Comentario sobre Exodo 19:8

וישב משה את דברי העם וגו׳ AND MOSES RETURNED THE WORDS OF THE PEOPLE [UNTO THE LORD] on the next day, which was the third of the month, for he never ascended the mountain to God except early in the morning (Shabbat 86a). But was it really necessary for Moses to deliver the reply to God; God is Omniscient! — But the explanation is that Scripture intends to teach you good manners from the example of Moses: for he did not say, “Since He who sent me knows the reply there is no need for me to report it” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:8).

VAYASHEV MOSHEH’ THE WORDS OF THE PEOPLE UNTO THE ETERNAL. This means that Moses returned¹⁷⁹Ramban thus interprets the word vayashev in the sense of “returning,” and not of “reporting”: “he returned to G-d with the words of the people.” “And there was no need to mention that ‘he went up to the mountain,’ since Scripture speaks here briefly” (Ibn Ezra). before Him to the mountain with the people’s answer. Now everything is revealed to Him, and He did not inquire of him, “What did this people answer you?” It is similar in meaning to the verse: And the Eternal heard the voice of your words, when ye spoke unto me.¹⁸⁰Deuteronomy 5:25. And when Moses came before Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, said, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee forever.¹⁸¹Verse 9. Then Moses said before Him,¹⁸²This is the sense of the conclusion of Verse 9: and Moses told the words of the people unto the Eternal, i.e., the words they had said, “Master of the universe, etc.” On the significance of this interpretation of Ramban, see further, Note 186. “Master of the universe, your children are people of faith, and they accept upon themselves whatever You will speak.”
The above usage [of the word vayashev as meaning “returning” or “coming back”] is also found in the verse, ‘vayashivu’ unto them word… and they showed them the fruit of the Land,¹⁸³Numbers 13:26. which means: “They [i.e., the spies] came back to them with the things which they saw.” [It cannot mean that “they reported” to them], for afterwards Scripture says there, And they told him, and said.¹⁸⁴Ibid., Verse 27. [Hence, vayashivu in the preceding verse must mean that “they came back” with the things they had seen.]¹⁸⁵Similarly, vayashev Mosheh here means that “Moses came back” with the words of the people to G-d. Actually, however, as Ramban continues to explain, he did not report them, as everything was revealed to Him. This differs with Ibn Ezra’s interpretation, as explained in the following note. There is thus no need for Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra’s interpretation on this point.¹⁸⁶Ibn Ezra asks the following question: Since it says in Verse 8, ‘vayashev Mosheh’ the words of the people unto the Eternal, why does it say again at the end of Verse 9, and Moses told the words of the people unto the Eternal? To remove this difficulty, Ibn Ezra said that vayageid Mosheh (and Moses told) in Verse 9 means that “Moses had already told the words of the people to G-d.” It is thus clear that Ibn Ezra explained vayashev Mosheh in Verse 8 as meaning that Moses “reported” the words of the people to G-d. Hence, Ibn Ezra’s difficulty and his forced solution. Ramban, however, explains vayashev Mosheh as meaning that Moses returned to G-d to report these words. Actually, there was no need to report them, as explained above. Then G-d said to him, Lo, I come unto thee, etc. (Verse 9), and finally vayageid Mosheh: Moses told these words to G-d, i.e., that His children are men of faith and that they accept upon themselves whatever He will speak. “There is thus no need for Ibn Ezra’s interpretation on this point,” as Ramban succinctly puts it.

וישב משה את דברי העם, Moses relayed to G’d what he had understood as being the people’s reactions. What he had understood was that they did not doubt his status as a prophet at all.

וישב משה את דברי העם, Moses reported the words of the people, etc. Although G'd was in no need of this report by Moses seeing He knew what the people had said and how they said it, the Torah, i.e. Moses, reports this as a compliment to the people. I will further elaborate on this in due course. Alternatively, Moses reported the people's answer after being asked by G'd to do so (Mechilta.) According to this view the word וישב, he replied, means that Moses complied with G'd's request to report to Him on the people's answer. If G'd had not specifically asked him he would not have dared tell G'd the answer as it would have looked like an insult, as if G'd did not already know.

AND MOSHE BROUGHT BACK THE PEOPLE’S WORDS TO ADONAI. On the next day, as it explains (v.9), "And Adonai said to Moshe, 'I will come to you in a thick cloud, etc.'"

ויענו כל העם יחדו, “all the people answered simultaneously, etc.“ Moses had called all the leaders, the judges, the law enforcers, etc., in the presence of all the people and had submitted to them all that G’d had told him, and had offered them the choice whether to accept all these commandments. Seeing the commandments concerned the entire nation, acceptance was also required by the entire nation. The people did not even wait until Moses had posed the question to them if they were willing to accept all this, but the Torah testifies that they interrupted Moses to indicate their ready acceptance.

כל אשר דבר ה’ נעשה, “all that Hashem has said we shall do.” They gave thanks and accepted for themselves the yoke of Torah and the commandments, doing so willingly [under no physical or psychological pressure. Ed.] Seeing that our sages said (Shabbat 88) that G’d threatened to bring the mountain down on them if they did not accept the Torah, and that they would be buried on the spot, how do we reconcile this verse here which clearly indicates voluntary acceptance of the Torah? Answer: our verse refers to acceptance of the written Torah. The subject discussed in the Talmud Shabbat was the oral Torah. G’d put the Israelites under psychological pressure to accept the oral Torah as well. Seeing that the oral Torah includes the thousands of Rabbinic decrees (by reason of the authority vested by the written Torah in the Rabbis) there was a need to apply such pressure. The written Torah, however was accepted joyfully without the need for any coercion whatsoever.

(Ibid. 8) "And all the people answered together": They did not answer deceptively, and they did not consult each other, but they were all one in heart and answered (Ibid.) "Whatever the L rd has spoken we shall do." "And Moses returned the words of the people to the L rd": Now was this necessary? The Torah hereby teaches us derech eretz (proper deportment). Moses came and returned an answer to his sender, saying: Though He knows, I shall return an answer to my sender. Variantly: (Its purpose is) to accord reward to Moses for every ascent and for every descent.

וישב משה, “Moses brought back the reply, etc.” the reason why in verse eight the Torah uses the term וישב, for Moses bringing back the people’s answer, whereas in verse nine the word ויגד, “he told,” was chosen by the Torah is that when Moses began to tell G–d the people’s reaction, G–d interrupted him by saying that He wanted him to wait as He wished to speak to him some more. When G–d had completed speaking with Moses, Moses resumed telling Him about the people’s reaction. In the tractate Shabbat, on folio 87, Rabbi Akiva is quoted saying that the word above refers to the limitations imposed on the people, their being warned not to approach the mountain too closely as well as Rabbi Yoseph son of Rabbi Yehudah, according to whom G–d told the people first about the reward in store for people observing the Torah. Different scholars argue about whether Moses told the people first about the punishment for not observing the Torah, or whether he told them first about the reward in store for the people if they observed the laws of the Torah. The Ten Commandments were given on the Sabbath, as Rabbi Akiva said, the verse supporting being Isaiah 30,15: בשובה ונחת תושעון, “your salvation will come about by quiet and stillness.” The first time we hear about the concept as of stillness and quiet is when G–d rested on the seventh day of Creation. The second set of Tablets was also given to the people on a Sabbath, i.e. the Day of Atonement, also known as שבת שבתון, the “ultimate” Sabbath.

וישב משה, “Moses brought back, etc;” this was on the following day, the third day of the month, the fourth day of the week. On the next day, the fourth day of the month: G-d, as stated in chapter 24,verse 1, G-d said to Moses in verse 2 that Moses was to proceed further, alone. He immediately said to Moses that He would appear to him screened by a thick cloud, etc.; the purpose was that the people would be able to hear G-d speak to Moses and believe that he was truly the messenger of Hashem and that they would believe in his conveying truly what G-d said to him. If they had not been able to actually hear G-d speak to Moses, they would later on claim that G-d had not appeared to him. This is why He told Moses that as a result of what He was commanding him now the people would believe in him and never doubt him again. The words written in chapter 24 were spoken on this day, the fourth day of the month of Sivan, even though they appear only in Parshat Mishpatim. Moses related all these words to the people as stated in verse 9 in our chapter. They concluded with: וגם בך יאמינו לעולם, “and they will also believe in you forthwith.” He also related to them at that time all the laws that he had been taught by G-d at Marah, (Exodus 15,28) and committed them to parchment. Immediately thereafter the people responded in verse 3 by agreeing to carry out all the instructions they had received from G-d via Moses. Upon hearing this, Moses immediately conveyed the people’s response to G-d, as stated here in our chapter in verse 9, quoting what is reported in chapter 24, verse 3. Rashi, in our verse here, comments that the people in addition requested to hear all this from G-d personally, claiming that hearing matters directly from the source is always even more effective than hearing the same words from the messenger. (based on the Mechilta here) The source for all this which has not been spelled out in the text of the Torah is verse 11, where G-d tells him the on the third (after this) He will personally let them hear the Ten Commandments from His own mouth. G-d uses the expression: לעיני העם, that His words will be perceived by the “eyes” of the people. From this we deduce that people had asked for a visual revelation of G-d. [At the end of the Ten commandments in chapter 20,15, the Torah reports that G-d’s words were indeed a visual appearance for them when the Torah writes that all the people “saw” the “sounds.” Ed.] On this same day, the fourth of the month, G-d told the people to sanctify themselves in preparation for the revelation on Mount Sinai. By refraining from engaging in marital intercourse for three days, they would be sufficiently sanctified by the 6th day of the month to merit this revelation. That day would again be the Sabbath. Sanctification included immersing their clothing in a ritual bath as commanded in verse 10, and carried out in verse 14. We know that the root כבס includes such sanctification through a ritual bath from Leviticus 17,1516 that failure to do so will result in ritual contamination of a person that had eaten either animals that had died without undergoing ritual slaughter first, or parts of an animal which was found as having been diseased internally after being examined subsequent to ritual slaughter. Another example of the process of sanctification of human beings is found in Samuel II 11,4 where David is reported as not sleeping with Bat Sheva until after she had sanctified her body in a ritual bath. [She had been invited to his house by the King’s messengers. Ed.] The Israelites, both male and female, who at this point were undergoing similar immersion in a ritual bath, would then qualify for taking part in the revelation.

And then (ibid.) "Then Moshe reported the people’s words to Adonai";

וישב משה, “Moses brought back, etc.” There are commentators who claim that the word וישב does not mean that Moses actually presented G’d with the people’s acceptance of the written Torah. The word וישב means that when Moses set out to inform G’d, G’d already continued to give him new instructions telling him: “Here I will come to you within a thick cloud, etc.” At that point we are to understand the word in verse 10 ויגד משה את דברי העם אל ה’. “Moses informed G’d of the words the people had said.”
It is possible to interpret the words וישב משה, as referring to the people saying נעשה, and the words ויגד משה as meaning that Moses conveyed the people’s demand to hear the words in question from G’d directly instead of merely through Moses as an intermediary. (Mechilta baChodesh end of section 2). If we follow this approach then the word יחדו in our verse does not mean that the people responded “in unison,” but that they said two things at one and the same time. 1) They expressed joyful acceptance of the written Torah. 2) They asked to be addressed by G’d directly. G’d had provided them with an opening for such a request when He had said in verse 5 (condensed) “if you will hearken to MY VOI‎CE, etc. you will be something special.” This is why Moses told G’d, ויגד, that the people wanted to hear His voice, i.e. as a substitute for seeing Him.

את דברי העם, the words of the people. This does not mean that Moses told G'd what the people had said; rather Moses told G'd how they had said it. Moses used the opportunity to praise the Jewish people by pointing out their many virtues. He referred to the uniqueness of the Jewish people as described by King David in Chronicles I 17,21: "who is comparable to Your people Israel a unique nation on earth?"

that is "And Moshe brought back, etc." It states the general and then goes back and supplies details. ... This is what Moshe said to the Holy One, blessed be He: "Already from yesterday, they took it upon themselves to do what You would command them." Similarly (Lev. 9:24 - 10:2), "Fire came forth from before Adonai and consumed the burnt offering" and meanwhile, "Now Aharon’s sons Nadav and Avihu each took, etc." "And fire came forth from Adonai" and reached Nadav and Avihu before the gold altar, which was in the sanctuary, when they brought alien fire on it, and it burned them, and went outside and consumed the burnt offering on the brass altar, which was in the courtyard outside the sanctuary. And similarly in in the Book of Judges in the section about Michah (Jud. 17:3-4): "He returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother; but his mother said, 'I herewith consecrate the silver to Adonai, etc.' He gave the silver back to his mother." In the beginning, the verse says, "He returned the ... silver to his mother," and afterwards it explains how, "but his mother said, etc. He gave the silver back to his mother."