Chapter 18
[1] Jethro…priest of Midian: The word Midian literally means "contention" or "strife." By calling Jethro the "priest of Midian" even though he had long since renounced idolatry and relinquished the Midianite priesthood, it alludes to the fact that he had once practiced all forms of idolatry.1 Whereas the Torah helps a person to unite with God, idolatry enhances his sense of ego—even if in very subtle, almost unconscious ways—and thus estranges him from God. By being the idolater par excellence, Jethro was thus the "priest of strife."2
About all God had done…that God had brought Israel out of Egypt: Alternatively, "all that God had done" refers to the exile in Egypt, which was an act of Divine severity designed to purify the people and prepare them for receiving the Torah. Inasmuch as this was an act of Divine severity, the Name Elokim is used in this phrase. In contrast, "that God had brought Israel out of Egypt" refers to the Exodus itself, an act of Divine mercy. As such, the Name Havayah is used in this phrase.3
[7] Moses prostrated himself and kissed Jethro: Moses embodied Divine wisdom, whereas Jethro embodied natural, worldly wisdom. By bowing down to Jethro, Moses elevated natural wisdom and accepted it into the sphere of Divine wisdom. This, as we have seen,4 was a prerequisite to the Giving of the Torah.5
They asked about each other's welfare, and they went into the tent: Moses and Jethro exchanged greetings before Moses recounted the details of God's miracles to Jethro. We normally exchange greetings before launching into even holy conversation, because "encouraging peace between people takes precedence over recounting God's praise."6 But here, something more significant was happening.
As mentioned above, Jethro was formerly the "priest of Midian," which means "the purveyor of dissention." Jethro, the arch-idolater, had represented the factiousness and sectarianism that arises from allegiance to many gods and that destroys peaceful life. By first inquiring about each other's welfare, Jethro and Moses repudiated this cynical view of humanity. This further paved the way for the Giving of the Torah, for "its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace."7
[11] Now I know that God is greater than all the deities: As mentioned previously,8 Jethro had researched the workings of creation from top to bottom and possessed expert knowledge of all the spiritual and scientific lore of his age. By declaring that all this knowledge led ultimately to the acceptance of the God's wisdom, Jethro paved the way for the Giving of the Torah.
Besides doing away with the delusion that creation is a jumble of disparate and opposing forces vying for our loyalty on the one hand and attempting to control us on the other, Jethro's declaration enabled the Giving of the Torah in a much more profound way. The purpose of the revelation at Mount Sinai was not simply to inform the world of God's will; to a great extent, this had already happened: ever since the creation there was always a circle of individuals who studied the Torah. Rather, the revelation at Mount Sinai was meant to make God's essence accessible to the world via the Torah.
God's essence transcends both the infinite and the finite, meaning that it can be infinite and finite at the same time. Jethro showed that following secular knowledge to its end results ultimately in obscurantism, distortion, disinformation—in idolatry. By declaring that all the world's wisdom—even what we normally consider finite and "secular"—is darkness unless it is seen as part of God's wisdom, Jethro revealed the essential transcendence of the Torah. He showed how the Torah, as a window to God's essence, encompasses all reality and is the means through which all reality can be absorbed into Godliness and be made to express Godliness. And this is how God Himself can be brought into all aspects of life, making the world into His true home.9
The Hebrew word for "the deities" or "the gods" is the same as the Name Elokim. Allegorically, then, this means that Jethro now knew that the Name Havayah is greater than the Name Elokim.
Jethro understood that the exile was a manifestation of the power of the Name Elokim, God's attribute of judgment and severity. When he heard that God took the Jews out of Egypt, he understood that God's mercy, signified by the Name Havayah, can override His attribute of judgment.10
In addition, as noted above,11 the purpose of the plagues was to demonstrate that God transcends nature—in other words, that the Name Havayah can be manifest in the world, which the Egyptians thought was only under the influence of the Name Elokim, the powers of nature. Thus, after he heard about the details of the Exodus, Jethro could understand how the Name Havayah can override the Name Elokim.12
This was when he changed his name from Jether to Jethro: The name Jethro is formed by adding the letter vav to the name Jether. The letter vav can be seen as a yud sitting atop a straight line, indicating how a person possessing self-effacement (indicated by the yud, the smallest letter) can bring the most abstract knowledge down into concrete reality and apply it.
As noted above,13 Jethro was originally called Jether because he was gifted with a keen intellect, he used it to seek out the meaning of life, and he acted on his conclusions. Nonetheless, since human intellect is inherently limited, it can never reach the intense Divine awareness that nullifies the ego and enables us to be transparent channels of Divinity into the world. For this, we need the Torah. Thus, when Jethro accepted the Torah, the vav was added to his name, indicating that he was now able to reach beyond his own intellect and bring Divine intellect into the world.14
[12] Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law while Moses served them: Rather than focusing on his own meal, Moses ensured that the others were provided for. The lesson here is that regardless of a person's social status (and who can claim a higher social status than Moses'?) he should consider it more important to take care of someone else's needs than to see to his own. This applies both to physical needs as well as to spiritual advancement.15
[13] On the following day: There are times when we feel spiritually "connected," when we are imbued with Godliness and everything about our spiritual life seems to flow smoothly. At such times we may wonder: "Maybe I have reached the point where I can relax; maybe I have finally overcome the challenges of my mission in life." For the proper response to this sentiment, we need only look at Moses' example. While on Mount Sinai, Moses reached the peak of spiritual "connectedness." He learned the Torah directly from God's mouth and subsisted on spirituality so completely that he did not need to eat or drink for forty days and nights. Yet, immediately upon rejoining the people he plunged directly into his new work. On the morrow after what seemed to be the pinnacle of his career, he found yet higher ways to serve God, and attacked them with the very same energy and vitality.
The day Moses descended from the mountain after having received the second tablets was the 10th of Tishrei, which would be later designated as Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The lesson here is that even after we reach the supreme holiness of Yom Kippur, there is still another tomorrow, when we should set our sights even higher.
One year, immediately after the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson turned to his father, Rabbi Shalom Dovber (the fifth Rebbe of Lubavitch), and asked: "What now? After having achieved such sublime levels of spirituality, what is the service required of us on the morrow?" Answered the Rebbe: "Now the work of repentance truly begins!"16
[24] God approved Jethro's plan: True, this meant that the people would from now on be under the judicial authority of people beneath Moses' stature. Nonetheless, God approved of this, because this way even the simplest among the people would be able to relate to the Torah's legal system and submit their lives to its authority. If Moses had remained the people's sole judge, some of them would have been overly intimidated by his overpowering presence and spiritual stature, and might therefore have considered themselves unworthy or "outside the pale" of the Torah's jurisdiction.
Yet, in a sense, it is particularly for these simple, unpretentious folk that the Torah was given. It is to the Torah's credit, and a demonstration of its true transcendence, that it contains the laws that govern not only our most sublime moments but also to the seemingly trivial concerns that crop up in our daily affairs.17
[26] They will judge the people at all times: "Judgments" (mishpatim) are the aspects of the Divine Will that can be logically understood. Had the Torah not instructed us concerning these laws, our own logic would have dictated that we institute them.
The Torah's account of the revelation on Mount Sinai is both preceded and followed18 by mishpatim—logical and self-attainable precepts of the Torah. The giving of the Torah itself, however, was a Divine revelation that was so totally above and beyond human grasp that the Jews begged Moses to act as their intermediary and thereby mitigate their experience of this supernatural transcendence.
The new insights we constantly glean from the Torah as we continue to study it constitute the ongoing revelation of God at Mount Sinai. Often, the profundity of these insights is so powerful that we sense that they come from someplace far beyond us—which indeed they do. Because of this, we can easily fall into the trap of thinking that such Divine revelations are spiritual experiences so completely beyond us that it is pointless to try to prepare for them. We erroneously assume that we may as well do nothing, for if it is meant to happen it will happen anyway.
To demonstrate the fallacy of this argument, God prefaced the account of the giving of the Torah with a reference to the judiciary process—mishpatim—reminding man that Divine revelation, despite its transcendence, is granted only to those who have prepared for it on their own human level.
Furthermore, Divine revelation must also be followed by mishpatim. This teaches us that we must not accept God's gifts complacently; if we do, they will remain abstract and transcendent, having no impact at all upon us. Rather, we must immediately integrate and assimilate every spiritual experience so that it becomes a part of us.19
Chapter 19
[1] In the third month: The Torah was given specifically in the third month, for the number three symbolizes the threefold unity the Torah creates.
"One" obviously represents unity—there is no separate entity to dissent or disagree—but it is an inherent unity, not a created one. The only true unity of this sort is God's; He was, is, and will be one, for there is in truth nothing other than Him.
"Two" signifies the duality, discord, and separation we experience within God's world, the constant dichotomy of body and soul, physical and spiritual, and good and evil.
"Three" introduces a third element that reconciles and unites these discordant concepts. It does not choose one way or the other, for that would be returning to one, the duality of two combatants no longer existing. Rather, it blends the two; it allows each its own individuality and yet enables them at the same time to fuse into a greater whole.
The Torah was given, says Maimonides, to bring peace into the world.20 Through the Torah, God allows His infinite wisdom to be distilled into a form accessible by finite creatures. He thus gave humanity the capacity to bring Godliness into the world, to continue to exist as finite human beings and still attain a level of Divine consciousness. The Torah does not superimpose one reality in place of the other, but rather melds the two into a Godly and meaningful existence in the context of this world.21
On this day: Instead of mentioning the first day of Sivan explicitly, the Torah simply calls it "this day." This is because the people recognized it as a special day. They had been counting the days from the Exodus in eager anticipation of the Giving of the Torah.
They knew that in order to receive the Torah, they had to internalize the quality of self-effacement, for only through self-effacement can we experience the Torah as God's wisdom (rather than as an exercise of our own intellect) and can we feel God speaking to us through the Torah. The total self-effacement required for this had to permeate all seven emotions and all their mutual interactions, which meant that the people had to devote seven days to work on each of the seven emotions, totaling forty-nine days.
Upon reaching the third day of the seventh week, the people had completely refined the first six emotions and had worked on the first three subdivisions of the seventh. Inasmuch as the first three emotions are the principal ones, the passage of the first three days of the seventh week meant that most of the work had already been done; they had reached a major milestone. This day was the 1st of Sivan.
The fact that this point in their progress occurred on the first day of the month was particularly propitious, for this is the day that the moon is its smallest, a clear expression of self-effacement. Once the moon reaches its nadir, it can again begin to absorb the light of the sun; similarly, on this day, the people began their final round of preparations to receive God's infinite revelation.
On this day, "they came to the Sinai Desert." The parched desert is a metaphor for the thirst for Godliness the people felt as the expected day drew closer. Thirst for Godliness is always accompanied by a corresponding healthy disdain for the material world's impudence—when it tries to overstep its intended role in life and usurp the devotion we would prefer to invest in Divinity. Thus, on this day, the people "came to the Sinai Desert," for the word Sinai is related to the word for "hatred" (sinah), alluding to their heightened disdain for the subterfuges of materialism.22
They came to the Sinai Desert: According to the Midrash,23 God gave the Torah in the desert because He wanted to teach us a fundamental truth about it. If God had given the Torah in a settled area, that would have implied that it was tied somehow to the locale, that it belonged specifically to the people of that place. He therefore gave the Torah in the ownerless desert, making it clear that it does not belong to anybody in particular; anybody that so chooses can make the Torah their own.
According to the Talmud24 God gave the Torah in the desert because He wanted to teach us a fundamental truth about the nature of the study of the Torah. "If a person humbles himself like the wilderness, which everybody treads upon, then the Torah is given to him as a gift."
However, the question still remains: The Sinai desert was not only ownerless but also barren; there was no water and no vegetation to provide food or clothing. Why couldn't God have given the Torah in an ownerless but fertile plain, prairie, or the like?
God wanted to teach us yet another truth about the nature of the study of the Torah. In order to receive the Torah, the Jews had to venture into the desolate desert and trust that God would provide for them. To their credit, they did this without hesitation.
Today, as well, the proper way to study the Torah is to immerse oneself in it completely and abandon all other worries. When we devote ourselves to the Torah in this way, we are guaranteed success; in addition, God promises that He will also provide for all our material needs.25
INNER DIMENSIONS
[1] In the third month: Specifically, the two opposites that were reconciled with the Giving of the Torah were the right and left axes of the sefirot: chochmah, chesed, and netzach on the right axis and binah, gevurah, and hod on the left axis. Until the Torah was given, it was fundamentally impossible to unite both of these axes in any particular act; an act could be either an act of chesed or an act of gevurah, but not of both. The Torah introduced the third, central, harmonizing axis—da'at, tiferet, and yesod. These sefirot enabled the sefirot of the right and left axes to unite productively.
(It is true that the patriarch Jacob personified the middle axis of the sefirot, but—as was the case with all the spirituality channeled by the patriarchs—this was but a precursor of what was to really happen with the Giving of the Torah. Jacob was able to blend the two opposite axes of the sefirot in his own life, but he was not able to bequeath this ability to his progeny or to the world at large in any permanent way.)
Similarly, the Giving of the Torah enabled the "upper" and "lower" aspects of reality, i.e., spirituality and physicality, to blend for the first time into a single continuum and influence one another. The same is true for the dynamics associated with the duality of upper and lower: ascent and descent. With the Giving of the Torah, it became possible for the first time for an ascent into the spiritual and a descent into the physical to be complementary and mutually enhancing.
The significance of the "third" is evinced in our sages statement26 that "the threefold Torah [the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings] was given in the third month [Sivan] to the threefold people [priests, Levites, and laymen]."27
[1-2] On this day they came to the Sinai Desert. They departed from Refidim: Clearly, they departed from Refidim before they came to the Sinai Desert. This reversal of the order of events implies that in some way their leaving Refidim was contingent on their arrival at the Sinai Desert, as if to say that they hadn't truly or fully left Refidim until they arrived at Sinai.
As was mentioned above,28 in Refidim the Jews lapsed into insensitivity to God's presence in the world and, as a result, "they loosened (rafu) their hands' grip on the Torah," meaning that they became apathetic toward the ideal of applying the Torah practically, in the context of physical reality.
The cure for this apathy is a sojourn in the "Sinai Desert." The parched desert, as was just mentioned,29 is a metaphor for thirst for Godliness, which breeds in turn a healthy "hatred" (sinah) for gross materialism.
It is in this sense that the people did not really "leave Refidim" until they arrived in the Sinai Desert.30
The opposite, complementary reading of these two verses is also true: It was only by "departing Refidim"—by reaffirming their commitment to practical observance of the Torah—that the Jews could "arrive at the Sinai Desert," i.e., be ready and prepared to receive the Torah.31 Thirsting for God and despising obstacles to quenching this thirst is the cure for apathy towards doing God's will; renewed commitment to doing God's will intensifies our thirst for God's self-revelation in the Torah.
[2] Mount Sinai: God chose to give the Torah on a mountain because a mountain expresses the ideal of elevating the physical world. A mountain is made of the same earth as a plane, but it has been raised upward. It thus demonstrates that even lifeless dirt, the lowliest element of creation, can be elevated to the highest levels. The fact that we see this truth physically reminds us that it is true spiritually, as well.32
Mount Sinai was a low, unimposing mountain, and therefore God chose it as the site for the Giving of the Torah.33 This teaches us that the gateway to Torah is humility.
On the other hand, God did not choose to give the Torah on level ground or in a valley. The fact that the Torah was given on a low mountain teaches us that our humility must be complemented by self-assurance. Without self-assurance, we could not presume to impose the Torah's dictates on a sometimes unwilling world. We should therefore cultivate pride and uplifting joy based on our awareness that we are God's partners in implementing His plan for creation.34
Nonetheless, we must ensure that this self-assurance never degenerates into arrogance, so the Torah warns us to encamp "facing the mountain," the word for "facing" also meaning "opposite." Similarly, when the Torah was given, God told us to "make a boundary around the mountain,"35 i.e., to limit the self-assurance so that it not degenerate into arrogance.36
Israel encamped there as one united people…facing the mountain: This unity was a prerequisite for the Giving of the Torah. God's presence refuses to dwell amongst discord and disharmony. Only when the Jews were at peace with one another and concerned for one another could they achieve harmony with God, as well, and attain the degree of spirituality necessary to receive His Torah.
The lesson for us here is that we can become vessels for God's Torah only if we truly love each other. Anyone can study the Torah, of course, but the Divine inspiration that grants us additional insight and allows us to sense God's presence in the Torah is granted us only when we are actively concerned for our compatriots.
There is, however, an additional lesson here. The Jews united at Mount Sinai because they were "facing the mountain"—i.e., already under the influence of Torah. God created us as individuals with different intellects, emotions, characteristics, and opinions. Naturally, then, there is no way we can truly get along, no way we can maintain our individuality and differences and still be able to function as one unified body.
Any group of people can unite temporarily or partially in order to accomplish some common goal. But the parties to such confederacies inevitably maintain their personal agendas and lack the mutual concern that enables them to function as a truly unified body.
Only if we are "facing the mountain"—totally devoid of ego and focused in anticipation on receiving God's word—do our petty differences pale in significance. Our differences still exist; indeed, it is the blending of all these varied approaches that creates the synergy and energy demanded of our collective Divine mission. But our common devotion to God's will transforms these differences into stepping-stones to achievement rather than barriers to it.37
INNER DIMENSIONS
[2] As one united people: The reason why such a profound unity is possible is because all Jews are, in essence, a "part" of God and therefore share the same inner identity.38 It is only our external façades—our human/animal souls and our bodies and their false sense of ego—that separate us from one another. When we approached Mount Sinai, our divergent egos melted away in the face of the imminent, mounting revelation. Similarly, by educating ourselves out of our materialistic perspectives, we become able to focus on our own inner essence and that of our fellows; this in turn renders us fit to receive greater and deeper understanding of God's Torah.39
[3] Moses went up to God: The Name of God used in this ascent is the Name Elokim, whereas in a later ascent,40 after the Torah was given, the Name Havayah is used. This is because until the Torah was given, the "highest" any creature could ascend in the spiritual realms was to the world of Beriah. Although Beriah is a sublime, spiritual realm, it is still characterized by self-awareness, in contrast to the highest world, Atzilut, which is characterized by total absorption in Divine consciousness and the attendant loss of self-awareness. Inasmuch as relative to each other, Atzilut and the lower worlds (Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah) are distinguished by the dominance of Divine consciousness and self-awareness respectively, Atzilut is rooted in the Name Havayah, God's "proper name" and the three lower worlds are rooted in the Name Elokim, which signifies the contraction of God's presence and its investiture in nature. Once the Torah was given, it became possible to ascend to the consciousness of Atzilut.41
[3] The angels protested: The sages teach us that the angels said to God: "You want to give the Torah to flesh and blood? The Torah belongs in heaven!" God said to Moses, "Answer them!" Moses said to God: "Master of the universe! The Torah that You are giving me says, 'I am God, your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt.' " He then said to the angels, "Did you go down to Egypt? Were you enslaved to Pharaoh? Why, then, should the Torah belong to you? Again, what is written in the Torah? 'You shall have no other gods.' Do you dwell among people that engage in idol worship? Again, what is written in the Torah? 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' Do you perform work, that you are in need of rest? Again, what is written in the Torah? 'You shall not take My name in vain." Are there any business dealings among you? Again, what is written in the Torah? 'Honor your father and your mother.' Do you have fathers and mothers? Again, what is written in the Torah? 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal.' Is there jealousy among you? Is the evil inclination among you?" After this, the angels conceded to God that the Torah should be given to human beings.42
It is clear from this debate that the Torah was given to us in order for us to use it to refine our animal natures.43
You shall first say each lesson gently to the "House of Jacob," i.e., the women: The very same Torah is taught to both sexes; the difference is only in the manner and approach.
True, women's biological role in bearing children and their social role in rearing them and as homemakers exempts them from the obligation of constant study and the obligation to delve into the more theoretical aspects of the Torah. Nonetheless, this should in no way be construed as an exemption from mastering those aspects of Jewish law and theology that women must know in order to lead properly Jewish lives. Indeed, because of their central role in educating children and thereby assuring Jewish continuity, the necessity for women to study the Torah takes precedence over that of the men!
Even with regard to the more abstract, theoretical realms of Torah study, since we live nowadays in an age with more leisure time than there was formerly and many women are using their free time for more abstract intellectual pursuits, they should study those aspects of the Torah formerly deemed men's province. This will ensure that they develop their intellectual abilities in accord with the Torah's logic and purity, and conversely, encourage them to seek intellectual excitement and fulfillment in Torah study rather than in secular philosophy and culture.
This development in women's Torah study is both a foretaste and a preparation for the imminent messianic Redemption. At that time, knowledge of the Torah will be universal and the intrinsic qualities of women will be revealed. They will participate in drawing Divine wisdom from the Torah on an equal footing with men.44
Still, the Torah must indeed be taught differently to women than it is to men. Rather than stressing the negative consequences of abandoning the Torah, the stress must be on the benefits achieved by adhering to it. This difference in approach reflects the difference between men and women's innate spirituality, but there is also a practical reason for it.
The mother is the primary educator of the children during their formative years. A child's education begins inside the mother's womb, inasmuch as the mother's attitudes and behavior during pregnancy definitely influence her baby. The ambiance and attitudes children imbibe along with their mother's milk accompany them their whole lives, so it is crucial that mothers be learned in the Torah and themselves possess a love for God, His Torah, and its commandments, so they can convey this love to their children.
Love of God and love of the Torah are the foundations of Judaism. True, it is important to teach children to fear God as well, but in these times, when secular culture beckons so pervasively, unrelentingly, and enticingly, it is of paramount importance to raise children who value Judaism deeply and do not view it, God forbid, as nothing more than a massive web of obligations or worse, a system of self-inflicted suffering.45
Important as the mother's influence on her children is in their formative years, her role does not end there. Throughout their lives, the entire family's spiritual and even physical well-being remain dependent upon the mother's ongoing ability to inculcate them with the love of God and His Torah. Even the husband's spirituality is greatly dependent upon his wife's. Every woman sets the tone in her home and is thus actively responsible for the physical and spiritual health of her entire family.
(The connection between spiritual and physical well-being may once have been hard to comprehend, but modern medicine has made us fully aware of the benefits of spiritual serenity upon a person's nerves, and, by extension, upon his or her entire body.)46
A CLOSER LOOK
[5] You will enter into a permanent relationship with Me: Although the Jewish people had been keeping the 613 commandments since the time of the patriarchs, they did so voluntarily. The commandments did not become legally binding on every Jew until the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.
In fact, the Giving of the Torah also obligated the rest of humanity to keep the commandments that devolve on them. Thus, this historic event divided humanity into several distinct categories, based on their respective legal obligations to perform the commandments:
- Non-Jews: Non-Jews are universally required to keep seven specific categories of commandments. These commandments are known as the "Noahide commandments," inasmuch as Noah was the common ancestor of all humanity. Non-Jews are required to observe these commandments with the intent to fulfill their obligation that God gave them at Mount Sinai. They do not fulfill their legal obligation if they observed for other reasons, e.g., because God gave them to Adam or Noah, or because they consider them logical, worthwhile, or praiseworthy, or because some other religion also happens to require them to do so.
- Resident Aliens (ger toshav): A non-Jew who has accepted his obligation to observe the Noahide commandments and wishes, in addition, to live in the Land of Israel, may do so provided that he also undertake not to perform certain types of Sabbath work for the benefit of a Jew. (He is allowed to perform them for himself.)47
- Non-Jewish Bondmen (eved) and Bondwomen (shifchah): A non-Jew purchased by a Jew as a bondman or bondwoman is obligated to abide by all the Torah's prohibitions and perform all active commandments that are not time-bound. When a Jew purchases a non-Jew as a bondman, the non-Jew must be asked if he wants to become a bondman and obligate himself to observe these commandments for the rest of his life. If he agrees, he is circumcised (in the case of a male) and immersed, for this is considered a partial conversion. If he demurs, the Jew must sell him back to a non-Jew. If he hesitates, we may wait up to a year for him to consent. During this interim period, he does not yet attain the legal status of a bondman, and the only commandments he must observe are the prohibitions of certain types of Sabbath work. If, after this interim period, he still demurs, the Jew must sell him back to the non-Jew.48
- Jewish women: All adult Jewish women are required to abide by all the Torah's prohibitions and observe all active commandments that are not time-bound plus certain other active commandments.
- Jewish men: All adult Jewish men are required to abide by all the Torah's prohibitions and observe all the Torah's active commandments that apply to them.
- Jewish men of specific office: Kings, priests, Levites, judges, etc., in addition to observing all the commandments that devolve on adult Jewish men, must also observe the commandments that apply specifically to their office.
There is no obligation for a non-Jew to become a Jew, nor is a Jew obligated to encourage a non-Jew to convert. Jews and non-Jews alike are required to encourage all non-Jews to observe the Noahide commandments and to encourage all Jews to observe all the Torah's commandments that apply to them.
Nonetheless, if a non-Jew feels unfulfilled or incomplete by only following the Noahide commandments, he or she may elect to become a Jew. The non-Jew does this by undergoing a specific conversion process, which includes (a) circumcision (for a male), (b) immersion, (c) offering a specific sacrifice (when the Temple is standing), and (d) acceptance of the full obligation to uphold all of the commandments required of a Jew.
INNER DIMENSIONS
This division of humanity into categories based on their varying degrees of obligation to fulfill the commandments parallels a corresponding distinction in the nature of their psyches. In other words, God equips each of His creatures with the tools necessary to fulfill its purpose. Since Jews and non-Jews are required to fulfill different sets of commandments, they are born with different spiritual psyches, correspondingly tailored to their obligations.
Specifically, non-Jews possess at birth only a human/animal soul, i.e., their a priori motivation in life is physical survival and attaining a satisfying and comfortable lifestyle. Inasmuch as this propensity can easily degenerate into destructively possessive drives for power, glory, sensuality, wealth, etc., this soul is a priori rooted in the spiritual realm of impurity. If a non-Jew consciously accepts his obligation to observe the Noahide code, he ipso facto re-roots his soul in the spiritual realm of neutrality. This decision transforms him into a force for good in the world, rather than a force for selfish self-aggrandizement.49
In contrast, Jews are initially born with both a human/animal soul, rooted in the spiritual realm of neutrality, as well as a Divine soul rooted in the spiritual realm of holiness, which inherently—even if unconsciously—motivates them toward Divinity.50
If a non-Jew wishes to become a Jew, he or she can convert. By undergoing this process in accordance with Jewish law, the non-Jew again re-roots his psyche and acquires an additional, Divine soul.
[5-6] You shall be for Me a treasure cherished above all nations…a kingdom of nobles… and a holy nation: These three descriptions of how God will regard us in return for entering the covenant with Him constitute the three facets of our ongoing relationship with God:
The basis of this relationship is that God chose us, which means that He and we are bound together supra-rationally. True choice is possible only when circumstances do not dictate the choice, in other words, when the choice cannot be ascribed to any predilection of the chooser or any unique qualities of the chosen. In this case, this means that our relationship with God is rooted in God's essence, which transcends and exists "before" and apart from any value system whereby good is preferable to evil or obedience to disobedience.
However, because this bond is so essential, it is also hidden. It exists in our lives as an undercurrent, whose presence is rarely even sensed. It is therefore necessary to bring this intrinsic bond to the surface by relating to God actively. This is done in two ways:
- First, by being "a holy nation," dedicating ourselves to God's purposes for us by studying His Torah and observing its commandments. This separates us from the materiality of the world and all other human cultures, setting us apart as a holy nation.
- Second, by being a "kingdom of nobles" who rule over the materiality of the world and its cultures, co-opting their positive aspects into our Divine mission. This engages us in the materiality of the world.
It is the second of these two ways of actualizing our bond with God that is the main accomplishment of the Giving of the Torah. The patriarchs were already shining examples of renouncing the corruption of one's milieu and devoting oneself to God before the Torah was given. This is why they chose to be shepherds, who could maximize the time they spent by themselves, away from the distractions of civilization and free to meditate and commune with God. And if that is not enough, the angels are totally spiritual and consummately separate from materiality.
Since the principle innovation of the Giving of the Torah was the ability it granted us to consecrate the mundane world, the Torah mentions being a "kingdom of nobles" before being "a holy nation."51
A CLOSER LOOK
The Judicial System: The legal obligation to uphold the commandments makes a person liable to corrective measures for failing to do so. These punishments are not "retribution," but rather a means to cleanse the individual of the negative effect of the transgression on his or her spiritual psyche. Whenever possible, these corrective measures are imposed (either by God, the court, or the individual himself, as the case may be) while the wrongdoer is still alive, allowing him to then continue with his life's mission. Failing this, the wrongdoer will be submitted to cleansing processes in the afterlife.
First and foremost, the wrongdoer must make whatever restitution is due to any injured or wronged party. In addition, certain transgressions incur the following punishments:
- Death administered by the earthly court (i.e., one of the four forms of capital punishment: stoning, burning, decapitation, or strangulation), for transgressions for which the Torah stipulates these forms of punishment,
- Death administered by the heavenly court (i.e., premature death and/or death without survivors [in the latter case, this is called "excision"]) for transgressions for which the Torah stipulates these forms of punishment, and
- Lashes administered by the court, for certain other transgressions.
The earthly court can administer punishments only if (a) the wrongdoing was committed willfully and (b) it was legally witnessed. If the wrongdoer transgressed inadvertently, or the act was not legally witnessed, or if he transgressed a commandment for which the Torah does not specify any punishment, then the court is not required to administer punishment; but the wrongdoer must still repent and cleanse himself of the effect of his wrongdoing.
Repentance (teshuvah) comprises three separate acts: (a) confession, i.e., voicing admission of guilt, (b) contrition, i.e., regret for having done the act, and (c) resolution not to repeat the act.
The wrongdoer must cleanse (kaparah) himself of the negative spiritual effect of his transgression as follows: If he failed to perform an active commandment, no cleansing is necessary. If he transgressed a commandment punishable by lashes, his observance of Yom Kippur cleanses him. If he committed a capital offense, his observance of Yom Kippur plus whatever suffering the heavenly court inflicts upon him cleanses him. If the wrongdoer does not fully cleanse himself during his lifetime, the cleansing process is completed in the afterlife.
Finally, atonement (another meaning of kaparah) is required in order to reinstate the wrongdoer to his former spiritual status and relationship with God, no matter what form of wrongdoing he committed. When the Tabernacle/Temple is functioning, certain specific sacrifices can effect atonement; otherwise, fasting or giving charity can accomplish the same effect.52
God, of course, can chose to override any of these standard procedures, and it is therefore possible to pray to Him to rescind a decree of cleansing suffering. After the incident of the Golden Calf, God revealed to us that invoking His thirteen attributes of mercy is especially effective in this regard.53
INNER DIMENSIONS
Capital Punishment: Although the earthly court can only inflict the four forms of capital punishment when the Temple is standing,54 the spiritual correlates to these punishments apply at all times:
Death by stoning is administered mainly for sins of idolatry or sins akin to idolatry.55 The essence of idolatry is regarding the natural forces through which God channels His beneficence as independent or even semi-independent entities, when in truth they are just God's tools. In modern terms, we are guilty of idolatry when we regard the efforts we must make to earn our livelihood as the true means by which we secure it. In fact, we really earn our livelihood through our devotion to God and our faithful fulfillment of His will, while the effort we invest in our careers or jobs is just the vessel we prepare to receive God's beneficence. By submerging our minds and hearts in our work instead of in the Torah and its commandments, we are lowering our heads—bowing down—and prostrating ourselves before the idols of business and work.
The result of this is "stoning"—the heart turns to stone. When we finally take a break from business and try to open our hearts in prayer, nothing happens. Our spiritual senses have become deadened by our relentless service to the gods of material wealth and career success.
A subtler form of idolatry is anger. Anger is possible only when we become haughty and arrogant; when we idolize ourselves this way, we cannot bear it when others disagree with us or when things don't go our way. In contrast, a humble person, aware of his insignificance before God, does not get angry. The effect of unrecanting arrogance is also the stone heart, i.e., being deadened to Divinity.
Death by burning is administered for certain sins of adultery and incest.56 These sins are the archetypes for all other forbidden and permitted sensual lusts. God's world is full of beautiful and pleasurable things; we are meant to enjoy these things in accordance with the Torah's guidelines in order to enhance our appreciation and wonder for their Creator. When instead we misuse our intellect and focus it exclusively on experiencing the beauty and pleasure inherent in God's creation, we become progressively consumed by the fire of lust, chasing after ever more titillating stimuli and eventually even indulging in forbidden pleasures in order to satisfy our unending need for excitation. Burned by our lusts, we become in this way also deadened to all things Godly.
Death by decapitation is administered to a murderer.57 The spiritual correlate of murder is when we stifle the higher (or "human") aspects of our personalities, killing them off and leaving ourselves with nothing more than our animal drives and emotions. By neglecting to cultivate our intellectual side, choosing instead to follow the lead of our raw emotions, these emotions grow unguided, unrefined, and uncultured. Our reactions to even permitted indulgences become exaggerated: we become gluttonous and greedy; we act cruelly and mercilessly to those who dare to get in our way or dare not to show us proper respect.
Having severed our head from our body—our intellect from our emotions—it should come as no surprise that it is virtually impossible for any intellectual realization or meditation to influence our emotions or behavior. Even when we understand and get intellectually excited about some profound Divine insight, our heart does not react accordingly. It is too absorbed in its overblown involvement with our inner animal.
Death by strangulation is administered for transgressing most other prohibitions for which none of the above methods of execution is specified.58 As such, it is the generic result of disobedience or a lack of commitment or discipline. In general, lawless behavior is an affront to our purpose in creation, i.e., to make the world into God's home. By not being true to our Divine mission, we deprive our true, Divine self of its ability to express itself. Our inner voice is silenced, and when we are confronted with some challenge to our Jewish right to exist or flourish we can articulate no self-defense; we have nothing to say. Our spiritual vocal cords have atrophied. We have choked.
The remedy for all these spiritual maladies is true, sincere repentance. Eliciting God's mercy repairs whatever damage we have done and gives us a new lease on life.59
[10] Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow…they shall wash their clothes: Allegorically, our "clothing" is our thought, speech, and deed. These are the tools the soul uses to express and present itself to the outside world, just as we clothe our bodies in accord with the image we wish to convey to society.
God gave Moses the job of sanctifying the people, but it was the people's job to cleanse their clothing. The Moses of each generation can inspire us, direct us, and connect us to God, but this is dependent on our own preparation, the extent to which we cleanse our thought, speech, and actions from unseemly elements.60
[11] I will heal them of their infirmities: Along with healing them of their physical infirmities, God also healed the people of their spiritual infirmities: He erased the effects of any past wrongdoings and restored the entire people to the innocence of Adam and Eve before they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.61 Were it not for the incident of the Golden Calf, the people would have retained this pristine status and lived forever.62 The sublime quality of the original tablets affected the people by enabling them to remember perfectly the Torah they would learn.63 They were thus transformed into a nation of wholly righteous people.64
[13] When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they may ascend the mountain: The extended blast indicated the withdrawal of God's presence and the termination of its sanctifying effect on the mountain. The awesome mountain that had been strictly off-limits suddenly became approachable.
The open revelation of God's presence on the mountain temporarily suspended the people's free choice; they could not deny God's existence or His concern.65 But once the Divine inspiration dissipated, the resulting void left room again for doubt, even rebellion.66 Thus, the same blast that signaled the withdrawal of God's presence signaled the return of free choice and independence of action.
But precisely because of this independence, our accomplishments count as our own. If there were no alternative to devotion to God, it would have little significance. The possibility of rejecting God therefore endows meaning to our devotion to Him and enables us to express our freedom of choice. When there is no motivation from heaven, we must muster our own initiative, rendering our accomplishments the result of our own choice, fueled by our own energy.
God therefore withdrew after giving the Torah to enable us to serve Him with self-motivation and transform the world from within. Whereas the sanctity God infused into the physical world at the Giving of the Torah was superimposed and therefore fleeting, the sanctity we infuse into the world is generated from within, and therefore permanent.67
[14] And Moses came down from the mountain to the people: Our sages note that "Moses did not attend to his own affairs, but [rather proceeded straight] from the mountain to the people."68 This statement implies that Moses did not even attend to his spiritual affairs. Moses' spiritual concerns were certainly so sublime that only he was capable of performing them. Yet he ignored these matters in order to attend to the people's rudimentary need to cleanse their behavior.69
The lesson for us is that, however sublime our personal agenda, we must give precedence to attending to the needs of other Jews.70
[17] At the foot of the mountain: Literally, this phrase reads "underneath the mountain." Allegorically, this refers to the Jewish people's utter submission to the Torah. This shared submission, united "under" the Torah, is what enabled them to stand "as one people" despite their innate diversity, as we have noted.71
Just as this holds true for the Jewish people as a whole, so does it hold true for every Jewish family unit. Differences of role and function and of nuance in individual personality can naturally set family members at odds. Yet, if they share a common submission to the Torah, all else becomes secondary and they become united in profound underlying harmony.72
God uprooted the mountain and suspended it over the people: A mountain is a protrusion above the plain, while a valley is a sunken area below the level of the plain. A mountain is a metaphor for love, how a person extends himself outward to make contact with another person, whereas a valley is a metaphor for fear, how a person withdraws within himself to avoid contact with another person. A plain, in this context, is a metaphor for indifference.
Allegorically, then, by suspending the mountain on top of the people, God enveloped them in His love. We are taught in the Book of Proverbs73 that "as [in] water, face reflects face, so is a person's heart [reflected] by another." By overwhelming them with His love, God forced the people to feel overwhelming love for Him. Although they were ready to accept the Torah in any case, God coerced them in this manner into accepting it unconditionally.
This enveloping love was a preparation for the union that was to occur at the actual Giving of the Torah.
In Kabbalistic terms, this was the revelation of enveloping (makif) light that preceded the revelation of inner (penimi) light.74
The Children as Guarantors: According to the Midrash, when God wanted to give the Torah to the Israelites, He asked them, "Do you accept My Torah?" "Yes," they answered. "Provide Me with a guarantor that will ensure that you uphold it," demanded God. They said to Him, "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be our guarantors." God did not accept this. They said to Him, "Our prophets will be our guarantors." God did not accept this, either. They said to Him, "Our children will be our guarantors." God accepted them immediately as guarantors and gave the Torah to Israel.75
A homiletical interpretation:
Although the Jews had the best of intentions, God knew that the exigencies of life could cause them to stray from the path of the Torah and its commandments. As with any transaction involving a risk of default, God required some form of guarantee that the Torah would be upheld.
The Jews first suggested their parents as guarantors. "Although we may be busy," they said, "we have older parents. They are already retired and carry no financial responsibilities. We will be happy to support them so that they can comfortably study the Torah, and they will be our guarantors."
God did not accept this, so the Jews suggested their prophets as guarantors. The word for "prophet" (navi) actually means "orator." The Jews said: "Our rabbis will keep Judaism alive! We ourselves don't have time for Torah study, so we will hire rabbis, and it will be their job to study on our behalf."
God wasn't satisfied with this solution either. His intent was for every Jew to follow the path of Torah, not only the rabbis or the elders.
The Jews then tried one more approach. "Accept our children as guarantors. Throughout their childhood, when they are too young to earn a livelihood, we are prepared to send them to Jewish schools where they will study the Torah. When they grow older, however, we will have to bring them into the family business, and they will no longer have time for full-time study."
God found these guarantors satisfactory, and on this merit He agreed to give the Jews the Torah. When children receive the proper education, their dedication to the Torah lasts throughout their lives. Moreover, besides eventually passing their dedication on to their own children, they influence their parents to renew their dedication to the Torah as well.
We see here how educating our children in schools that provide them with a solid grounding in the Torah is the only way of ensuring Jewish continuity.76
Another lesson from the above Midrash:
Parents love all their children, but they usually express their love most openly to their youngest children. A young child's lack of understanding limits the ways in which parents can express their love, but the intensity of their love exists despite this—or perhaps because of it.
The same is true in the relationship between God and His children, the Jewish people. The greatest display of His love for us took place in our national infancy, at the revelation at Mount Sinai. True, He limited the revelation to what we were capable of absorbing. "God descended upon Mount Sinai"—He descended to a level that we could appreciate. The Ten Commandments are for the most part practical and straightforward decrees, because that was all we could absorb at that time.
Yet, just as a parent's love for his child is not diminished in any way by the latter's limited capacity to appreciate it, so too, God's love was not limited in any way by our limited spiritual sophistication. The entire Torah is hidden within the Ten Commandments. Moreover, God imparted His very essence in the Torah that He gave us, as we will note.77
This concept remains true at all times. When we contemplate our spiritual shortcomings, we may feel overwhelmed by the challenges facing us, and wonder: "How can I possibly overcome all these obstacles and hope to connect to God through His Torah and commandments?" The truth is, however, that God's love is revealed in its entirety specifically to His youngest children; i.e., to those who, despite their challenges and obstacles, choose to unconditionally follow His word with boundless devotion.78
[18] The whole of Mount Sinai was in smoke because God had descended upon it in fire: The smoke indicated that the heavenly fire that had descended upon the mountain was consuming it. This alluded to how the Giving of the Torah enabled the physical world to be transformed into a vehicle for spirituality.
This transformation can and should encompass all aspects of reality: what we would call today the three dimensions of space, the dimension of time, and the dimension of life or consciousness.79
The key to accomplishing this is making sure that all aspects of our religious life are imbued with "fire," i.e., Divine warmth and enthusiasm.80
Until the Giving of the Torah, spirituality and physicality were separate domains and the gulf between them could not be bridged. Physical deeds could not influence the spiritual realm, and spiritual deeds could not affect the physical world. With the Giving of the Torah, this discontinuity was annulled, and spirituality and physicality became opposite ends of a continuum.
God Himself initiated this new reality by descending upon Mount Sinai. At that point, the revelation of the Name Havayah that began in Egypt81 was completed.82
A CLOSER LOOK
[20] God descended upon Mount Sinai, onto the peak of the mountain. Although God's presence also descended into Egypt to slay the firstborn,83 this descent was not accompanied by smoke, fire, a shofar blast, or an earthquake, as it was in this instance. This is because here, God's presence "settled" on the mountain—if only temporarily—in order to reveal His wisdom, the Torah. (The Rabbinic idiom for this is that God's "throne" descended onto the mountain.) This intense revelation was appropriately accompanied by a majestic display of phenomena that expressed how nature was being overruled.
In Egypt, in contrast, God's presence merely "passed" through the land to accomplish its ends.84
Chapter 20
[1] God then spoke all these words: Inasmuch as the Giving of the Torah was the greatest revelation of God in history, we would expect it to be introduced by the Name Havayah, which signifies God's mercy, rather than the Name Elokim, which signifies God's strict justice.
Indeed, had God revealed at the Giving of the Torah only the Divine revelations that the Jews actually witnessed, the Torah would have used the Name Havayah. However, the Giving of the Torah also included all the Divine revelations that would occur until the end of time. God gave these revelations in potentia, however, and left their subsequent actualization up to us. By studying the Torah and observing its commandments, we increase Divine consciousness in the world, and thereby remove the veils that hide these Divine revelations.85
God then spoke all these words, saying: In all other instances where the Torah uses this idiom ("God spoke…saying"), it means that the message is to be conveyed to a third party. (In most cases, it means that Moses is to relate to the Jewish people what God is telling him.) In this case, however, there was no third party to hear these words later on: every single Jew alive at the time was present at Mount Sinai and personally heard God say these words. It cannot even be understood as the obligation to transmit the Torah to later generations, for the sages teach us that the souls of every Jew that would exist throughout all of history were present at the giving of the Torah.86
Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael explain that the word "saying" in this verse indicates that the Jews responded to each of the Ten Commandments. According to Rabbi Yishmael, they responded, "Yes [we will do it]" to the active commandments and "No [we will not commit that sin]" to the passive commandments. According to Rabbi Akiva, they responded to both the active and the passive commandments with "Yes!" meaning "We will do whatever You say."87
Their conflicting opinions may be resolved as follows: Every commandment is an expression of God's will. In this regard, all commandments are equal, since they are all equally the will of God. On the other hand, each commandment has its particular, unique effect on the person performing it and upon the world. The question of which aspect of the commandment should be paramount in the mind of the person performing it underlies the disagreement between the two sages. Rabbi Yishmael maintained that the emphasis must be on the particular aspects of each commandment ("yes" to positive commandments; "no" to passive ones), since the purpose of the commandments is to bring holiness to all the various and different facets of the individual's life. Rabbi Akiva, in contrast, maintained that the emphasis must be on the transcendent nature of the commandments, i.e., how they express our surrender to the will of God ("yes" to everything).
On a deeper level, Rabbi Akiva focused on the positive result of resisting evil rather than on the inherent negativity of evil itself. Thus, he considered the proper response to passive commandments to be "yes—we will resist." In contrast, Rabbi Yishmael focused on the evil to be resisted in passive commandments, and thus considered the proper response to them to be "no—we will not succumb."88
The Maggid of Mezeritch offered an alternative explanation:
Two verbs for speaking are used in this verse: "God then spoke all these words, saying." These two verbs allude to the ten decrees with which God created the world (which begin "And God said, let there be…") and the Ten Commandments (which are introduced with "God then spoke…"). Thus, this verse can be read as follows: "God spoke all these words"—God gave the Jewish people the following commandments—in order that they be implemented within and have an affect upon His "saying"—the physical world created through the ten decrees.
Although there was no one else to whom to transmit the Torah, further transmission is still required. It is not enough for us to study the Torah; we must ensure that it permeates every aspect of our lives, such that everything we do, say, or think is a direct result of our connection with the Torah. This is the point of the word "saying"—that the Torah not remain as it was when God told it to the Jewish people, but rather that it be implemented and actualized within the physical world.
We are not allowed to relegate God and His Torah to our synagogues and yeshivot. Whatever we do and wherever we go, we must carry with us the consciousness of Divinity we attain when we pray and study the Torah.89
Another explanation: "God spoke all these words" then, at the Giving of the Torah, such that we actually "say" them again, whenever we study the Torah. When we open ourselves properly, we re-experience the revelation of the Torah from God whenever we learn it. Thus, God speaks of the Torah as "My word, which I have put in your mouth,"90 and our sages encourage us to feel the same "awe, fear, trembling, and perspiring"91 when we learn today that we felt at the Giving of the Torah.92
Another explanation: There is value in reciting of the Torah's words itself, apart from learning and understanding them. (The verse can thus be read: "God spoke all these words [for us] to recite.") Thus we find that Chasidic leaders often instructed the more simple of their followers—who did not necessarily have the talents or time for in-depth study—to memorize certain parts of the Torah and recite them often. In this way, these simple folk achieved levels of purity and holiness far beyond what their ability to study or pray could have granted them.93
The Ten Commandments are all addressed in the singular. Our sages offer two seemingly contradictory explanations for this fact:
- The Ten Commandments had to be addressed to the Jewish people as a collective whole, for if even one Jew was missing, the Torah could not have been given. This implies that each individual received the Torah in the same way.94
- The Ten Commandments were addressed to each and every Jew as individuals. This implies that each individual received the Torah in a unique, personal way, tailored to his or her spiritual and psychological makeup.95
Both explanations are valid. The written text of the Torah itself, its authoritative interpretation (the Oral Torah), and the commandments it contains apply equally to every Jew. In these areas there can be no differentiation, and the entire Jewish people can therefore be viewed as one homogenous entity. However, one of the commandments that devolve on every Jew is the obligation to study the Torah. Study is unique in that the student must understand the Torah within his own intellect, and no two people's capacities for study are alike—quantitatively or qualitatively. In this respect, therefore, the Torah was given to each person individually and distinctively, and every person must approach it in his or her own way.96
INNER DIMENSIONS
[1] God then spoke all these words, saying: The Torah contains 613 specific commandments: All 248 active commandments are included within the first commandment and all 365 passive commandments are included within the second commandment. In this sense, the people indeed heard all the commandments directly from God.97
But this was only in a general sense; God did not explicitly communicate all the 613 commandments at this time. For example, He waited to articulate some of those that would be applicable only when the people would enter the Land of Israel until just before they entered it. With yet other commandments, God waited until a situation arose that "occasioned" the commandment, etc.98 This was in order to convey the message that we are meant to consider all the commandments relevant and immediately practicable.
In any case, God communicated the entire Torah prior to Moses' death, enabling him to transmit the text to the people in its entirety.
[2] I am: In giving the Torah to the Jewish people, God did not merely give them a guide to life; He provided them with the key to connect with His essence. This idea is alluded to in the first word of the Ten Commandments, "I." This "I" refers to God's ineffable essence, which is so sublime that it cannot be referred to by any Name or adjective.99
The significance of the fact that the Torah is the key to God's essence is not only that He has thereby made it accessible to us. The revelation of God's essence in the Torah has important repercussions for the world at large, as well.
By way of analogy: quarreling captains will be shocked into peaceful behavior and instantly stifle their bickering when their commander enters the room. Their awe of him lifts them out of their usual pettiness. They instantly recall that they have a common, loftier mission that overrides their personal agendas.
Similarly, when the essence of God is revealed, the barriers between the divergent aspects of reality He allows to exist as part of His creation crumble. The normally antithetical aspects of reality harmonize; physical existence becomes a vessel for holiness.
The form of the word for "I" used here (anochi) is similar to the Egyptian word for "I," and in fact, the sages say that it is precisely because of this similarity that God used this form of the word rather than the simpler one (ani).100 One would not expect the first word of the Ten Commandments, the basis of the entire Jewish religion, to evoke memories the language of the enemy from whom the Jews had just escaped and whose culture is the antithesis of Judaism. But that is just the point of the revelation of God's essence revealed in the Torah—that even the extreme materiality of Egypt can be made holy.
Furthermore, it is specifically by elevating the materiality of this world and using it for holy purposes that we reveal our connection to God's essence. In refining ourselves (as opposed to the world at large), we only tap our connection to God's Names Havayah (through relating to God supra-rationally) and Elokim (through relating to God using our intellect).101
I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt: As opposed to the Name Havayah, the Name Elokim undergoes declension: it accepts suffixes that make it mean "our God," "your God," etc. This is because in order for God to "belong" to us, He must first constrict His self-revelation, and this process of constriction (tzimtzum) is indicated by the Name Elokim. The Name Havayah, in contrast, refers to God's essence, which can never be constricted.102 This verse thus means that the normally transcendent Name Havayah will now become the immanent, operative power within every Jew.
Under other circumstances, infusing transcendent Divinity into a created being's normative consciousness would cause it to cease to exist. The intensity of the revelation would simply overload its capacities and it would be instantly absorbed into the Divine energy flowing through it. The only reason this did not happen here is because the Jewish people accepted the Torah; studying the Torah and fulfilling its commandments enable us to withstand this transcendent Divine consciousness.103
The fact that "God is our God," i.e., that His transcendent self becomes our "nature," enables us to overcome whatever obstacles the natural world poses to fulfilling our Divine tasks. In other words, because "God is our God," we can "go out of the land of Egypt."104
INNER DIMENSIONS
I am God, your God: Allegorically, this means that with the Giving of the Torah, the Name Havayah became operative with every Jew. We all intrinsically possess the ability to align our entire array of psychological powers with the Divine powers alluded to in the four letters of this Name:
- The yud indicates chochmah, the power to access the supra-conscious level of the Divine soul, which binds us to God intrinsically. This is expressed as the power to overcome all obstacles to fulfilling our Divine purpose, even if this calls for self-sacrifice.
- The hei indicates binah, the power to understand Divinity and know God.
- The vav indicates the power to orient our six emotions toward God, making Him the object of our love, awe, compassion, trust, devotion, and loyalty.
- The final hei indicates the powers of expression—thought, speech, and action—which we can also dedicate to fulfilling our Divine mission in life.105
A CLOSER LOOK
[9] You shall not do any work: This law prohibits doing 39 specific categories of work, those that would be performed in constructing the Tabernacle, the portable Temple that was to serve as the locus of the sacrificial rites and the site where God's presence was openly manifest. The Torah will give the details of the construction of the Tabernacle later. The 39 categories of work involved in its construction are:
In order to prepare the vegetable dyes used in dyeing the tapestries, the ground had to be (1) plowed (חורש), and the seed (2) sown (זורע). Then, after the plant ripened, it was (3) harvested (קוצר), each plant being left where it was cut in the field. Then, all the plants were (4) gathered together into piles and bound into sheaves (both מעמר). Afterwards, the grain was (5) threshed (דש) in order to separate the kernels from the chaff, although they remained mixed together. The mixture was then (6) thrown into the wind (winnowed, זורה), the wind blowing away the chaff as the kernels fell to the ground. The stones and debris were then (7) separated (בורר) away from the kernels, which were then (8) ground (טוחן) into flour, which was then (9) sifted (מרקד) and (10) kneaded (לש) into dough, which was subsequently (11) baked (which is a type of cooking, מבשל). Cooking involved (12) kindling (מבעיר) and (13) extinguishing (מכבה) fires.
To obtain the wool for the coverings, they would first (14) shear (גוזז) it off the animals, then (15) wash (מלבן) it, (16) comb (מנפץ) it so it would be ready to be woven, (17) dye (צובע) it, and (18) spin (טווה) it into threads. The threads would then be (19 & 20) prepared to be woven (מיסך & עושה שני בתי נירין), and finally (21) woven (אורג) into fabric. During the weaving process, it was often necessary to (22) unravel (פוצע) threads. Once the fabric was woven it was (23) sewn (תופר) into the coverings. In the process of sewing, it was often necessary to (24) rip (קורע) pieces of fabric.
To make the nets used for trapping the shellfish from which the dye was extracted, they would have to (25) tie (קושר) and (26) untie (מתיר) knots.
To obtain the hides used for the coverings, they had to first (27) trap (צד) the animals (this type of work was done also in trapping the shellfish), (28) slaughter (שוחט) them, and (29) skin (מפשיט) them. The hide was then (30) cured (מעבד) (which included salting (מולח) and (31) smoothed (ממחק). Before cutting it, they would (32) mark (משרטט) it and then (33) cut (מחתק) it into shape.
When assembling the boards, it would be necessary to (34) write (כותב) on the board in order to identify it so it could then be properly positioned with the rest of the boards. If a mistake was made in the labeling, it would be necessary to (35) erase (מוחק) the marking in order to write the correct one. The boards would then be (36) assembled (בונה) and (37) disassembled (סותר). After everything was positioned, they would (38) hammer (מכה בפטיש) everything into final place.
Gathering all the materials used involved (39) carrying (הוצאה) from one domain to another.106
[10] A Sabbath unto God: Biblically, the Sabbath is a day on which we must desist from performing certain acts. The prophets and the sages, however, instituted that on the Sabbath we must also refrain from speaking of these acts. Citing this verse, the sages state:107 "Just as God's Sabbath was a respite from speech [since God created the world with speech], so should we refrain from mundane speech on the Sabbath." They then relate the story of an exceptionally pious man who, one Sabbath, saw a breach in his fence and decided to fix it after the Sabbath. When he later realized that he had been thinking about work on the Sabbath, he vowed never to fix the breach. So, as a measure of piety, we should not even think of non-Sabbath acts on the Sabbath.
The reason why we are not biblically obligated to imitate God in speech and thought is because God's thought and speech create, while ours do not. Hence, from a biblical perspective, we are only prohibited from desecrating the Sabbath through our deeds, which can be compared to God's creation of the world.
Speech, which can affect the physical world indirectly (by influencing or directing how others act, for example), is similar to creation and is therefore forbidden rabbinically. Rabbinic enactments take us beyond the strict letter of the law, reflecting the deep, innate Jewish desire to cleave to God's ways.
Thought, in contrast to both action and speech, is an entirely self-oriented faculty. It bears no resemblance to the outwardly oriented act of creation, and is therefore permitted. A pious person, however, who seeks to merge his own identity with God, will cease from even mundane thought on the Sabbath, in imitation of his Creator.108
[12] Honor your father and mother: The Ten Commandments begin with the sublime fundamentals of Jewish theology: belief in God and negation of idolatry. The third commandment enjoins us to respect God, and the fourth enjoins us to devote one day a week to spiritual rejuvenation. But the subsequent commandments are rather prosaic, even obvious. Any normal society bans murder, kidnapping, bearing false witness, and so on. Was all the fanfare and awesome display of Divine power really necessary in order to convince us not to murder each other?
The answer is: yes. By including these self-evident pillars of civilized life in the Ten Commandments, God is telling us that we must uphold all the Torah's laws—even the apparently "rational" ones—not because they make sense to us but because they are Divine commandments. Of course, we must understand and appreciate how God's commandments make sense, but we must not predicate our observance of them on our understanding. Rational thinking can sometimes be led astray by convincing counterarguments or mitigating circumstances, but absolute devotion to God's word ensures that our observance will remain uncompromised.109
The first five of the Ten Commandments focus on our relationship with God, the second five on our relationship with our fellow human beings. Honoring parents, the fifth commandment, is placed in the first category, since honoring parents, who are partners with God in creating life, is synonymous with honoring God.110
In truth, however, this commandment is part of both our relationship with God as well as our relationship with humanity. On the one hand, we honor parents because we recognize and appreciate the fact that they brought us into the world and took care of us as children. This gratitude defines the commandment's focus as interpersonal. On the other hand, we honor our parents because we recognize that a finite creature's ability to procreate an infinite chain of generations derives from God's infinity. From this perspective, by honoring our parents we are in fact honoring God, recognizing the Divine infinity they reflect.111
[13] Do not murder: The five commandments inscribed on the first of the two tablets deal with our relationship with God, whereas the five inscribed on the second tablet deal with our relationship with our fellow human beings. This juxtaposition teaches us two things: On the one hand, we must learn to treat God as we do human beings. We instinctively sense that we must repay the kindnesses shown us by other people, but we often neglect our responsibilities towards God; He is easy to forget. On the other hand, our relationship towards our fellows must be predicated upon our belief in God: we are responsible to behave properly toward them because God says so. If the source of our commitment to decency is anything other than God's mandate, there is no guarantee that our actions will not be swayed by self-love or worse. When God is removed from the picture, even the most "cultured" society can commit mass murder. But when the first half of the Ten Commandments, the awareness that "I am God, your God," governs our lives, we are sure to overcome any obstacle that stands in the way of goodness and truth.112
[14] You shall not be envious: God provides each of us with all the resources—possessions, talents, and strengths—that we require to fulfill our unique mission in life. We each achieve our ultimate fulfillment by dedicating these resources to our Divine mission and utilizing them to heighten the awareness of God in the world. Any resources God has not provided us with at any given moment are thus extraneous to our mission and sidetrack us from the development of our fullest potential. Genuine recognition of this truth precludes any envy.113
[14] That belongs to your fellowman: As mentioned above,114 all the commandments of the Torah are alluded to in the Ten Commandments. In addition to the 613 biblical commandments, the sages instituted seven additional commandments: washing the hands before eating bread, delineating boundaries around certain areas before carrying within them on the Sabbath (eiruv), lighting Shabbat candles, celebrating the holidays of Purim and Chanukah, and reciting Psalms 113-118 (collectively known as Hallel) on certain holidays.
The total number of commandments, biblical and rabbinic, is thus 620. Remarkably, the Ten Commandments contain 620 letters, alluding to these 620 commandments.115 Accordingly, the seven rabbinic commandments are alluded to in the final seven letters of the Ten Commandments, which form the words for "that belongs to your fellowman."
This, in turn, alludes to the fact that the seven rabbinic commandments were added by the Jewish people, God's "fellow" or "friend."116 On the other hand, God is also called "a friend" in Scripture,117 implying that the seven rabbinic commandments "belong to" and are authored by God. Indeed, these commandments "belong to" both God and man: They were authored by God, but revealed and articulated by the Jewish people.118
[15] All the people witnessed the thunder and the flames: According to Rabbi Yishmael, the people saw what is normally seen (the flames) and heard what is normally heard (the thunder). According to Rabbi Akiva, they saw what is normally heard (the thunder) and heard what is normally seen (the flames).119
The difference between sight and hearing is this: once we have seen something, we are sure of its reality—after all, we saw it. If we only hear something, or hear about something, no matter how much the sound or explanation rings true, we still entertain a certain doubt about it. Thus, for all practical purposes, our reality—that which we know to be real—is what we see.
God's presence in this world is normally something we hear about or understand, but it is not a part of our empirical reality. At Mount Sinai, however, God's presence became obvious. The Jews saw it and perceived it as they normally perceived the physical world. When this happens, the world becomes the thing we merely "hear about." The Jews at Mount Sinai understood that a physical reality must exist, but it was not their reality; they didn't see it. This perception is the real truth, the consciousness that will prevail in the messianic future. This is the view of Rabbi Akiva.
According to Rabbi Yishmael, the people saw what is usually seen and heard what is usually heard. For Rabbi Yishmael, the purpose of creation is to bring holiness into our reality. Hence the experience at Sinai, in his view, was an intense revelation of God's presence that affected the people even within their perspective.
This difference of opinion between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael reflects the same philosophical difference underlying their debate over how the Jews responded to each commandment.120 Since Rabbi Yishmael considered the essence of the Torah and its commandments to be their ability to imbue the material world with Divinity, he saw the commandments in terms of how each one accomplishes this in its own way. In contrast, since Rabbi Akiva considered the essence of the Torah and its commandments to be their ability to raise us above our own perspective and allow us to see things from God's perspective, he saw the commandments as the collective means by which we lose our own selfhood and perspective in submission to God's will.
Rashi, in his explanation of the basic, contextual meaning of the Torah, states that the people saw what is normally heard, but not that they heard what is normally seen. In other words, they rose to the level of awareness where Godliness is a given, but they continued to accept the reality of the world as a given, too. They did not concomitantly sense the world as nothing more than a logical necessity, because, at the fundamental level of understanding the Torah, this is all that God requires of us. He wants us to consider our spiritual lives as givens: that our primary occupation be learning the Torah and upholding its commandments.
In contrast, both Rabbi Yishmael's and Rabbi Akiva's approaches apply to more advanced levels of spiritual maturity. Rabbi Akiva's view includes "hearing what is normally seen": relating to our physical needs (eating, drinking, etc.) as something we'd rather do without and only partake of to the minimal extent absolutely necessary to sustain ourselves. This is a level of religious maturity that the Torah does not demand of us at the outset. Rabbi Yishmael's view, that the ultimate is "to see what is normally seen and hear what is normally heard"—that is, to imbue the world even as we normally see it with Divinity—is a level of spiritual maturity even more advanced than Rabbi Akiva's.
This is also why Rashi adopts Rabbi Yishmael's position with regard to how the people responded to God's commands: that they answered "Yes! We will!" to the preceptive ones and "No! We will not!" to the prohibitory ones. At the basic level of Divine consciousness, where Godliness is a given but so is the reality of the world, we must indeed affirm that which is positive and reject that which is negative.
Later, we may mature and attain Rabbi Akiva's perspective: that the world is only a logical necessity and the only true reality is God, and that therefore rejecting a prohibited activity is itself positive, an act of submission to God's will. Later still, we may attain Rabbi Yishmael's perspective: that we should imbue not only the morally neutral aspects of the world (where "the world, which is normally seen, is seen") with Divinity, but also reveal Divinity in the realms of evil (where "Divinity, which is normally only heard about, is indeed only heard about"). To be sure, neophytes must be careful not to undertake such challenges before they are ready to, but as we mature spiritually, we should not shy away from elevating the lower aspects of material life nor from imbuing them with transcendent Divinity.121
The experience of "seeing" something, i.e., knowing it fully and intimately, characterizes our study of the exoteric dimension of the Torah. The laws of the Torah and their derivations apply to the things of this world, things we know and are familiar with. In contrast, the experience of "hearing," i.e., being indirectly aware of something, characterizes our study of the esoteric dimension of the Torah. None of us has seen a spiritual world, an angel, or a sefirah; these are abstract concepts we can only imagine.
According to the view of Rabbi Akiva, this situation was reversed at the Giving of the Torah. The exoteric dimension of the Torah was hidden—the laws and dialectic of the Torah were only alluded to in the Ten Commandments, while the esoteric dimension of the Torah was revealed, inasmuch as the heavens were opened and the spiritual worlds became visible.122
And they shuddered: This spontaneous reaction to the Giving of the Torah reflects its effect on the world at large. In the sages' words: "When God gave the Torah, the birds did not chirp nor take wing, the oxen did not low, the ofanim did not fly, the seraphim123 did not say 'Holy! Holy,'124 the sea did not tremble, and creatures did not converse with each other. Rather, the world was silently waiting. Thereupon [God's] voice proclaimed, 'I am God, your God…' "125
Self-nullification, the spontaneous loss or deliberate abnegation of self-awareness and ego in the face of a greater, overwhelming reality, can come about in two ways. The inferior way is self-induced: we consciously nullify ourselves in deference to the superiority of another entity. This is certainly praiseworthy, for we are being honest enough to acknowledge that there is something greater than ourselves. Nonetheless, we are still in control; we choose to relinquish our ego.
The superior form of self-nullification occurs when we are in the presence of something so obviously awesome that we are instinctively and spontaneously humbled. In such a case, we do not need to consciously nullify ourselves; we are nullified automatically and lose even the awareness of our selflessness. This was the type of selflessness that the revelation at Sinai produced: the world became silent and the people spontaneously shuddered and stood at a distance.
This dynamic is relevant today, as well, in the different types of selflessness we experience when we perform God's commandments and study the Torah. When we perform God's commandments, we retain a certain degree of self-awareness: we are performing the commandment. When we learn Torah, however, we lose ourselves in Divine consciousness and feel God's words speaking through us.126
[18] God agreed with the people: God agreed because only if the people would receive the Torah on their normal level, not artificially and temporarily bolstered to a higher plane of consciousness, would the Torah they learn fully permeate their minds and hearts. Were they to continue to hear God's word at the intensity of Moses' level of awareness, they would indeed be more fully awed with its transcendence, but they would be unable to relate to it as something relevant and applicable to their daily lives.127
[20-21] You shall not make with Me idols…You shall make an Altar for Me upon the earth: The first commandment following the giving of the Torah is a passive one ("you shall not make with Me idols of silver or idols of gold"), implying that the first step toward internalizing the Torah is not active involvement, but passivity. Nothingness must precede new existence; the seed's protective coating must disintegrate in the ground before it can germinate. The more we wipe away the previous state of being, the previous way of thinking, the greater the new one can be.
The next commandment is an active one ("you shall make Me an Altar upon the earth"), yet it, too, contains the message of self-nullification. Earth, the ground upon which we all tread, symbolizes selflessness.
As we saw above, the Torah's effect on us is one of absolute self-abnegation. When we study it, we become totally absorbed in God's mind, so to speak. This being the case, whatever spiritual accomplishments we go on to achieve—the "Altar" we build—do not heighten our sense of self; they are an "Altar of earth." We identify totally with God and ascribe all our deeds to Him, working through us.128
[23] All the more should you show respect to your fellow human being: This exercise in showing respect for stones emphasizes the extent to which we must protect the honor of our fellow: even when the other person is not aware that he is being disrespected; even when the offender does not mean to offend; and even when the offense is not a full-fledged one.
Thus, the last verse of parashat Yitro sums up the message of the revelation at Sinai: God is found in the simple things, in the way we treat our fellow. In this parashah we learn that issues between man and man are indeed issues between man and God; a slight to one's fellow is a slight to his Creator. And in a positive sense, loving one's fellow is in truth loving his Creator.129
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