Today’s accepted thinking is that Sinai was the high point of Jewish history. After all, Sinai was where the Revelation occurred, where Moses was sequestered with G-d, and where the Ten Commandments were given.
But the Torah does not say this! Indeed, it seems to take an opposing view:
At the end of the period at Sinai, Moses said to G-D, “See, You say to me, ‘Lead this people upward.’ (E. 33:12) … And [Moses] replied, “Unless You go in the lead, do not make us go up from this place. (E. 33:15)
The Torah is highly consistent: “Up” is always spiritually higher than “Down.” For example, throughout the Torah, Canaan is always “up” and Egypt is always “down.”
The Jewish people come closer to G-d and the heavens by going upward, to elevate ourselves and the world around us. The “Reiach Cycle” of sending spiritual energies back to the heavens, is all about going up.
And the Torah uses this same language about Sinai! First we went up out of Egypt, and came to Sinai. And then, leaving Sinai, we rose still further! The time after Sinai, in the desert and then in the Land, were always meant to be at a higher level than the Sinai experience itself.
Which means that the highest levels we can achieve as individuals and a people is not in an ancient Golden Age, but always in front – and upward – from where we are right now.
Might this even suggest that the practice and study of Torah is a higher achievement for the Jewish people than receiving the Torah in the first place?!