NUM152 While family, community, authority figures, and even God are used by other societies to create moral character, albeit in different ways and degrees than Judaism uses those elements, study is one Jewish method for creating moral people that few other societies use. Moreover, this is an ancient Jewish method, stemming from the Torah itself. The Torah was not given to a group of elders who alone would know it; it was rather given to the entire People Israel assembled at Mount Sinai. In keeping with the public nature of revelation in Judaism, God tells Moses a number of times, "Speak to the people Israel and say to them (or command them)." (For example, [this verse], Numbers 15:17-18, 37-38; 19:1-2; 28:1-2; 34:1-2; 35:1-2, 9-10. Moreover, every Jew is responsible to know God's commands (Deuteronomy 5:1) and to teach them to their children (Deuteronomy 6:7, 11;19). (By Elliot N. Dorff and Jonathan K. Crane)