course, a thoughtful person realizes the difference. Illusionists can make a cup of water look like blood, but they cannot turn the entire Nile red. They cannot send hail mixed with fire from the heavens, kill every firstborn in a nation in one night, split the sea in two, or sustain a people for forty years in the desert. These miracles were on a scale far beyond any human trick. They were clearly acts of God, who alone controls all of nature.

Why Sinai Was Unmistakable

Still, Rambam emphasizes that Sinai was greater, because Sinai wasn’t just about physical phenomena like fire and thunder, but it was a prophetic revelation. The entire nation heard God’s voice directly.

A person who truly hears the voice of God cannot doubt it — just as you cannot doubt your own existence. Prophecy penetrates the very soul; it is not external, like lightning or sound. At Sinai, millions of people simultaneously experienced direct contact with God.

This made it categorically different from all other miracles:

• It was not mediated through nature.

• It was not seen from a distance but experienced personally, in the deepest recesses of the heart.

• It was not one person reporting prophecy to others, but the entire nation standing together in direct revelation.

The people were so overwhelmed that they feared for their lives, saying, “We cannot endure hearing God’s voice any longer.”

Thus, at Sinai, even those who had once believed in sorcery could no longer attribute what they experienced to human trickery. The revelation itself removed all doubt.

Rambam teaches that the nation's faith in Moshe was not based not on miracles which could be confused with illusions, but on the unique event of Sinai, where God Himself spoke directly to every soul, leaving no room for skepticism.