‘And they stood beneath the Mountain (Mt. Sinai - Exodus 19:17)” Rav Avdemi bar Hama bar Hassa said, ‘From this we learn that the Holy One Blessed be He forced the mountain above them like a barrel. He said to them, If you will accept the Torah, that is good; but if not, there will be your grave-sites...” (B.T. Shabbat 88a).
Is there anyone in the readerhsip who takes this story literally?
Update:
(1) Moved the post people seem to care about to the top of the line.
(2) In the comments Mirty asked *the* classic question on this Midrash. Any answers?
(3) The five familiar approaches apply to understanding this aggadah. They are:
* It's a metaphor
* Chazal were right. Any contrary evidence (like my own experiences) are wrong.
* The teva changed
* Chazal are right, and my eyes are right, but I misunderstood chazal
* Chazal were wrong.
For this particular aggada, I choose metaphor. There's no reason to doubt the midrash, but there's no reason to take it literally, so the tie should go to the more rational answer.