when you will have received the Torah and observed the laws! The
beginning of all things is hard, but as soon as you will have grown
accustomed to obedience, all else will be easy to you. If you will
now observe the Abrahamic covenant, the Sabbath, and the
commandment against idolatry, then will you be My possession;
for although everything belongs to Me, Israel will be My especial
possession, because I led them out of Egypt, and freed them from
bondage. With respect to Israel, God is like one who receive many
fields as an heritage, but one he purchased himself, and the one he
earned was dearest to his heart. I will reign alone over you, as My
possession, I and none other, so long as you keep yourselves aloof
from other peoples. If not, other peoples shall reign over you. But
if you obey Me, you shall be a nation, not only free from care, but
also a nation of priests, and a holy nation."

If Israel had not sinned through worshipping the Golden Calf, there
would be among them no caste of priests, the nation would have
been a nation of priests, and it was only after their sin that the
greater part of the people lost the right to priesthood.

God now instructed Moses to transmit to the people His words
without adding to them or diminishing from them, in the precise
order and in the same tongue, the Hebrew. Moses hereupon betook
himself to the people to deliver his message, without first seeing
his family. He first addressed the word of God to the elders, for he
never forgot the honor due the elders. Then, in simple and well
arranged form, he repeated it to all the people, including the
women. Joyfully and of his own impulse, every Israelite declared
himself willing to accept the Torah, whereupon Moses returned to
God to inform Him of the decision of the people. For although