By Rabbi Alberto Sermoneta (written in 2008)
“Ba chodesh ha shelishì le zet benè Israel me erez Mizraim ba jom ha zè bau midbar Sinai”
...in the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
One of the explanations by the great commentator Rashi regarding the expression of the Torah bajom ha zè “on that day” aims to teach us that it was the day the new moon began, that is, the first of the month of Sivan.
The Jewish people reach the Sinai desert, the place where they will receive the Torah, about a week before that great event that would upend every type of society of the time.
The children of Israel therefore have about six days to prepare for this moment so important to them; indeed, a people is not worthy of the name unless it has at least three fundamental requirements:
Freedom, The law, A territory.
Freedom had by now been achieved after leaving Egypt, after leaving behind the Egyptians who represented for them moral death, namely the absolute denial of every form of independence and right to free and civil expression and respect for human morality.
The law was another fundamental requirement for the existence and expression of a people, not only for the management and administration of rights between citizens of one's own nation, but above all in the Jewish tradition it is considered the legitimation of human rights to equality among them.
The Masters of the Jewish tradition maintain that no matter how rigid a law may be, it is still the guarantee that through its observance, every citizen is equal to another, without any distinction or partiality between one and the other.
A great rabbinic maxim of the Mishnah plays on the way of reading and thus interpreting a verse of the Torah in which, describing the writing of the Tablets of the Law, it is said:
“….ve ha mikhtav mikhtav Elohim hu charut al ha luchot” “…and the writing is the divine writing engraved upon the tablets”
The term charut is written with the same consonants as another term cherut which means freedom; they therefore say “ al tikrè charut ellà cherut” which means: “do not read engraved but read freedom” that is, even though the rules of the Torah, engraved on stone tablets, are ironclad rules, they nevertheless guarantee equality and freedom among those who observe them.
The people waited anxiously for six days to receive the Torah, like a bride waiting for her wedding day and as the event draws closer, she renders herself increasingly fit for marriage day by day, until the purification that takes place on the eve of it.
A very satisfying explanation is given by an Italian rabbi of the twelfth century – Rabbi Azariah Figo, who interpreting the term ve kiddashtam – and sanctify them draws a parallel with the same term which also means and they shall be in marriage; that is, render them ready so that on that day, namely the 6th of the month of Sivan, the marriage between G-d and the people of Israel is celebrated.
The Torah is defined by G-d Himself as sefer ha berit – the book of the covenant namely the covenant stipulated between the Lord and Israel. The ketubah, the marriage contract, is also defined as a covenant, therefore, according to Azariah Figo, the Torah is none other than G-d's ketubah towards the people of Israel and therefore the mattan Torah the promulgation of the Decalogue, which took place on the 6th of Sivan, would be none other than the marriage between the Lord God and the Jewish people.
At the end of the narrative where it is recounted that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Tablets of the Law it is stated: “vay ke challoto le dabber itto” – “ after having (at the end) with him” the word ke challoto can, if read without vowels be ke challato which means like his bride here then is the confirmation that on that day the marriage between G-d and Israel was celebrated.
In the Song of Songs by King Solomon, the love of a shepherd for a shepherdess is narrated, and exegetes have chosen to see in this account a parallel of the love between G-d and the Jewish people. A verse of the poem says: “ zenna u rena benot Zion ba ‘attarà asher ‘itterà immò et roshò be jom chatunatò uv jom simchat libbò” “ go forth and gaze, o daughters of Zion, upon the crown with which His mother crowned Him on the day of His wedding, on the day of the joy of His heart.” The Masters explain that the allegory is extremely strong regarding the Jewish people because the day of the wedding and the day of His joy are none other than the promulgation of the Decalogue.
It is recounted in a Midrash that at the moment before Israel uttered the fateful expression na’asè ve nishmà’ we will do and we will hearken, sixty million Angels came to the Jews and bound two crowns, one corresponding to na’asè and the other corresponding to nishmà’. At that moment 
a Heavenly Voice went forth and said: “to whom has a thing so great been revealed, such as to cause the Angels to minister to them? In truth, he who manages to act even before being asked cannot be compared to servants, who must first know what they ought to do and then, if they succeed, they do it, otherwise not.” (Rashì Shemot 32).
Therefore, the fact that the people manifested the will to act before anything else made them worthy of being further free and not like slaves, who serve their master, who is made of flesh and bone like them.