What was the significance of the Sinai covenant?

Answer 1

.

Catholic AnswerThe Sinai Covenant was part of the progressive revelation of God to His people. It was the definitive and fullest revelation up to that time, and established the Jewish people as a nation that was to serve God. The primary revelation of the covenant at Sinai was God revealing His name to us. This significance can not be overemphasised, it was a revelation that God, holy, separate, and so far beyond and above us as to be inconceivable, loves us, cares about us, and wants us to be holy as He is holy, to be one with Him in eternal happiness. The significance of the Sinai covenant is not found, in its completeness, until Our Blessed Savior, the Son of God, arrives on earth. At Sinai God revealed His Name: "I am" (in other words, He is being, itself, we are nothing, and do not even exist except through His Love for us), with Our Blessed Lord, God reveals His Very Self. The significance of the Sinai covenant is finally made clear in the Gospel of St. John 8:58 - Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.

Jewish answer:

The significance of the Covenant at Sinai is that it defines the Jewish people forever. By obeying the Torah, Jews uphold their part of the Covenant. The Torah reiterates the teachings of Abraham (Talmud, Yoma 28b) and codifies their exact details; and at Mount Sinai, the Hebrews (the Israelites) accepted as obligatory what had until then been national custom. The Torah has shaped their ways of thinking and provided a national lexicon:
Practicing kindness and avoiding dishonesty became obligatory instead of merely proper.
Agriculture in the Holy Land included tithes to be given to the Levites and Kohens, thus providing for a scholarly class of people. One of the tithes was given to the poor, thus obviating the existence of starvation.
Immorality and incest were legislated against in detail. Instead of instinct or "crimes against nature," they were subsumed into religious law.
The roles of king, prophet, Kohen, Levite, officers and judges were all provided for in the Torah, thus defining the shape of the society and its institutions and providing certain balances.
The Israelite year was filled out with the national festivals; and they too were imbued with the function of worshiping God instead of being secular celebrations.
The judges were commanded to fear God, instead of relying on the skills of jurisprudence alone.
The laws of the Tabernacle (and later the Holy Temple), and commands to love God and fulfill all of the commandments, were written in the Torah together with (and mixed among) the seemingly mundane laws of testimony and witnesses (etc.), in order to convey the message that for us it is all part of religion. Secular life was a foreign concept. For example, a shopkeeper would be constantly aware of the religious laws of maintaining honest scales, giving a tithe to the poor (maaser kesafim), not overcharging, returning lost objects left behind, etc.; and he would set aside times for the daily prayers.
The above are just a few examples.
Among the non-Israelite nations also, the Jewish Torah has given the Western world much of its shape today. Many of the laws, traditions, culture and values are directly attributable to the Torah.
1) The Jews' monotheistic religious tradition (Deuteronomy 6:4) shaped the Western beliefs about God.
2) The 7-day week (Exodus ch.20), including a day of rest for everyone.
3) The concept of morality was also the work of the Torah, including the dignity and value of a person (whereas idolatry had tended to go hand in hand with cruel, licentious and excessive behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate those types of behavior).
Women's rights also were carefully maintained in the Torah. Israelite women could own property, could initiate court cases, could have their own servants, and could own fields and businesses; and marital rights for women are specified (Exodus 21:10).
4) Under Israelite law, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, etc., could initiate legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm. Compare this to those societies in which only mature, land-owning males had any legal status.
5) What is customary to be eaten in Western society is a reflection of much of the Judaic dietary law. With the exception of the pig, Western society does not eat species not contained in kosher law. Owls, mice, insects, rats, snakes, cats and dogs are not eaten by most Westerners and it is a direct result of Jewish culture.
6) Parents are responsible for teaching children. Illiteracy among Israelites, in every generation, was rare. Universal education in the Western world is taken for granted today, yet this is a recent development. In Judaism, however, it goes back 3300 years. Judaism has always maintained that education is the highest goal of man in his pursuit of Godliness. This Torah-tradition has now been passed on to Western culture.
7) Infants are to be protected and cared for, whether or not they turned out to be the gender you were hoping for. Compare this to societies in which unhealthy babies, or females, were killed.
8) Cruelty to animals is not acceptable.
9) A robber repays double to his victim, or works it off. Cutting off the hands of a robber is a punishable crime. Debtors are not imprisoned or harmed. They are made to sell property and/or work to repay what they owe. Compare this to the Roman practice by which anyone could accuse a man of owing them money and the debtor could be killed.
Western jurisprudence in general is based in part upon Judaic Torah observance. A quick look at the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the laws that follow (Exodus ch.21-23) gives a very good summary of most modern law.
10) It is the responsibility of the community to support the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger passing through.
It is important to note that every one of the above was instituted among the Hebrews (a.k.a. the Israelites) thousands of years earlier than in other nations. Here's just one example: Aristotle, who was among the greatest of the Greeks, and Seneca, the famous Roman, both write that killing one's young babies is perfectly acceptable.

Answer 2

Ten Commandments

Answer 3

Jewish tradition holds that the Torah documents the terms of the covenant made at Mount Sinai. Tradition holds that this establishes 613 specific commandments as binding on the Children of Israel. It is the adherence to these commandments that has traditionally defined Judaism.