Religion & Spirituality
“Historically, the rabbis figure the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai to have occurred on [Shavu'ot], that is, in the third month after Am Yisra’el came out of Egypt. Actually, the exact date of this familiar encounter, recorded for us in the book of Exodus, is not explicitly stated; the chronological evidence is convincing, however. At any rate, the author of the book of Acts does testify of the precise timing of the festival of Shavu'ot, and he specifically relates this festival to the pouring out of the Ruach HaKodesh, that is, the Holy Spirit, unto the believers gathered there in Jerusalem. Now the display of the tongues of fire and the presence of great sounds is reminiscent of the Sinai encounter. The rabbis also teach that when HaShem presented the Torah to the people, that it went forth in a multiple of fiery substance, inviting each individual Jew to accept the command to follow the whole of the Torah. The account in Acts describes the tongues of fire alighting themselves upon each person. In the Sinai delivery of the Torah, the account says “thunders and lightnings…” (KJV). The actual Hebrew word rendered lightnings is “voices”! This strengthens the connection to the Acts account, with voices being heard."