Hey Illona,
I wanted to add something to your post really quickly. One of the required articles goes deeper into this, but basically, the reason the Jews still follow the covenant is that a Jew “believes that man can come close to G-d by obeying Him and keeping His commandments.” Jews don’t believe that you become closest to God through an abstract relationship, but through concrete deeds in keeping the Torah. That is the purpose of the Torah for the Jew, which changes much about the differences in approaches to the covenant.
