THE GIVING OF THE LAW
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The Giving of the Law
From Midrash Rabbah on Shemoth
WHEN the Holy One came to give life, to reveal the great light of His Law,
All His wonder of worlds grew silent in sudden, unspeakable awe,
More tense than the stillness ere dawn riseth up in a burst of gold,
Every quiver and pulse, every breath of the world caught fast in His hold.
No twitter of bird, no soaring of wings made stir in the air,
And the oxen that lowed from the fields were mute as if death passed there;
And in Heaven the Ophanim paused in their flight through the limitless space,
