Commentaire sur L’Exode 19:27

ביום הזה THE SAME (lit., this) DAY — on the day of the New Moon. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:1:3; Shabbat 86b). It ought not to write ביום הזה, but ביום ההוא, “on that day”; what, then, is the force of the words “on this day”? Since they refer to the day when the Israelites came to Sinai to receive the Torah they imply that the commands of the Torah should be to you each day as something new (not antiquated and something of which you have become tired), as though He had only given them to you for the first time on the day in question (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 273; cf. Berakhot 63b).

IN THE THIRD MONTH. Scripture should have said, “And they journeyed from Rephidim and they encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, in the third month after their going forth from the land of Egypt,” just as it said above concerning the wilderness of Sin.¹³¹Above, 17:1: And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin… and encamped in Rephidim. But [Scripture’s manner of expression here is] due to the fact that their coming into the wilderness of Sinai was an occasion for joy and a festival to them, and that since they left Egypt they had been yearning for it. They knew that they would receive the Torah there, for Moses had told them what was said to him, Ye shall serve G-d upon the mountain.¹³²Above, 3:12. And to Pharaoh also he said, Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey, into the wilderness and sacrifice unto the Eternal our G-d.¹³³Ibid., 5:3. For this reason, Scripture begins the section with the statement that in the third month… the same day that the month began,¹³⁴Mechilta on the verse here, and mentioned in Rashi. they came there [as they had eagerly anticipated]. Following this opening, Scripture reverts [to the usual style] as in the other journeys: And they journeyed from Rephidim.¹³⁵Verse 2.
Now here too Scripture should have said “and they journeyed from Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.” Instead it writes, and they came to the wilderness of Sinai. This is because Scripture’s intent is to state that as soon as they came to the wilderness of Sinai and saw the mountain in front of them, they encamped in the wilderness and did not wait until they would enter a spot better for encampment. Instead, they camped in the wilderness or in Horeb,¹³⁶Deuteronomy 4:10. which was a waste land before the mountain. This is the purport of the verse; and they encamped in the wilderness, and there Israel encamped before the mount.¹³⁵Verse 2.
It is possible that they separated from their midst all the mixed multitude that was among them,¹³⁷Numbers 11:4. See also above, 12:38. and the children of Israel alone camped before the mountain while the mixed multitude was behind them. For the Torah was given to Israel, as He said, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,¹³⁸Verse 3. and this is the meaning of the expression, and there Israel encamped.¹³⁵Verse 2. It may be that [the name “Israel”] is mentioned as a mark of honor at the time of their acceptance of the Torah.
Now Rashi wrote: “And they journeyed from Rephidim. What need was there for Scripture to state again expressly from where they set forth on the journey? Is it not already stated that they were encamped in Rephidim¹³¹Above, 17:1: And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin… and encamped in Rephidim. and it is thus evident that they journeyed from there? It [i.e., the intent of the verse] is to declare that their departure from Rephidim was like their encampment¹³⁹“Encampment.” In our Rashi: “coming.” in the wilderness of Sinai. Just as their encampment¹³⁹“Encampment.” In our Rashi: “coming.” [in the wilderness of Sinai] was with repentance,¹⁴⁰The repentance is indicated by the word vayichan, which is in the singular, thus indicating that Israel encamped before the mountain as one man and with one mind, “while all other encampments were with murmerings and with dissension” (Rashi, quoting Mechilta). so also was their departure [from Rephidim] with repentance.”¹⁴¹See above, 17:7, for their sin in Rephidim. The present analogy between their coming into the wilderness of Sinai, which was surely in a spirit of repentance, as explained above, and their departure from Rephidim, thus teaches us that their departure was also with repentance. Thus Rashi’s language. But I have not understood this. It says in connection with all journeys: and they pitched [camp] in Elim;¹⁴²See Numbers 33:9. And they took their journey from Elim… and they came unto the wilderness of Sin;¹⁴³Above, 16:1. And they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin… and encamped in Rephidim;¹⁴⁴Ibid., 17:1. and so the entire section of Mas’ei¹⁴⁵Numbers 33:1-49. is written [with the name of the place whence they set forth on the journey repeated after it had already been mentioned that they had encamped there]. The intent of the repetition by Scripture is that there were no other encampments between them.
In the Mechilta, we find the following text¹⁴⁶Mechilta on the verse here. [on the same theme that Rashi mentioned, but presented in such a form that the above difficulties are eliminated]: “And they departed from Rephidim and came to the desert of Sinai.¹³⁵Verse 2. Has it not already been stated in the section of the Torah dealing with all stages of the journey [from Egypt to the Jordan]: And they journeyed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai?¹⁴⁷Numbers 33:15. And what need is there for Scripture to state here, and they came to the desert of Sinai? It [i.e., the intent of the verse] is to declare that their departure from Rephidim [was like their encampment in the wilderness of Sinai], etc.” The purport of this text of the Mechilta is to explain why, on account of certain new details mentioned there,¹⁴⁸Ibid., Verses 9 and 14. Scripture repeated in the section of Eileh Mas’ei¹⁴⁵Numbers 33:1-49. all stages of the journey from Elim and Rephidim mentioned here, although this journey [from Rephidim to the wilderness of Sinai] is mentioned in identical language both here and there. It was for this reason that [the Mechilta] was compelled to interpret that [the Scriptural restatement] was on account of the above analogy: [Just as their encampment at Sinai was with repentance, so also etc.].

ביום הזה, on the first day of the month.

בחדש השלישי לצאת בני ישראל, In the third month after the Exodus of the children of Israel, etc. Considering G'd's love for Israel and His urgent desire to give them their fiancee (the Torah), it is difficult to understand why G'd waited until the third month after the Exodus. One of the signs of fondness for one's counterpart is that one does not allow obstacles to stand in the way of one's joining the beloved. We have instances in the Torah when G'd even accelerated the union of lover and beloved such as when Eliezer traversed the distance from the Holy Land (Hebron) to Aram Naharayim in a single day (G'd having telescoped the earth under his feet) only in order to bring about the union of Isaac and Rebeccah even more speedily than was possible without this miracle (compare Sanhedrin 95). In view of this, we could have expected G'd to at least do the same for the Israelites and ensure their arrival at Mount Sinai immediately after they had crossed the Sea of Reeds.

בחודש השלישי, “in the third month;” actually we would have expected the chapter to begin with the words: “they journeyed from Refidim and came to the desert of Sinai, where they encamped on the first day of the third month after having departed from the land of Egypt.” The reason why the syntax of the Torah was changed in this instance is the fact that arrival at the desert of Sinai, where the Torah was to be given, was a joyous occasion for the people. The manner of reporting this arrival reflects that it was something the people had been looking forward to.

בחודש השלישי, “in the third month.” This was the month of Sivan. The words ביום הזה mean that it was the first day of the month. This is the day normally called חדש, such as in Samuel I 20,24 ויהי החדש וישב המלך אל הלחם לאכול, “It was on חדש and the King sat down to eat.” Another example of the word חדש referring to New Moon is found in the same chapter of the Book of Samuel three verses later: We read ויהי ממחרת החדש השני ויפקד מקום דוד, “It was on the second day of the New Moon celebration that David’s seat remained empty.” The verse teaches you amongst other things that they observed two days of New Moon. This is what King Saul referred to when he inquired speaking to his son Yonathan: “why did the son of Yishai not appear either yesterday or today for the meal?” Our sages in Shabbat 86 also state that the words ביום הזה mean that the Israelites arrived in the desert of Sinai on the first day of the month. They base this on the use of the word הזה in our verse here and the expression החדש הזה לכם in Exodus 12,2.

The first day of the month. . . [Rashi knows this] because here it is written, ביום הזה , and there (12:2) it is written החודש הזה . There it means the first day of the month, so here too it means the first day of the month.

Questions: (1) Why does it say "they came to the Desert of Sinai" and then "they set forth from Rephidim and came to the Desert of Sinai?" (2) Why does it say "they encamped" and then "Israel encamped?" (3) First he called, then he went up [and yet the verse reverses the order]? (4) Why does the verse repeat "thus you shall say" and "thus you shall declare," and finishes "these are the words that you shall speak?" (5) Why does it repeat "And Moses brought back the words of the people," "And Moses reported the words of the people?"

Kap. 19. V. 1 u. 2. ביום הזה, an demselben Tage, an welchem sie in die Wüste Sinai gekommen waren, hatten sie sofort dort ihr Lager aufgeschlagen und sich als Israel dem Berge gegenüber gelagert. Wenn sie bisher eine neue Region der Wüste betraten, so haben wir immer gesehen, wie sie die Beschaffenheit der Örtlichkeit einer Kritik unterzogen, ob sie sich zum Lagerplatz eigne. Der Sinai war aber doch das Ziel ihrer Wanderung; von hier aus, war ihnen gesagt, war ihre Rettung ausgegangen, hier, wussten sie, sollten sie in den Dienst Gottes eintreten, und so sehr waren sie doch Söhne des Abrahamhauses, so sehr waren sie doch "Jisrael", und so viel hatte doch bereits alles Erlebte auf sie gewirkt, daß diesem Ziele gegenüber, im Anblick des Berges Sinai, alle andere Rücksicht bei ihnen schwand und sie sich als "Jisrael" dem Berge gegenüber lagerten. Mit diesem dem Berge gegenüber Lagern stellten sie sich Gott zu Befehl, seiner fernern Anordnungen gewärtig. Es dürfte aber diese Tatsache überhaupt wohl die Annahme rechtfertigen, die bisherigen Ausbrüche ihres Kleinmuts und ihrer Unzufriedenheit hätten mehr in einem Zweifel an Mosche und Aarons Sendung, als in einem wirklichen Schwanken in dem Vertrauen auf Gott ihren Grund gehabt, also, dass sich das Gotteswort durch Jirmija wohl begreifen lässt: "Gehe und rufe in Jerusalems Ohren, so hat Gott gesprochen, ich gedenke dir die Hingebung deiner Jugend, die Liebe deiner Bräutlichkeit, wie du mir nachwandertest in die Wüste hinein, in ein nicht gesäetes Land' (Jirmija 2, 2).

בחדש, “on the first of the (third month);” the word חדש is used here as in Samuel I 20,18: מחר חדש, “tomorrow is new moon.”

ביום הזה, “on this day, etc.” The day referred to was the first of the month. Ibn Ezra suggests that possibly the distance between Mount Sinai and Refidim was greater than the distance covered in all their combined journeys up to that time, so that there was a need to report precisely when the people arrived at this otherwise unremarkable spot.

באו מדבר סיני, “they arrived in the desert Sinai.” This is another word for חורב of which we heard in Exodus 3,1 that Moses came to the mountain of G’d, to Chorev. Concerning this mountain G’d had told Moses at the time: “when I make you take the people out of Egypt you will serve G’d at this mountain.” (Exodus 3,12).

Why is ביום הזה written. . . [Question: Since ביום הזה is needed to teach that it is the first of the month, how can it also teach that words of Torah should be as new to you (as though they were given today)? The answer is:] In the Mechilta it says, “‘On that very day they came to the desert of Sinai.’ This was on the first of the month. Thus it is written, ‘In the third month.’” It seems the Mechilta means as follows: the intent of the verse is not to conceal, but to explain. Yet it says בחדש השלישי . . . ביום הזה , not stating which day it was. Perforce, it means the first of the month. This is because the first of the month is called חודש , as in (Shmuel I, 20:18): “Tomorrow is the חודש (first of the month),” and as in (Melachim II, 4:23): “It is neither the חודש (first of the month) nor Shabbos.” So when it says בחודש השלישי , [we understand that it was the first of the month]. Accordingly, Rashi asks: Why did it not say ביום ההוא ? Even without the gezeirah shavah [between ביום הזה and החודש הזה , see previous entry,] we still would learn from בחודש השלישי that it was the first of the month. Perforce, it says ביום הזה to teach that words of Torah should be as new to you (as though they were given today). This answers Re”m’s questions. (Nachalas Yaakov)

G'd therefore felt called upon to explain that the fact that מתן תורה was delayed somewhat was not to be interpreted as a lack of ardour of the bride for the groom but was due to the groom not being properly prepared before that date. Having spent so many years in a country full of all kinds of abominations, the Israelites had absorbed much of the spiritual pollution prevailing in Egypt and they required 49 days during which they progressively cleansed themselves of these pollutants and readied themselves for their bride. According to the Zohar third volume page 97 the seven weeks that we count between Passover and Shavuot are to be viewed as seven times the 7 day purification rite that a זבה, a woman suffering from a vaginal discharge, has to undergo before she is ritually pure. When the Torah speaks of לצאת בני ישראל ממצרים, this is not to be understood as a date as much as a cause. Seeing the point of departure of the Israelites was Egypt (and not some other place), it required a certain number of days before the groom could ready himself spiritually for union with a bride such as the Torah. As soon as the Israelites were close to regaining their spiritual purity, i.e. on the first of the third month, they immediately arrived at their destination at Mount Sinai. The Torah describes arrival in the desert of Sinai and arrival opposite the Mountain as occurring practically simultaneously. We find confirmation of this in Shabbat 87 where the Talmud states: "on the day they travelled they arrived." Reviewing all these events I have asked myself that if our perception is correct, why did G'd not telescope the earth underneath the Israelites and bring them to Mount Sinai immediately? They could then have awaited the proper moment for מתן תורה at the end of seven weeks while encamped at Mount Sinai

השלישי, it is called thus because it was when the Israelites were enslaved, נשבו, when they were liberated, נשתחחרו, and when they converted to Judaism, נתגגיירו. The latter word is the reflexive mode of גר, alien, stranger. Our sages in the Talmud Ketuvot 37 taught us: different categories of female converts, including those who were prisoners and have been released and converted have to wait three months before they can marry a Jew, to eliminate the suspicion than a child born to them was sired by a gentile before they had converted.

However, I have concluded that G'd demonstrated His love for the people by the manner in which He did things. Had He allowed the Israelites to encamp at Mount Sinai immediately and had then made them wait for seven weeks before giving them the Torah, this would not have reflected His love for the people. You do not make the lover wait an inordinate amount of time in the presence of his beloved. G'd therefore chose to reduce the number of days the Israelites were encamped at Mount Sinai prior to the revelation to a minimum. As long a a groom is not aware that the time for the wedding is at hand he does not consider the absence of his bride as painful. Once the time is at hand and the bride is missing he does get upset. The Israelites' sojourn in the desert prior to their arrival in the desert of Sinai has to be viewed in that vein.

ביום הזה, ”on this day;” the day referred to is the day they broke camp in Refidim. It was the first day of Sivan which occurred on a Monday, according to the opinion of the majority of the scholars. There was unanimity among the scholars that the day of the revelation was Sabbath. (Shabbat 86) According to the majority of the Rabbis who hold that that the revelation occurred on the sixth day of the month of Sivan, the first day of that month had to have been on a Monday. This is based on the month of Iyar during that year having had 30 days. If you were to argue that if this is so then 50 days as opposed to 49 days, i.e. seven weeks, had elapsed since the Exodus, the answer is that the commandment regarding when the omer is to be offered was not given to the people (or obviously could not apply) until they had taken possession of the land and planted a crop.when the omer

ביום הזה באו מדבר סיני, “on this day they arrived at the desert of Sinai.” Rabbi Levi in Pessikta de Rav KahaneMandelbaum edition page 205), relates a parable [to explain that the Torah describing this detail conveyed a lesson worth taking to heart, Ed.] A king had a son who had recovered from a serious illness. He was told by a pedagogue that the son should go an elementary school forthwith. The father protested by saying to the pedagogue that his son was still too frail to go to school and be subjected to a strict regimen. He agreed to send him to school after a recovery period of three months. He intended to pamper him during these three so that he would recuperate faster.

ויסעו מרפידים AND THEY JOURNEYED FROM REPHIDIM — What does Scripture teach us by again expressly stating from where they set forth on the journey, for is it not already written (Exodus 17:1) that they had encamped at Rephidim and it is therefore evident that they set forth from there?! But Scripture repeats it in order to make a comparison with the character of their journey from Rephidim to that of their arrival in the wilderness of Sinai! How was it in the case of their arrival in the wilderness of Sinai? They were in a state of penitence (as shown by the unanimity with which they encamped before the mountain: cf. Rashi on the end of this verse)! Thus, too, their setting forth from Rephidim was in a state of repentance for the sin they had committed there (see Exodus 17:2) (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:2:1).

(1) They traveled from Rephidim and they came to the Sinai wilderness, and they camped in the wilderness. And Israel camped there opposite the mountain. Look at how many repetitions are written here. What would be missing in the [meaning of the] text if it would have just said, "They traveled from Rephidim and they encamped in the Sinai wilderness opposite the mountain"? Any why does it first say "they camped" [in plural] and then afterward "he camped" [in singular]? First it says, "in the Sinai wilderness," and then it just says, "in the wilderness." And first it refers to the mountain using the name Sinai, and after it just calls it a mountain. And it seems that all of this is proving to us that Bnei Yisrael are not worthy of receiving the Torah until there is peace among them. "The owners of collections that are all stemming from one shepherd." (Ecclesiastes 12:11 - see pshat and parshanut there) All of the paths of Torah are paths of peace. And the result of separation of hearts, where one forbids something and another permits it, is that the Torah becomes 2 Torahs. That is why the [previous] pasuk specifies that that it was in the third month on this day that they came to the Sinai wilderness. It is teaching that this month [of Sivan], which has the astrological sign of twins, is instructing us about attachment and love, that together [the Jews] should be perfect[ly connected] to each other like twins. And then there will be great peace among those who love Torah. And there is also a hint to this in the fact that there are 2 luchot which are like twins to each other, with 5 commandments [on one] parallel to 5 [on the other].

ויסעו מרפידים ויבאו מדבר סיני. The departure from Refidim was for the express purpose of getting to the desert of Sinai where the mountain of G’d (Chorev) was located. The people knew that once they would arrive there they would worship the Lord there (Exodus 3,12).

ויסעו מרפידים ויבאו מדבר סיני, They journeyed from Refidim and arrived in the desert of Sinai, etc. The position of the verse is peculiar. We have already heard in verse one that the Israelites arrived in the desert of Sinai. Why did the Torah repeat it again? Perhaps we can explain this in terms of a statement in Sanhedrin 105 that "love has a tendency to disregard normal rules." As a result of love, what took place later may be reported earlier. Inasmuch as the day the Israelites accepted the Torah was the day that G'd had been waiting for ever since He created the universe, it is understandable that the Torah reported the arrival of this day at the earliest possible moment. This explains the emphasis of the Torah on ביום הזה באו, "on this day they arrived." The arrival describes the meeting of the lover and his beloved. Heaven and earth both rejoiced that this day had arrived at last.

נגד ההר, the same mountain that had been mentioned in Exodus 3,12 as the one where the Israelites would worship.

ויסעו מרפידים ויבואו מדבר סיני, “they journeyed from Refidim, and they arrived at the desert of Sinai.” According to the Torah’s syntax which we have grown accustomed to, the Torah should have written: “they journeyed from Refidim and they encamped at the desert of Sinai.” The reason why the Torah chose to write ויבואו instead of ויחנו, is to convey to the reader that as soon as the people saw Mount Sinai they were so happy that they decided to encamp forthwith instead of scouting around for what they considered a suitable area for putting up their camp. This is why the Torah adds the words ויחנו במדבר, ”they made camp in the desert, normally not an appropriate site for making camp.

Just as their arrival at Sinai was of repentance. . . For it is written, ויחן שם ישראל . [Since ויחן is in the singular form], it implies: “As one person.”

ויסעו מרפידים, “they journeyed on from Refidim, etc.” according to Rashi, these words mean that the people moved forward spiritually, i.e. that they had repented their conduct once they moved on. All the time they were at Refidim they had not yet repented. [The reader is referred to chapter 18,79 where upon questioning whether the Lord was in their midst, and the subsequent attack by Amalek when they encamped at Refidim as Hjs way of showing them what would happen if He were not in their midst. Ed.] Rabbi Yoshua in the Talmud Sanhedrin, folio 106, understood the word Refidim as an allusion to the people’s having become very weak in their Torah orientation, as a result of which G-d had showed them that His protection of them would weaken accordingly.

ויחן שם ישראל AND THERE ISRAEL ENCAMPED as one man and with one mind — but all their other encampments were made in a murmuring spirit and in a spirit of dissension (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:2:10).

(2) Afterwards, it says "they journeyed from Rephidim," which means to say, "from the place in which they fought and had disagreements" since the place was called "Masah uMerivah" [which means "Test and Fighting"], and the letters of רפידי׳׳ם spell פרידי׳׳ם, [which means "separate"]...because of the distance that existed between them.  Our Sages (in the Talmud Sanhedrin 106a) expounded the name to connote רפו ידים "their hands weakened," since one is dependent on the other, since through growing distant from one another, they weakened their grip in the Torah.  When it says that they travelled Rephidim, it means from that place — from that separation between them and they arrived at the Sinai desert, which caused them to join together in unity.  [How so?] Desiring honor and power is the reason for all fighting and all illness.  Through seeing Mount Sinai, the lowliest of all the mountains — and realizing that this was the mountain that the Holy One Blessed Be He desired to rest [His Presence] on — through this they realized that God chooses the humble, and inspired them to choose humility themselves, which is the catalyst for peace.  This is why the Torah relates to them in the plural initially, "they came to the Sinai desert," "they encamped in the desert."  As long as they were [aimlessly] in the desert they remained divided in their minds.  They were not yet of one heart and mind like a single person.  However, as they came to be opposite the mountain, and it was related to them that on this mountain God would descend, then [it switches to the singular] ויחן ישראל — they were like one person with a single heart and mind...

ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר, “Israel encamped there facing the Mountain.” The people are here referred to as “Israel,” (in the singular mode) instead of as plain “the people,” to tell us that when the riffraff and the fellow travelers, the ערב רב, had chosen to locate some short distance away, the elite, the main body of Israelites, chose to encamp facing the Mountain. [we need to remember that until the building of the Tabernacle, the signal for breaking camp and making camp was not the overhead cloud of G’d’s glory that the Torah describes in Numbers Ed.] It is possible that not the entire people positioned their tents facing the Mountain but only the elders and most distinguished members of the people. This may be the reason why the Torah wrote ויחן, singular mode, instead of ויחנו, in the plural mode. Nachmanides questions what Rashi wrote as the reason for the Torah having written ויסעו מרפידים, i.e. we needed to know from where the Israelites arrived at the desert of Sinai. He draws our attention to the fact that the Torah normally reports the Israelites’ departure from a certain location prior to reporting their arrival at a new location; so what is so special here? (compare: the pattern of ויסעו מ...ויחנו ב... in dozens of examples in Numbers chapter 33) In answering his query, Nachmanides suggests that what Rashi had in mind was, that seeing that all the other journeys mentioned here have been repeated in the list in Numbers 33, something new occurred at each location, whereas both here and in Massey this journey is described with identical words, without any change in nuance even, Rashi felt impelled make the comment he did, i.e. that just as the people were in a mood of penitence when they departed from Refidim, they were still in that mood when they arrived at the desert of Sinai.

Wherever you find “opposite” it means facing to the east. Rashi is not saying that נגד always means eastward, for it is written (Bamidbar 2:2), “They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting, from a distance (מנגד) .” There it does not mean toward the east, [for they encamped on all sides]. Rather, Rashi means that wherever נגד refers to an opposite side, [it is toward the east]. This is because נגד conveys facing something, [i.e., they are “faceto-face.”] And east is called פנים , “face.” [See Iyov 23:8]. (Re”m)

Since the Torah repeated the arrival of the Israelites in the desert of Sinai, what does the word ויבאו add to our understanding? Why did the Torah have to add that they camped there? What else were they supposed to do there?

ויחנו במדבר, “they encamped in the desert;” the desert is noman’s land, open to all and sundry to make their home there without being legally challenged.

נגד ההר BEFORE THE MOUNTAIN — i. e. at its east side (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:2:10), for wherever you find the word נגד referring to a locality it signifies with the face towards the east of the place mentioned.

I believe the Torah wanted to acquaint us with three steps which were essential in the preparation to receive the Torah. G'd became willing to entrust the Torah to the Jewish people as an eternal inheritance after they had taken these three steps..

נגד ההר, “facing the Mountain.” (Mount Sinai, also known as Mount Chorev). According to Rashi, the reason for the Torah adding this detail is that it tells us that the Israelites faced East. It is noteworthy that Rashi does not say; במזרחו, “on its eastern side,” but: למזרחו, “facing its eastern side.” Had he written במזרחו, this would have meant that the people had already passed the Mountain. We would have wondered how it was possible that the people had passed the Mountain before receiving the Torah, something G-d had told Moses they would do in Exodus 3,12, in answer to his query why the time for redemption had been advanced so many years over what G-d had said to Avraham at the covenant between the pieces in Genesis chapter 15. We must therefore understand Rashi here as meaning “the people encamped facing theMountain, looking eastward, as they had been doing every time they had made camp, every time since they made camp for the first time at Eytam after they had previously converged together at a place named Sukkot, (Exodus 13,20) They continued facing east when encamping until they came to the steppes of Moav, prior to crossing the Jordan river in a westerly direction. (Compare Rashi on Numbers 34,3) This is what prompted Rashi, based on the Mechilta, that the word נגד when used by the Torah in connection with the Israelites’ journeys always means “eastward.” The only exception is when the people are described in Numbers 2,2, as encamping מנגד סביב לאהל מועד, where it means “opposite,” i.e. the Tabernacle was in the middle of the camp, the tribes camping around it, each group from a different direction.

The first step was for the Israelites to get a grip on themselves and to study the Torah diligently. Laziness is like a weed which leads one to forfeit whatever achievements in Torah insights one has acquired. You will observe that whenever G'd mentions the Torah He is careful to use such attributes as חוזק, strength, intensity as well as אמץ, fortitude and vigour. Numbers 19,14 אדם כי ימות באהל is one such example. Our sages in Shabbat 83 explain that Torah study must be such that a person is prepared to endure death in order to acquire its insights. He is to study Torah even when at the point of death. The author refers to a book he wrote in his youth called Chefetz Hashem where he commented on Shabbat 88. The Talmud there describes Torah as the elixir of life to those who treat it as if it were on their right side, whereas to those who treat Torah as if it were on their left side it will prove to be a fatal dose of poison. He explained that Rava (the author of that statement) meant that Torah proves an elixir of life only to those who invest all their vigour in studying it. In our verse, the Torah alludes to this by saying that the Israelites "moved away from Refidim." If the Torah had wanted us to know from which location the Israelites journeyed towards the desert of Sinai, this would have had to be stated at the beginning of verse one. The Torah meant that the Israelites put some spiritual distance between their neglect of Torah as demonstrated at a place called Refidim, and their renewed progress towards receiving the Torah. We have explained in 17,8 that the reason Amalek attacked the Israelites was because they had demonstrated neglect of Torah study. In the meantime they had begun to prepare themselves to become worthy of the Torah they were about to receive. This is what the Torah meant with the words ויבאו מדבר סיני.

The second step which the Israelites had to take in preparation for מתן תורה was to be modest and humble. Our sages say that only people who are humble can be certain that they will not forget their Torah knowledge. They phrase it thus: אין דברי תורה מתקימין אלא במי שמשפיל עצמו ומשים עצמו כמדבר "Words of Torah do not endure except with people who humble themselves to be like the desert."

(the third thing is) the teaching of the wise coming together with each other, and connecting with a full and whole friendship (heart). Not to be separated from each other, as for that the Talmud teaches us based on the words of Jeremiah, that it's like a sword on those who are [studying] alone. But, we need to come together, grow from each other [from the differences], and treat each other nicely. That is why the Torah uses a singular word, because all the Israelites became like one person - and now they were ready to receive to Torah. (free translation by Abby Stein)

ומשה עלה AND MOSES WENT UP on the second day of the month (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:3); for all his ascents to the mountain were made early in the morning, as it is stated (Exodus 34:4) “And Moses rose up early in the morning [and went up unto mount Sinai]” (Shabbat 86b).

AND MOSES WENT UP UNTO G-D. From the day they arrived at Mount Sinai, the cloud covered the mountain and the Glory of G-d was there. It is with reference to this that Scripture says, And the Glory of the Eternal abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days,¹⁴⁹Further, 24:16. i.e., before the Giving of the Torah. It is for this reason that Scripture says here, And Moses went up unto G-d, meaning that he went up to the edge of the mountain to be ready for Him, but he did not penetrate the thick darkness where G-d was.¹⁵⁰Ibid., 20:18. And the Eternal called unto him from the top of the mountain, saying: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob.
And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that the expression, and He called unto him, is an antecedent, meaning that He had called him [to come up to the mountain] and he went up to Him. But this does not appear to me to be correct, for the calling [mentioned in Scripture after Moses ascended the mountain] was: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob. Now Ibn Ezra explains the verse to mean as follows: “And the Eternal called unto him to say¹⁵¹Thus Ibn Ezra here interprets the word leimor, which is generally taken to mean “saying,” as meaning “to say.” The sense of the verse is thus: And Moses went up to G-d, for He had called him out of the mountain to tell him, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, etc.” to him, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob.” But this is not correct.
The meaning of the expression, he went up unto G-d, and the Eternal called unto him, is that Moses went up towards the Glory of G-d, which was abiding on the mountain to declare the Ten Commandments to Israel, and with His Great Name [the Tetragrammaton] He would speak with Moses, as is the meaning of the verse, If there be a prophet among you, etc.¹⁵²Numbers 12:6. If there be a prophet among you, I the Eternal do make Myself known unto him in a vision… My servant Moses is not so… with him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches (Verses 6-8). See also Ramban in this chapter, further, Verse 20.

ומשה עלה אל האלוקים, "and Moses went up unto G'd." Why did Moses go up before G'd had asked him to come up? Where to exactly did Moses go up? If he ascended the Mountain, why did the Torah not say so? Shemot Rabbah 28, bases itself on Psalms 68,19: עלית למרום, "you went up to celestial regions." If we accept this Midrash at face value, why did G'd afterwards have to call upon Moses from the Mountain if he was already in the celestial regions? Besides, why does the Torah describe Moses as going up to האלוקים instead of to השם seeing that when G'd called to him from the Mountain G'd is described as השם?

ומשה עלה אל האלוקים, “and Moses had ascended to G’d,” this means he had proceeded to the edge of the Mountain. Clearly, there had been evidence that G’d’s presence was resting above the top of that Mountain ever since the day that the Israelites had arrived at that location. Moses’ purpose was to keep in readiness to enter the ערפל, the thick cloud, behind which a manifestation of G’d could be found. (compare 20,18)

כה תאמר לבית יעקב, “So you shall say to the House of Yaakov.” Moses was to address the women. The word כה means he was to speak to them in Hebrew. The word תאמר means he was to speak to them kindly. The reason G’d told Moses to address the women first was to teach them ethics and general rules of behavior. Furthermore, in order to make the women receptive for further Torah legislation, Moses gave them an overview of the headings and subject matters that the Torah contains. They needed special preparation for all this as their minds function differently from the minds of men, seeing that their daily tasks did not allow them so much free time to think about their spiritual needs as did the minds of the men.
Moreover, a good woman is the main reason Torah has a future. The mother encourages her young son to attend a Torah-academy; seeing she is at home throughout the day she is the one who responds to the various needs, both real and imagined, of her children. She protects them against all kinds of dangers. She does all this so that he will cleave to the path of Torah also when he becomes old (Proverbs 22,6). This is why it is incumbent upon a woman to pray to G’d at the time she lights the Sabbath candles, a commandment which is especially addressed to her, that He may grant her children who will learn Torah and observe its precepts. Any prayer is more likely to evoke a positive response when it is offered at a time when one performs a commandment.
The merit acquired by lighting the Sabbath candles which provide physical light helps her children to become Torah scholars. This is alluded to by Solomon in Proverbs 6,23 כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, that by lighting a candle to provide physical light when one is performing a מצוה, the result will be the spiritual light dispensed by her children who have studied Torah.

On the second day. . . [Rashi knows this] because the intent of the verse is not to conceal, but to explain. And since we find elsewhere that when Moshe ascended the mountain it was early in the morning, we cannot say that here Moshe ascended on the day they came [at some unspecified time]. Also, we cannot say that Moshe ascended [early in the morning] on the third of the month, for it is written (v. 8), “Moshe brought the words of the people.” This was on the day following [Moshe’s ascent], i.e., the third of the month, [as Rashi explains there]. And it is written (v. 9), “Moshe told the words of the people. . .” which was on the fourth of the month, as Rashi explains there. Therefore, if Moshe first ascended on the third of the month, [everything would be pushed one day later and] the giving of Torah would not be on the sixth of the month.

(Exodus 19:3) "And Moses went up to G d": This was on the second day. "and the L rd called to him": We are hereby apprised that the calling preceded the speaking. "Thus shall you say": "thus" — in the holy tongue. "Thus" — in this order. "Thus" — on this matter. "Thus" — that you do not detract and that you not add. "Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob" — the women, "and speak to the children of Israel" — the men. "Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob" — "gently"; "say" — Give the women the basic ideas. "and speak to the children of Israel": "speak" in detail to the men.

V. 3. Während das Volk sich dem Berge gegenüber lagerte, war Mosche als ihr Abgesandter zu Gott hinangegangen, damit eben das Bereitsein des Volkes zur Erfüllung der Bestimmung: תעברון את האלקי׳ בהר הזה zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Indem er aber hinanging, rief Gott ihm von der Höhe hinab zu: כה תאמר וגו׳. Es enthält dies den Grundgedanken dessen, was Gott unter עבודת אלקי׳ verstehe. Dem בית יעקב, der Familie, und insbesondere den Trägern des Familienlebens, den Frauen soll dieser Grundgedanke in das Gemüt hinein gesprochen und erläutert werden; den Söhnen Israels, in dieser Gegenüberstellung speziell den Männern, תגיד, soll er vollständig vergegenwärtigt und, um ihn nie aus den Augen zu verlieren, gegenüber gestellt werden.

ומשה עלה, “and Moses had ascended;” he ascended the Mountain on the second day of the month, i.e. on a Tuesday. He had not done so spontaneously but in response to an invitation by G-d, Who had called to him from the Mountain to address the whole nation, i.e. כה תאמר לבית יעקב וגו', “thus you shall say to the house of Yaakov, etc.”Some commentators believe that Moses did ascend the Mountain without having asked for permission in order to enquire how precisely to serve G-d there. He did so as G-d had told him in Exodus 3,12 in response to his enquiry why the Jews were going to be redeemed long before the 400 years of which G-d had spoken to Avraham in Genesis chapter 15 had been concluded. At that time G-d had told him that the people would accept the Torah at this mountain, and that in anticipation of that they were being redeemed ahead of time, “on credit,” so to speak. Actually, we find that the Israelites offered sacrifices near the Mountain prior to the revelation as reported in chapter 24,46.

כה תאמר THUS SHALT THOU SAY — Thus, i. e. in this (the Hebrew) language (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:3) and in this form of words.

ויקרא אליו ה' מן ההר לאמור, “Hashem called out to him from the Mountain, saying:” According to Ibn Ezra G’d had called to Moses already before he ascended, but had not given him any specific instructions. Nachmanides writes that Moses did not receive any call until after he had ascended, at which time G’d told him:כה תאמר לבית יעקב,”you shall say to the house of Yaakov, using precisely these words, etc.”

ותגיד לבני ישראל, “and tell the Children of Israel.” He commanded them to both instruct and warn them to observe the commandments as well as to acquaint them with the penalties in store if they would fail to observe G’d’s laws. This is implied in the word תגיד, i.e. the word is derived from גידין, “wormwood,” an extremely bitter vegetable. The word is spelled with the letter י in the middle to remind us of the connection with גידין. There is no other occasion in the whole Bible where the word הגדה, telling, informing, is spelled with the letter י such as here. Compare Joshua 7,19 and Isaiah 58,1 where the word הגד refers to revealing one’s sins. Even in those instances we do not find the letter י. This explains why our sages (Shabbat 87) have seen fit to interpret the word here as they did.

And in this order. I.e., first to the women, and then to the men.

We have to understand what transpired in conjunction with G'd having told Moses already at the burning bush (3,12) that when the Israelites would arrive at this Mountain they would serve the Lord there. The term used there was את האלוקים. Moses, ever the faithful servant of the Lord, did not wait until he would be commanded to ascend the mountain but did so on his own initiative. There was no need to identify where Moses ascended to since the Torah had last spoken about the Mountain. The reason the Torah mentions Moses' destination as being אל האלוקים is precisely because it was the reason for his ascent. Moses felt that if he waited until he would be asked to ascend this would demonstrate both lethargy on his part, perhaps even unwillingness. This clears up all the apparent peculiarities in this verse. We do not believe that our approach contradicts the explanation offered by the Midrash as we view G'd's presence on the Mountain as including the Mountain in the celestial regions.

ותגיד לבני ישראל, “and explain in detail to the Children of Israel!” According to Rashi, the reason for the apparent repetition, the first part of the verse is addressed to the women who will be told in a brief outline, whereas the second part is addressed to the men in far greater detail emphasizing reward and punishment for observance or non observance of the Torah commandments. He derives the word ותגיד which is uncharacteristically spelled with the letter י in the middle as derived from the word גיד, meaning “a tough sinew,” as a hint that some of the commandments will be found to present a real challenge for those willing to observe them. According to the plain meaning of the text, however, the words: ותגד לבני ישראל, refer to verse 4 where G-d tells Moses: אתם ראיתם, ”you have seen, etc.” The reason why this is the preferable version is that homiletic explanations never speak in terms of the future, but always in terms of the past. Here G-d instructs Moses concerning what he is to do in the future when he addresses the people.

לבית יעקב TO THE HOUSE OF JACOB — This denotes the women — to them you shall speak in gentle language (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:3).

לבית יעקב, “to the house of Yaakov.” This was a reference to the Jewish women.

Say it to them in a gentle voice. See Re”m on this. It seems to me that [Rashi knows this] because we find that דיבור is speaking in a harsh manner, as in: “The man in charge of all the land spoke ( דבר ) to us harshly” (Bereishis 42:30). Thus we may deduce that אמירה is speaking in a gentle manner. Furthermore, it is written: “And Yoseif said ( ויאמר ) to his brothers, ‘I am Yoseif’” (ibid. 45:3). And it is written: “Yoseif said ( ויאמר ) to his brothers, ‘Please approach’” (ibid. v. 4). And it is written: “Yoseif said ( ויאמר ) to them, ‘Do not fear’” (ibid. 50:19). From all these we see that ויאמר is gentle speech.

ויקרא אליו השם. G'd called out to him. As soon as G'd noticed that Moses was ascending, G'd called out to him. You have to remember that it is in the nature of קדושה, sanctity, not to make the first move towards a person until that person has made active preparations to welcome such sanctity. The Zohar third volume page 92 phrases it is as "invitations from the terrestrial regions being followed by invitations from the celestial regions." This is the mystical dimension of Genesis 2,6: "and a vapour rose from the earth and it irrigated (from above) the whole surface of the earth." When the Torah uses the term ויקרא for G'd calling to Moses it alludes to יקר, precious, (which is part of the word ויקרא.

ותגיד לבני ישראל AND TELL THE CHILDREN (lit., the sons) OF ISRAEL — explain to the men the punishments and the details of the commandments in words that are as hard (distasteful) as wormwood (גידין) (cf. Shabbat 87a; Midrash לקח טוב‎).

ולבני ישראל, “and to the Children of Israel.” This was a reference to the men. The reason why the women, in this case, have been mentioned first, is that at the dawn of history, Chavah, the first woman, who had not personally been warned by G’d not to eat from the tree of knowledge, not only ate from it but also gave her husband to eat from it. By telling Moses now to address the legislation to the women first, G’d wanted to ensure that the communication failure in Gan Eden would not be repeated. Seeing that the women had been honored to receive their share of the information before their husbands, this would make them more fiercely loyal to observe the commandments in every detail. The fact that this psychology worked was demonstrated about 43 days later when the women refused to hand over their gold jewelry to help in making the golden calf. Another possible way of explaining the difference in meaning between the expression בית יעקב and בני ישראל is that the former refers to the people presently at Mount Sinai, whereas the latter refers to as yet unborn generations of Jews.

מן ההר לאמור, from the Mountain, saying: Seeing that the word of G'd originates in the upper regions of the Heavens, for G'd had not yet descended on the Mountain, the Torah had to tell us that G'd commanded His voice to travel via the Mountain. Moses would hear G'd's instructions from there. The voice would travel in a straight line, in a very narrow channel and Moses would not hear it until he arrived on the Mountain. The two statements 1) ויקרא אליו השם, followed by מן ההר לאמור are to tell us that the word of G'd became audible only once it had "arrived" on the Mountain. Had the Torah not added the word לאמור, I would have thought that G'd's presence had already descended on the Mountain, something which was not the case.

כה תאמר לבית יעקב..אתם ראיתם, Thus you shalll say to the house of Jacob:…"you have seen, etc." Why did the Torah repeat itself by first saying תאמר and right afterwards תגיד? Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 28,2 explain that the term בית יעקב refers to the women who have to be addressed by אמירה, the soft-spoken approach, whereas to the בני ישראל Moses was to speak in words that were קשים כגידים, tough as sinews. The difficulty with this comment is that we have no evidence that Moses adopted a different mode of speech when he spoke to the men. He spoke to the men and women simultaneously; he either adopted the soft-spoken method or the hard line, but at any rate he is on record as only making one single address. The Mechilta understands the directive in verse 6 commencing with אלה as a warning not to either add or subtract a single word from what G'd instructed Moses to say. Even if we were to point to verse six where G'd said "these are the words you shall speak to the children of Israel" as a directive to speak sternly to the men only, where is there any mention that Moses addressed the women separately? It is also difficult to detect any harshness in the words Moses directed at the Israelites!

I believe I know how we have to understand what G'd had in mind. Let us first remind ourselves that it is an accepted principle of the Torah that the Lord G'd of Israel is always concerned with bestowing good on His creatures, more so even than the creatures themselves are anxious to become the recipients of such good. This principle applies in an even greater degree to G'd's chosen people. G'd employs His wisdom in order to give us a chance to acquire merits so that He has reason to increase the reward He wants to give us for מצוה performance. G'd has revealed, for instance, that the reward in store for someone who keeps the commandments out of fear that he will be punished if he fails to keep them is only half of the reward in store for people who observe such commandments out of a feeling of love for G'd. We know this from two verses dealing with the reward in store for keeping the commandments. In Deuteronomy 7,9 the Torah mentions G'd as keeping a reward in store for those who love Him for a thousand generations, whereas in Exodus 20,7 G'd is on record as doing the same for two thousand generations. [In the celestial regions G'd has administrators known as שר. Some of these administrators are in charge of rewards extending for one thousand generations, others are in charge of rewards extending for two thousand generations, compare Pardes Rimonim, Ed.] The reward in store for people who observe the commandments because of fear is entrusted to a שר האלף, a celestial administrator of a lower order, whereas the reward in store for people who observe the commandments out of a feeling of love for G'd is administered by a שר in charge of a higher order, i.e. שר האלפים.

While performance of the מצות out of a feeling of love for G'd is something very noble, it is also accompanied by a potentially dangerous phenomenon inasmuch as the very love one feels for G'd may make one careless. As a result, one may occasionally trespass and violate a commandment, and even assume that due to one's overall love for G'd and His Torah He would overlook such minor infractions. The reason one feels that way is because this is the way one treats one's friends and wants to be treated by them. In order to understand Moses' behaviour we must keep such considerations in mind. Moses was on such intimate terms with G'd that on occasion he permitted himself unbecoming remarks such as in Exodus 4,13 when he told G'd "send whom You are in the habit of sending." Another occasion when Moses permitted himself an unbecoming comment was in Exodus 5,22 when he asked G'd: "why did You make things worse for the people instead of saving them?" The only reason Moses could make such a slip was because he felt so close to G'd that he lost his sense of awe when facing G'd, something that would never have happened to a person less intimate with G'd. The fact is that G'd does not indulge people with whom He is intimate, He does not apply less stringent yardsticks when judging those who are close to Him. We have G'd on record in Deut. 10,17 as "not regarding persons i.e. not showing preference to those who are close to him, nor accepting a bribe." On the contrary, the closer a person has come to G'd the more exacting the yardstick by which G'd measures him. When a person who is close to G'd commits a minor infraction he is disciplined as we know from Psalms 50,3 וסביביו נסערה מאד, "those who are around Him (close to Him) are greatly agitated." Baba Kama 50 explains this to mean that G'd is so exacting with the pious people even if they deviate only by a hair's breadth.

When G'd was about to give the Torah to the people He intended to make that event one which would bestow the maximum merit on them. He had two options. 1) To address them with words of love and fondness. The result of such an address would be to implant in the people so much love that they would accept the Torah and qualify for the maximum amount of reward. The disadvantage accompanying such a method of giving the Torah would be the risk that the people would begin to feel so familiar with G'd that they would lose their sense of awe; this could become counter- productive; we have already described possible results of such feelings of familiarity with G'd. In other words, our relationship with G'd may either be based on the master-servant relationship or on the father-son relationship. If it is the former the feeling of awe before G'd will be present at all times, whereas if it is the latter there is always the danger that the "son" may take the love of the "father" for granted and abuse it on occasion. G'd's second alternative was to address the children of Israel in His capacity as a Master speaking to His servants. The advantage of such an approach was that the Israelites would not dare take any of the commandments lightly. On the other hand, such an approach would make it impossible for them to merit the greatest reward possible.

Keeping all this in mind, G'd opted for a method which would combine both approaches. When He told Moses כה תאמר, He meant that Moses should use the following approach: תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד, "on the one hand speak to the people in a friendly soft-spoken approach, but תגיד employ also words tough as sinews." G'd meant for the אמירה to be used in Moses' address to some of the people, i.e. בית יעקב, whereas the תגיד was to be used when he addressed the בני ישראל, the remainder of the people. The בית יעקב is a reference to the spiritually less mature part of the people, whereas the term בני ישראל referred to the spiritual elite. Inasmuch as the elite was capable of accepting the Torah and observing it out of a feeling of love for G'd, they had to be reminded of the master-servant relationship which exists between G'd and us; the spiritually less mature section of the people, the בית יעקב on the other hand, had to be won over by stressing the father-son relationship which is part of our relationship with G'd. Every Jew needs to be aware of this dual relationship at all times if he wants to achieve the maximum reward that one can qualify for, and if he wants to avoid the pitfalls of feeling an undue familiarity with G'd. When the sages in the Midrash said that the בית יעקב refers to the women this is homiletics.

אתם ראיתם YE HAVE SEEN — It is not a tradition in your possession, not in written words do I send a message to you, not by means of eye-witnesses do I attest this to you, but you yourselves have seen אשר עשיתי למצרים WHAT I DID UNTO EGYPT — on account of many sins were they liable to Me for punishment before they came into contact which you, but I did not exact punishment from them except on your account (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:4:1).

AND I BROUGHT YOU UNTO MYSELF. I.e., “to the place of My Glory, namely, this mountain where My Presence abides there with you.” Now Onkelos translated: “and I brought you near to My service.” [To avoid a literal translation], Onkelos adapted an expression of respect towards Him Who is on high.

אתם ראיתם אשר עשיתי למצרים "You have seen what I have done to Egypt, etc." Why did G'd stress what He had done to Egypt rather than what He had done for the Israelites, i.e. that He had taken them out of bondage in Egypt? After all, it was the latter which obligated the Israelites to accept the Torah and to accept G'd's words gladly as a gesture of gratitude. If G'd only intended to stress the miracles He had performed this would have been included in a statement such as: "I took Israel out of Egypt."

על כנפי נשרים, for I have brought you across the Sea on dry land just like eagles which cross the seas in their flight. They had also not suffered any harm during this crossing, just as the eagle transports his young on its wings protecting them against harm from below. (Deuteronomy 32,11).

ואביא אתכם אלי, “I have brought you to Me.” To the location where My glory its manifest, this Mountain where My presence is presently in residence.

And [how] I carried you (literally, “bore you up”). Onkelos translates ואשא as though it were [וְאַסִּיעַ [אתכם — viz., ואטלית יתכון “and I made you travel on eagles wings” ; he adapted the expression in a manner that is consonant with the respect due to the Most High (see Rashi). According to my understanding this "carrying" has nothing to do with carrying a burden, but really the elevation spoken of here is spiritual, just as "I will raise my hands to heaven" (Deut. 32:40). And the use of eagle is because it flies higher than any other bird, as it is written "as the eagle flies to heaven" (Prov. 23:5). If you fly high like the eagle then you will reach peaks and heights and raise all things to heaven. And the height here intends of the Highest High, the Blessed One raised B’nei Yisrael up at the time of the Exodus by directing all their affairs in a miraculous manner, splitting the sea and [giving] manna and so on, all miraculous things, out of ordinary from what the natural world behaves. It is fitting to point out that their raising was above the ways of the world, by using the idea of carrying on eagle's wings, as to say I raised you even higher than an eagle could have flown.

You do not receive it as a tradition. . . Here Rashi is answering the question: Why does it say, “You saw”? Furthermore, “seeing” applies only to things that are done, not to the act of doing. Furthermore, it is evident that the verse comes to inform B’nei Yisrael that Hashem loves them, for it concludes: “I carried you on wings of eagles.” But [you might ask:] How is His love of them apparent from what He did to Egypt? Perhaps Hashem so dealt with Egypt because they sinned, and not because He loves B’nei Yisrael. Thus Rashi explains, “There were many sins. . . yet I did not punish them. . .” (Re”m)

V. 4. אתם ראיתם, die Basis eures Gott- und Selbstbewusstseins beruht nicht auf einem immerhin Zweifel zulassenden Glauben, sondern auf eigener, selbstgeschöpfter Sinnesüberzeugung. Ganz in derselben Weise heißt es Kap. 20. 19:כה תאמר וגו׳ אתם ראיתם כי מן השמים דברתי עמכם von der Tatsache der Gesetzoffenbarung. Beide Grundwahrheiten, auf welchen das ganze Judentum beruht, יציאת מצרים und מתן תורה, die ägyptische Erlösung und die Gesetzgebung, stehen ganz auf dem Boden selbsterlebter, empirischer Sinneswahrnehmung, die jede Möglichkeit der Täuschung ausschließt, da sie von so vielen Hunderttausenden gleichzeitig gemacht worden. Beide Grundwahrheiten teilen daher den höchsten Grad der Gewissheit, sind völlig dem Gebiete eines bloßen Meinens und Glaubens entzogen, gehören dem Gebiete des Wissens an und sind somit unumstößliche Tatsachen, welche mit derselben Gewissheit wie die Tatsache unseres eigenen Daseins und des Daseins der äußern sinnlichen Welt all unserm andern Wissen zum Ausgangspunkt dienen müssen. Ihr habt gesehen, was ich gleichzeitig an Mizrajim und euch getan, wie ich die größte menschliche Macht, weil sie gewalttätig sich mir widersetzte, niederwarf, und wie ich euch, die hilflosesten, niedergetretensten Menschen, weil sie mir vertrauten und sich mir hingaben, hoch über den Bereich aller feindlichen Mächte emporhob und in unmittelbare Beziehung zu mir brachte. Ihr habt gesehen, wie Ich der Einzige bin, den die Menschen zu fürchten und zugleich der Einzige, dem die Menschen zu vertrauen haben. (Vergl. oben Kap. 14, 31.) (Die Verwandtschaft von נשר mit נזר und נצר, fernhalten und bewahren, scheint den נשר als den durch seinen hohen Flug dem Machtgebiete des Menschen geschützt Entzogenen zu bezeichnen).

1. I CARRIED YOU ALL ON THE WINGS OF EAGLES: as it is said: I raised you from to the highest heights and to the greatest greatness that I took you out from the work of slaves of slaves and I brought you with me to be servants for me that I may be the King of all Kings. And how high is the greatest that it can be for you all, that it is as if I carried you, that I lifted you all high on the wings of eagles that bloom above all [other birds]. And it might be said "on the wings of eagles" that the eagle carries its chicks upon its wings and they will not see anything, not from the outside or from below and not from flying from above in order that he lifts the bird above the rest of the birds and thus the Holy One made for Israel a pillar of fire before them and a cloud after them and a wall of water to their left and to their right, then they would not see anything because of the narrowness of the Mighty One.

ואשא אתכם על כנפי נשרים, “I have carried you on eagles’ wings;” Rashi comments on this that this refers to the day on which the people came to Raamses. If you were to counter that in chapter 12,37 this magic carpet referred to the day G-d transported the people from Raamses to Sukkot, we must answer that G-d referred to both these days according to Rashi.

ואשא אתכם AND I BARE YOU [ON EAGLES’ WINGS] — This happened on that day when the Israelites came to Rameses (the place where they all assembled on the night when they left Egypt) (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:4:2), because the Israelites were living dispersed throughout the whole district of Goshen and in one brief moment — when they came there to set out and to leave Egypt — they all gathered together at Rameses. Onkelos translates ואשא as though it were [וְאַסִּיעַ [אתכם — viz., ואטלית יתכון “and I made you travel” (cf. the Targum on וַיַּסַע Exodus 15:22); he adapted the expression in a manner that is consonant with the respect due to the Most High God.

And how I bore you on eagles' wings - a novel way, that no one had gone through before, just like the eagle that takes care of its young in the height of the sky, where there is no other type of bird, and this is to distinguish you from all the other peoples and their pursuits, to be for Me.

(2) I BROUGHT YOU TO ME. For Me to be to you as a God.

They all gathered at Raamses. In 12:37 it states, “B’nei Yisrael traveled from Raamses to Sukkos,” and Rashi there comments: “The distance was 120 mil, but they came there in a moment, as it says: ‘I carried you on wings of eagles’ (19:4).” [If so, why does] Rashi say here that “carried you on wings of eagles” refers to gathering at Raamses? [The answer is:] Both explanations are correct.

According to our explanation that G'd operated on two levels when He informed the Israelites of His commandments, we find that He did so also in our verse. When G'd spoke about what He had done to Egypt, He reminded the people of what would happen to anyone who does not observe His commandments. By reminding the people of how He had carried them on the wings of eagles, G'd reminded the people of the loving kindness they could expect in return for observing the Torah's laws meticulously. G'd hinted that should the Jews refuse to observe the commandments He would consider them as in the same class as the Egyptians who had refused to listen to Him and who had paid the price. The words אשר עשיתי also have an additional connotation, namely that having witnessed the great miracles G'd had performed, surely the people would stand in awe of such a G'd. The plagues G'd brought upon the Egyptians by changing the laws of nature were a simultaneous demonstration of G'd's love for the Israelites for whose sake He had gone to such lengths as to re-enact מעשה בראשית. How could someone who reminded himself of having observed G'd manifest Himself in such a manner not develop a love for G'd? The above considerations were both incorporated in the introduction כה תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד לבני ישראל.

על כנפי נשרים, over the sea, like a bird that carries its young across a river by means of flying across it.

על כנפי נשרים UPON EAGLES’ WINGS — as an eagle which bears its fledglings upon its wings. Scripture uses this metaphor because all other birds place their young between their feet since they are afraid of another bird that flies above them, but the eagle fears none except man — apprehending that perhaps he may cast an arrow at it — since no bird can fly above it; therefore he places it (its young) upon its wings, saying, “Better that the arrow should pierce me than my young!” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 18:4:3). — “I, too”, said God, “did thus”: (Exodus 14:19, 20) “And the angel of God … journeyed etc…. And he came between the camp of Egypt etc.” … and the Egyptians were casting arrows and stone missiles and the cloud caught these (cf. Rashi on these verses).

A kingdom of kohanim. By accepting the Torah they would become kings even over the kohanim, because a Torah scholar is considered superior to a kohein. Thus the Sages rule that the life of a mamzer who is a scholar takes precedence over that of a kohein gadol who is an ignoramus (Horayos 13a).

As an eagle which carries. . . The Re”m’s version of Rashi says: “An alternate explanation: As an eagle. . .” And so it is in the Mechilta. For there are two different explanations here. In the first, [“wings of eagles”] refers to swiftness of an eagle, and the second refers to the manner by which an eagle “carries its fledglings on its wings.”

ואשא אתכם על כנפי נשרים, "I carried you on eagles' wings." G'd went on at length about the feats of love He had performed for the Jewish people. He wanted to show how great was the reward when one performs His commandments because of a feeling of love for G'd. Of course, it requires a great deal of emotional fortitude to always relate to G'd from feelings of love. G'd wanted to encourage such feelings in the Jewish people by reminding them that He had already demonstrated that He treated them as a father treats his son. The "wings of eagles" are a reference to the ענני הכבוד, the clouds of G'd's glory, which were spread beneath the feet of the people so that they did not have to step on obstacles. Moses reminded the people of that in Deut. 8,4: "your feet never swelled during these forty years." Whereas a mere hint such as אשר עשיתי is sufficient to awaken fear of retribution, more words of endearment are required in order to induce love in people. Hence G'd had to be more eloquent about the acts of love He had performed.

ואבא אתכם אלי AND I BROUGHT YOU UNTO MYSELF — Explain this as the Targum does: “and I have brought you near to My service”.

ואבא אתכם אלי, "and I brought you close to Me." In this verse G'd reminded the Jewish people that He had taken the first step to bring them close to Him. This was very remarkable since we have explained repeatedly that the normal procedure of making progress of a spiritual nature is for man to take the first step. In taking the first step to elevate Israel to a higher spiritual level G'd had demonstrated His love for the people in an extraordinary manner. In our mundane life we also always observe that the lower classes make attempts to establish some contact with the higher classes, not vice versa.

G'd also wanted to remind the people that even after He had taken them out of Egypt they had not shown Him the obedience due but had rebelled, such as at the Sea of Reeds, before they received the manna and the quail, etc. Nonetheless G'd had made every effort to bring them close to Him.

G'd also hinted at what is spelled out in greater detail by the author of the Haggadah shel Pessach who says: "if G'd had not taken our forefathers out of Egypt when He did, both we and our forefathers would have remained there enslaved to Pharaoh, etc." The reason that G'd brought us out at the time was in order not to let us sink still deeper into the moral morass that was Egypt, a depth that we could not have rehabilitated ourselves from, ever. G'd therefore rescued us and brought us to a holy place. We have to understand the word אלי as the contrast to the deep moral abyss that was Egypt.

G'd also wanted to answer the argument that seeing He had offered the Torah first to the Ishmaelites, to the Edomites, etc., and these people had declined to accept it (compare Yalkut Reuveni on Numbers 23,4), how did G'd demonstrate any special love for Israel by offering us the Torah? The answer is that G'd had merely sent messengers to these other nations asking them if per chance they wanted to accept His laws. In Israel's case, He had made it so much easier for this nation to accept the Torah by raising us first to be closer to His spiritual level. When G'd had offered the Torah to the other nations He did so in order to be able at some stage in the future to deny them certain privileges as a penalty for having spurned the Torah. Not so in the case of Israel. G'd had done everything possible to pave the way for acceptance of Torah by the Jewish people. There was no comparsion between the way G'd related to both Ishmael and Esau and the way He related to Israel.

ועתה AND NOW — if you will now take upon yourselves the observance of My commandments, it will be pleasant (easy) to you from now and henceforth, for every beginning is difficult (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:5:1).

AND YE WILL KEEP MY COVENANT. I.e., “the covenant which I have made with your fathers to be a G-d unto them and to their seed after them.”¹⁵³Genesis 17:7. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it as referring to the covenant which Moses was to make with Israel after the Giving of the Torah, as he said, Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Eternal hath made with you in agreement with all these words.¹⁵⁴Further, 24:8.
By way of the Truth, [that is, the mystic lore of the Cabala, the verse is to be understood as meaning] that “you should keep My covenant to cleave unto Me, for if thou shalt indeed hearken unto My voice and do all that I speak,¹⁵⁵See Ibid., 23:22. then ye shalt be Mine own ‘s’gulah’ (treasure) from among all peoples.”¹⁵⁶Here in Verse 5. This means that “you will be a treasure ‘in My hand,’” for a king does not hand over a precious object into the hand of another [for permanent possession]. The word s’gulah here is similar in meaning to the expression: ‘us’gulath’ (and treasure) such as kings and the provinces have as their own.¹⁵⁷Ecclesiastes 2:8.

ועתה אם שמוע תשמעו, And now, "if you will hearken carefully, etc." The word ועתה must be understood in accordance with what Bereshit Rabbah 21,6 teaches, in connection with Genesis 3,22 when Adam was being expelled from Gan Eden. The Midrash says there that this word always introduces the element of repentance. Inasmuch as the Israelites were still tainted by the many sins they had committed in the past as well as sins they had committed quite recently, such as when they rebelled against G'd's command in connection with the manna and the Sabbath, G'd warned them that in order to qualify for the gift of the Torah they had to undergo spiritual cleansing, a process of repentance. There is an interesting ruling in Kiddushin 49 that when a man betrothes a woman on the condition that he is righteous and it is found that he had been guilty of a number of sins this fact does not invalidate the bethrothal as it is presumed that he had confessed and repented his sins prior to the betrothal. His repentance entitled him to describe himself as righteous.

כי לי כל הארץ, all the nations are Mine, but I have only chosen you.

ושמרתם את בריתי, “you are to observe My covenant.” According to Ibn Ezra this is a reference to the covenant that would be concluded right after the revelation at the Mountain, as we read in 24,8 [part of the description of Moses spending 40 days on the Mountain. Ed.] הנה דם הברית אשר כרת ה' עמכם על כל הדברים האלה, “here is the blood of the covenant which the Lord sealed with you concerning all these matters”. (Ten Commandments) Nachmanides understands the word בריתי as referring to an existing covenant, the one entered into by G’d with the patriarchs that He was to be not only their G’d, but also the G’d of their descendants.

והייתם לי סגולה, “you shall be My treasured possession;” any treasure which is hidden is called סגולה, it is the kind of treasure which is most dear and beloved to a king and something which he constantly keeps under his personal control. They are matters which the king does not entrust even to his closest ministers or officials. Kohelet 2,8 speaks of such a situation, i.e. “and the treasure of kings and the provinces.” The reason G’d said מכל העמים in our verse is to contrast the other nations whose entire fate is being monitored by G’d’s agents rather than by G’d Himself with the Jewish people whose fate is monitored by G’d Himself. The Torah is even more outspoken about the fact that the fate of the 70 nations has been delegated to His agents in Deut. 4,19-20 “which Hashem has apportioned to all the peoples,....but Hashem has taken you and withdrawn you from the crucible of Egypt to be a nation of heritage to Him.”

If you will now accept it. . . Rashi says, “If you will now accept,” because all words that stipulate conditions, such as אם in this verse, are time related. This is why Rashi switches the order of the verse’s words, and explains it: If now, at this time, you will accept the yoke of Torah, it will be pleasant for you in the future. However, in the verse’s simple reading, the conditional word אם refers to accepting the mitzvos. Accordingly it would mean, “If you accept the mitzvos,” and thus would not convey, “It will be pleasant for you from here on” — i.e., at a future time. (Re”m)

V. 5. Und nun — ihr seid nun hierher gekommen, wohin ich euch geladen, damit תעברון את האלקי׳ בהר הזה, damit ihr an diesem Berge in meinen Dienst tretet, wenn ihr dies ernstlich wollt, wollt mir gehorchen und mein mit ,אם שמוע תשמעו זגו׳ euch begonnenes Bundesverhältnis erhalten, so ist meine Grundbedingung, dass ihr mehr als alle andern Völker mir סגולה seid. סגולה. Aus Kohelet 2, 8: כנסתי לי וגו׳ וסגלת מלכים והמדינות, sowie aus Chron. I. 29. 3: עוד וגו׳ יש לי סגולה זהב וכסף, ergibt sich, dass סגולה ein Eigentum bedeutet, das nur ein Einziger hat, eigentümliche Schätze von Königen und Ländern, einen Privatschatz an Gold und Silber, über welchen ihm allein die Disposition zusteht. Ebenso Baba Bathra 52 a. und Baba Kama 97 b.: קבל מן הקטן יעשה לו סגולה ,החובל בבניו ובבנותיו של אחרים גדולים יתן להם מיד קטנים יעשה להם סגולה, wo סגולה ebenfalls ein für ein noch unmündiges, sonst noch nicht erwerbfähiges Kind sicher gestelltes und ihm allein verbleibendes Besitztum bezeichnet. סגולה ist somit ein Gut, auf welches kein anderer ein Recht hat, das in keiner Beziehung zu einem andern steht. Die Grundbedingung, die mit diesem Worte für unser Verhältnis zu Gott gefordert wird, ist daher, daß wir in jeder Beziehung unseres Wesens, mit unserm ganzen Sein und unserm ganzen Wollen, ganz und ausschließlich sein Eigentum werden, unser ganzes Sein und all unser Wollen nur von Ihm abhängig sein, von Ihm gestalten lassen und keiner andern Macht und keinem andern Wesen einen Einfluss auf die Lenkung unserer Geschicke und auf die Leitung unserer Taten einräumen. כי לי כל הארץ: denn dies Verhältnis, in das ihr zu mir treten sollt, ist kein Ausnahmeverhältnis, ist vielmehr nur der erste Wiederbeginn des normalen Verhältnisses, in welchem die ganze Erde zu mir stehen soll; alle Menschen und alle Völker sind ihrer Bestimmung nach mein und werden von mir zu mir erzogen,

ושמרתם את בריתי, “you are to observe My covenant;” this refers to the covenant of blood discussed in Exodus 24,8, that Moses took the blood of the different types of offerings presented on the altar he had built and divided it in half, as a sign of a covenant between G-d and Israel.

ושמרתם את בריתי AND KEEP MY COVENANT which I shall make with you regarding the observance of the Torah (cf. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:5:1).

FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE. This is similar in meaning to the verses: Which the Eternal thy G-d hath allotted unto all the peoples… But you hath the Eternal taken.¹⁵⁸Deuteronomy 4:19-20. And thus He said, “And I have set you apart from the peoples, that ye should be Mine¹⁵⁹Leviticus 20:26. [own] treasure.” It may be that the word s’gulah connotes “attachment.” [The sense of the verse would then be: “and you shall be attached to Me from among all peoples], for unto Me is the earth called kol (all),” as I have explained on the verse, And the Eternal had blessed Abraham ‘bakol’ (in all things).¹⁶⁰Genesis 24:1 (Vol. I, pp. 290-292). The student learned [in the mystic lore of the Cabala] will understand. Similarly, And ye shall be unto me¹⁶¹Verse 6. means that “you will be Mine in a special sense, and not as the rest of the peoples.” And so did the Rabbis interpret it in the Mechilta:¹⁶²Mechilta, ibid. “And ye shall be unto Me. As though it were possible to say it, [He is stating], ‘I shall neither appoint nor delegate [any power] to rule over you, but I Myself will rule over you.’ And thus it says, Behold He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.”¹⁶³Psalms 121:4.

והייתם לי סגולה מכל העמים כי לי כל הארץ, “you will be for Me a most beloved treasure, more than any other nation, for the whole earth belongs to Me.” Although the entire earth belongs to me, I have chosen you alone to relate to as exclusively Mine, i.e. I personally supervise your fates, and I have not delegated this task to various natural forces at My command, such as constellations of stars, etc. The Torah refers to the latter point in greater detail in Deuteronomy 4,19 אשר חלק ה' אלוקיך אותם לכל העמים תחת כל השמים, “which the Lord your G’d assigned to all the other nations under the entire heaven.”

כי לי כל הארץ, “for the whole earth is Mine,” and I have not chosen any other nation except you.
A kabbalistic approach: I have already discussed that the word כל is reference to an attribute of G’d in Genesis 1,1 where the terms השמים and הארץ have been discussed.

Regarding the observance of the Torah. I.e., “My covenant” does not refer to the covenant that was already established, i.e., that of Shabbos or of circumcision. [Rashi knows this] because it is evident that Scripture is speaking of the covenant of the Torah, which is the main subject in this passage.

אם שמוע תשמעו, If you will surely hearken. Why did the Torah have to repeat the expression שמוע? Perhaps the Torah referred to the two Torahs, the written as well as the oral Torah and the various rabbinic edicts promulgated throughout the ages. The people had to be told that both were equally valid. We are told this more explicitly in Deut. 17,11: "do not depart from any word they tell you either to the right or to the left. The Torah uses the word שמוע as a reference to the written Torah inasmuch as it will be revealed immediately, ועתה, whereas the word תשמעו i.e. you will hear (future) is reserved for the oral Torah and the rabbinic decrees, much of which will be formulated in the future. The expression ועתה, "and now," as a reference to what the children of Israel would be given now is quite appropriate then.

סגולה מכל העמים, “more treasured than all the other nations.” Seeing that the entire earth belongs to Me, I am able to raise your stature above that of all the other nations. The word כי in this verse is to be understood as meaning: in spite of, just as it means this in Genesis 48,14: כי מנשה הבכור, “although Menashe is the firstborn,” or the word כי in Exodus 13,17, כי_קרוב הוא, “although it is near.”

סגלה means a cherished treasure, the same as (Ecclesiastes 2:8) “and treasures (וסגלת) of kings” — costly vessels and precious stones which kings store up. In the same manner shall ye be unto Me a cherished treasure more than other peoples (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:5:2) . Now do not say that ye alone belong to Me and that I have no other peoples together with (besides) you, and what else, therefore, have I by which the special love I bear you can be made evident; this is not so,

And you will be a treasure among all peoples - even though all types of humans are important to me above all the lower beings, since He is represented only in them, as say Hazal (Avot): 'Humans are beloved because they were created in the Image' - still, you will be treasured among them

By writing בקולי, to My voice, the Torah emphasises that listening to the instructions of Torah scholars is equivalent to listening to G'd's voice Himself (compare Bamidbar Rabbah 14). Acceptance of rules introduced by the Torah scholars is mandatory.

כי לי כל הארץ FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE, but in My eyes and before Me they are as nought.

...Because Mine is all the earth - and the difference between you exists in smaller or bigger amounts, despite the fact that the whole earth is Mine, and the Righteous of the Nations are important to Me without a doubt.

Perhaps we can explain a difficult passage in Shabbat 88 according to which the words in 19,17: "they stood at the bottom of the Mountain" mean that G'd placed the Mountain in a threatening position, saying to the Israelites: "if you accept My Torah all well and good, if not, this site will be your burial place." This threat makes little sense in view of the fact that the Israelites had already declared their willingness to accept the Torah by saying in 24,7: "whatever G'd has said we shall do and listen (learn)." Tossaphot hold that the Israelites might have become so frightened at the spectacle of the burning Mountain, etc., that their souls departed from them (so that G'd had to revive them). This seems an unlikely explanation; if this perception would be correct, the very fright of the Jewish people would prevent them from reneging. We feel that our approach, that the Torah speaks here of two separate revelations, the written Torah as well as the oral Torah with the rabbinic additions, offers a far better way of explaining the statement that the Jewish people accepted whatever G'd had said. Concerning anything they would hear from G'd directly (things which would be recorded in the written Torah following the revelation), they gave G'd carte blanche, accepted it without even knowing what precisely they undertook to accept i.e. ועתה, now. Concerning what the rabbis would teach them in the future, however, i.e. additional rules, something the Torah refers to here as תשמעו, to be formulated at a later stage, the Israelites did not yet commit themselves though they did not reject this part of the Torah either. When the Talmud describes G'd as threatening the Israelites with death if they did not accept the Torah now, what is meant is only the part of the oral Torah and subsequent rules by the rabbis which were not being revealed at this point. We must not forget that acceptance of anything the rabbis throughout the ages would decree was something far beyond what the Israelites had in mind when they coined the immortal phrase נעשה ונשמע, "we shall do it, let us hear what it is that we should do." No wonder then that the Torah repeats the word שמע to tell the Israelites that they had not yet covered all the bases with their immortal acceptance. According to the Talmud, G'd did not wait to see if the Israelites would also accept rabbinic authority for innovations for all future times, but He applied psychological pressure so as to make them feel they would die on the spot if they refused to accept the part about the oral Torah also. The Jews remained under such compulsion until the period of Mordechai and Esther when they voluntarily accepted everything which they had originally accepted only under pressure. The reason they did so was that they realised for the first time that the actions of a Torah scholar such as Mordechai were responsible for their salvation from the decree of Haman. Had there not been people of the calibre of Mordechai no vestige of the Jewish people would have remained at that time. While it is true that our sages in Shabbat 88 interpret the words נעשה ונשמע in a slightly different manner and suggested that at that time the Israelites became comparable to the angels who always declare their readiness to carry out G'd's instructions even before knowing what these instructions are (compare Psalms 103,20) where David describes the angels as anticipating G'd in carrying out His will, this is merely homiletics. According to our approach the Israelites may have used the word נעשה before the נשמע as applicable only to the Torah they would hear from G'd directly, whereas they were willing to accept the rabbinic decrees as well as the so-called oral Torah after they would be informed of its details. Alternatively, the words שמוע and תשמעו may be divided as applying to two different groups of Jews. The righteous were willing to accept the Torah unheard and unseen, whereas the average Jew wanted to hear first what he was about to commit himself to. There is no reason to assume that all the Israelites were on the same level spiritually.

It is also entirely possible that in this verse we have a preview of what proved to be the fact after the Torah was revealed (compare Horiyot 4). The Israelites actually heard only two of the Ten Commandments from G'd's mouth directly, i.e. שמוע תשמעו, whereas they heard the remaining commandments through an intermediary, an angel created especially by G'd to transmit His words to the children of Israel. As a result there were two different levels of "hearing." They are alluded to by the two words שמוע תשמעון. The word בקולי instead of לקולי in connection with תשמעון, would be a clear allusion to these differences.

The wording may also contain a promise by G'd that once the Israelites would make the initial effort to listen to G'd's commandments, שמוע, then the way would be paved for them to not only listen but to await further commandments by G'd, i.e. תשמעון. This is analogous to what we read in Psalms 34,9 טעמו וראו כי טוב השם, "taste and see how good the Lord is."

The message in these words may also reflect what we have learned in Sotah 21: "when someone is actively engaged in performing a מצוה, this will protect him against impending disaster as well as save him from difficulties he finds himself in. When a person is not actively engaged in performing a מצוה, his merits will protect him against impending disasters but will not save him from troubles he is in already. When someone has not just one מציה to his credit but Torah itself (the whole range of מצוה observance), it will both protect him from impending disaster and save him if he finds himself in trouble already. The words שמוע תשמעו then mean: "if you are aware that listening to G'd's voice is useful on two levels, namely 1) to grant you life (compare Isaiah,55,4: 'listen so that your soul will live'), and 2) ושמרתם את בריתי, 'and observe My covenant,' it will protect you against the evil urge. We have expanded the meaning of G'd's דבור, speech whose function it is to be heard, to be listened to. The principal commandment described here (and in the Ten Commandments) is to absorb the meaning of the Torah by listening to it when it is presented. All the advantages of Torah are directly derived by people listening to its words. In this instance, the people would benefit by listening to the voice of the living G'd, and they would observe His commandments in order that the evil urge would not gain control over them. When the Torah adds the conjunctive letter ו before the word ושמרתם, this is to indicate that as the result of carefully listening to G'd's instructions, He would prevent the evil urge from leading them into sin. Listening to G'd's words would not only have intellectual benefits but immediate practical benefits.

There is yet another lesson contained in these words. "If you will listen carefully and thus prepare yourselves to hear My voice, I, G'd, will allow you to hear My voice, i.e. I will not address you merely through an agent." G'd also hinted that while the Israelites prepared themselves to listen to a single שמיעה, audition, they would find themselves hearing additional auditions, תשמעון, as a reward for having "tuned in" to the Lord. We find that David alluded to something along these lines in Psalms 68,12 where he said: "G'd gives a single command; the ones who bring the news tell about a host of things." As a result of the quality of one's listening, the souls of the Jewish people would "draw upon" living waters, wisdom and insights. The Torah urges the Israelites to tune in so that what they would hear would be of maximum benefit and would be retained in their memories. This is the additional dimension of the words ושמרתם את בריתי, "you will observe My covenant" as a result of having listened בקולי, to My voice directly, instead of merely to the voice of Moses or another human being. Shir Hashirim Rabbah chapter 1 on the line ישקני מנשיקות פיהו, states that any Torah one has learned from a human being is apt to be forgotten. Not so Torah which one has learned from G'd Himself.

There is still another dimension to our verse. Shabbat 146 teaches that when the Israelites stood at the bottom of Mount Sinai all the residual pollutants they still retained as a result of Adam's original sin departed from them. What the Midrash meant was that the word of G'd was so powerful that the people felt as if they had donned Royal garments (another term for man's soul). As a result, their innermost self despised all alternative attractions in the world, all the abominations which appeal to us humans under the heading of "culture." . This is what the Torah meant when it concluded ושמרתם את בריתי.

והייתם לי סגולה, "you will be a treasure for Me, etc." The term Segulah means something possessing supernatural properties as a result of which we view it as a treasure. It does not need to possess intrinsic value. There are herbs, for instance, which are cold by nature and yet are known to be an antidote to cold, something that is illogical within nature as we know it. G'd promises the Jewish people that as a result of their listening to His commandments and observing them they will become such a people for Him, a people whose history defies all accepted norms.

This promise is like a tree which has many branches. We are told in Shabbat 63 that if a Jew intends to perform a commandment and is prevented from doing so by forces beyond his control he is nonetheless given the reward applicable to a person who has fulfilled this commandment. If, however, the same Jew (or another Jew) intended to violate one of G'ds' commandments and was fortunate enough to have been prevented from doing so by forces beyond his control, he is not punished, i.e. his evil intention is not culpable. This is a halachah which defies logic. Interestingly, the same halachah rules that the very opposite holds true in the case of Gentiles. Whereas a good deed intended but not actually performed is not rewarded, the intention to commit a sin though not carried out is nonetheless punishable. Logic, or "nature" would have dictated that we either judge someone according to his intent or according to his deeds. How can one apply such a double standard? We are taught in Sanhedrin 59 that if a Cuti (non-Jew who has adopted many Jewish laws) studies the Torah and as a result observes the Sabbath (in the manner Jews do), he is guilty of the death penalty. He is not even supposed to observe the other commandments which G'd gave the Jewish people exclusively. How could this be so seeing that performance of these commandments is something G'd approves of as a good deed or He would not have commanded the Jewish people to perform such commandments? The Torah answers such questions by promising "you will be a treasure for Me from amongst all the nations," i.e. the Torah has accorded to you the key to determine which deed is a good deed based on the laws of the Torah. Seeing כי לי כל הארץ, that the whole earth is Mine, I G'd have the right to let you determine what is a good deed and what is not and under what circumstances such a deed is good. When G'd said מכל העמים, this means that should people at large claim that such special treatment of the Jewish people is totally unjust and that as long as the members of the other nations are but willing to conform to the laws of the Torah they should also be the beneficiaries of such observances, G'd says: "the whole earth is Mine," i.e. I can choose who I wish to treat as someone special. Since we know from Sifri on Deut. 33,2 that the other nations rejected the Torah when G'd offered it to them, and as a result G'd could not demonstrate that He treated us as a treasure by allowing us credit for things the Gentiles do not get credit for, how does G'd demonstrate that we are His special treasure? G'd answers this by saying: "the whole earth is Mine.," G'd indicates with these words that there are people in every nation who do recognise His being the Supreme G'd. This fact is spelled out in greater detail by the prophet in Maleachi 1,11 who describes that members of all nations from where the sun rises to where it sets, offer incense and pure gift offerings to the Lord, etc. G'd states that the members of those nations do not receive a reward from Him for doing so, their pious deeds do not make an impact on G'd. It is clear therefore that Israel's being a סגולה amongst all the nations has a great deal of practical meaning.

Another meaning of the Israelites being a סגולה for G'd more than all the other nations is that they alone serve G'd directly, whereas all the other nations who serve pagan deities such as the sun or the moon, etc., nonetheless serve G'd indirectly, not being aware that all these so-called deities are merely agents of the Lord. This concept is mentioned specifically in Deut. 4,19 where the Torah speaks of G'd "assigning" such agents as the sun and the stars to the other nations for them to serve them [at least as partners of G'd, Ed.].

When we find that such kings as Pharaoh and Sancheriv rebelled against G'd this was nothing but an error on their part. Imagine, for instance, that a king had hidden himself and paraded in front of people who did not know his identity as a commoner. It would happen from time to time that even people who had known him as a king (while he wore the uniform appropriate for a king) will now speak disparagingly of the king they once knew. Similarly, Pharaoh did not know that the one whom he insulted was in reality the Lord who controlled the deities whom he worshiped. [ the simile of the king hiding is used to illustrate that G'd is invisible and therefore the author of the parable describes Him as "in hiding" Ed.] "All of this proves that the entire universe are His servants, bow down to Him, and He chose the Israelites so that they would serve Him directly and thus became special.

I have had a closer look at the wording of the Sifri on Deut. 33,2 in which G'd is portrayed as having offered the Torah to a variety of nations prior to offering it to Israel. The wording is as follows: "Before G'd revealed Himself to Israel in order to give them the Torah, He went to the children of Esau and said to them: "are you prepared to accept the Torah?' They asked Him: 'what is written therein?' He said to them: it is written: 'do not murder.' They said to Him: 'the essence of our founding patriarch was that he was a murderer. This is why his father Isaac blessed him and said he would live by the sword.' Thereupon G'd went to Ammon and Moav and offered them the Torah. They too asked Him what was written in it. G'd told them: 'it is written that you must not commit adultery.' They said to G'd: 'the essence of all sexual permissiveness was the basis of the life of our patriarch Lot.'" Thereupon G'd went and offered the Torah to the Ishmaelites. When told that the Torah contained a clause prohibiting theft, the Ishmaelites exclaimed that this violated the basic tenet of their patriarch Ishmael and that therefore they could not accept a Torah containing such a prohibition. This whole paragraph is very strange indeed. How can man even argue with G'd and justify his immoral behaviour by claiming that it was a tradition he had inherited from his forefather? What kind of specious argument is it to say that "because my father was a criminal I am duty-bound to pursue the career of a criminal?" What is even more astounding is that G'd accepted their arguments without saying a word.

You must realise that when you look at both the positive and the negative commandments in our Torah the underlying reason for all of them is that after G'd had examined His creatures and determined that there were evil elements amongst them He wanted to separate us (the Jewish people) from such elements; He examined the good elements and decided to sanctify us by means of these good elements. In the Tikkuney Hazohar section 21 we find the following comment in connection with Isaac requesting that Esau prepare for him delicious dishes as he loved them, (Genesis 27,6). Isaac referred to the positive commandments as the delicious dishes he loved, whereas he considered the negative commandments as something he hated [designed to ward off what he hated. Ed.] There is a statement in Sifri on Exodus 15,26 "for I the Lord am your Healer," according to which G'd said to Moses to tell the people that the words of Torah He gave to them are therapeutic and are life. The repetition of "therapeutic and life" presumably refer to the positive and negative commandments respectively. The therapeutic nature of negative commandments could be the avoidance of certain diseases by abstaining from forbidden foods, whereas the performance of positive commandments is considered as a life-giving activity. When G'd commanded in Leviticus 11,43 which animals we are not to eat, the Torah stated that the reason that we should not eat such creatures was so as not to make ourselves detestable and not to defile ourselves (Leviticus 18,24). Sexual permissiveness is also described by the Torah in terms of abominations. In other words, G'd's major objective in legislating all this was to protect us and enable us to attain sanctity.

You must also remember that everything evil is rooted in the spirit of impurity. On the other hand, everything good is rooted in the realm of sanctity and purity. When G'd commanded us not to do certain things it was only because the effect of doing these things would be damaging to our bodies and souls. Robbery is rooted in evil; so is adultery. When man commits acts of adultery or robbery he strengthens the root of this evil. When he deliberately refrains from committing such acts he contributes to destroying the roots of evil. I have already explained in connection with Psalms 92,10 "Your enemies O Lord, Your enemies perish;

all evildoers are scattered," that man's deeds betray the state of his soul, such as the kind of state referred to in Deut. 29,17 as "a root that bears gall and wormwood." On the other hand, when the soul is wholesome it reflects sanctity. I have written more about this in connection with Jacob's criticising Reuben on his deathbed (Genesis 49,3). We explained there that if Reuben suffered from a character weakness this had to do with what Jacob thought about when he bedded Leah thinking she was Rachel. The arguments of Esau, Ammon and Moav, as well as Ishmael were of a similar nature. They accused G'd of having burdened them with hereditary character weaknesses which would make it difficult if not impossible for them to fulfil those parts of the Torah which G'd had mentioned to them. They did not brag about their faults. They only said that their lifestyle was proof that they had been burdened with such moral weakness as they exhibited already from birth, that the root of their collective soul was polluted. There was, however, a subtle difference between the arguments of Ammon and Moav on one side and those of Esau and Ishmael on the other. Ammon and Moav attributed their problems to an action by their forefather [or better by their respective matriarchs, Lot's daughters, seeing that Lot was unconscious at the time Ed.]. The Ishmaelites went further; they blamed G'd directly seeing that their matriarch Hagar had been told by the angel (Genesis 16,12) that the son she would give birth to would be unbridled and aggressive. The people of Edom blamed their patriarch Isaac who had encouraged Esau to live the life of a murderer by telling him: "you will live by your sword" (Genesis 27,40).

We can detect G'd's love for Israel when He was careful to tell each of those nations the very law they would find most difficult to accept as they had a valid objection. Had G'd mentioned other examples of Torah legislation the chances are that these people might have accepted the Torah. Seeing that G'd did not want these people to reap the reward of acceptance of even the first commandment He would mention to them, this is the reason He tested each of those nations by quoting a commandment to them which they would find hard to accept. The conjunctive letter ו in והייתם refers to additional reward in store for the Israelites over and above other advantages conferred upon them by being עם סגולה. The conjunctive letter ו also is a reminder that G'd does not need the Israelites for anything at all, but that the fact He confers a special status on them is entirely gratuitous. Just as kings who have all they need are sometimes desirous of owning a certain jewel, something which they could do well without, so G'd has decided to treat the Jewish people as if they were part of His jewels, though they do not perform a necessary function in G'd's palace seeing כי לי כל הארץ, the whole earth is Mine anyway. Job 35,7 expressed all this succinctly when he said: "if you are righteous, what can you give Him, or what can He accept from you?"

Another meaning of "you will be a treasure unto Me" is conveyed to us by the statement in Shabbat 146 that the residual pollutants dating back to the time Adam had sinned departed from Israel the moment they stood at the bottom of Mount Sinai.

Yet another element in this סגולה of the Jewish people is that whereas sparks of sanctity are scattered throughout the earth, they cannot be gathered together without the Jewish people and their preoccupation with Torah. Israel is perceived as being a magnet which attracts these sparks of sanctity from wherever they are to be found. These sparks of sanctity themselves are also called סגולה. The author uses a play on words, suggesting that instead of reading the word והייתם as written in the Torah, we may read it as והו־יתם, suggesting that the letter ה be understood in the nature of a command, that G'd is asking the Israelites to become something special, מכל העמים, more than any of the other nations. Whereas sanctity amongst other nations is so scattered as to be hardly noticeable, the Jewish people are urged to become a concentration of sanctity. The holy Torah is the tool enabling us to fulfil that command. When G'd adds something which we all know, namely "for the whole earth is Mine," this is an explanation of why the Jewish people are scattered all over the globe in their exile. As it is our task to gather in the scattered amounts of sanctity that exist we must gather them up wherever they are to be found. This cannot be done if we were to remain in one location. If Israel had not sinned, the magnetism that their Torah study would have radiated would have been sufficiently strong to have pulled in these various scattered little bits of sanctity; as it is we do not have that much magnetism and have to move closer to the source of these sparks of sanctity in order to attract them and fuse them together into a whole.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים AND YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF כהנים — i. e. princes, just as you say, (II Samuel 8:18) “And the sons of David were princes (כהנים)”, which cannot denote priests since his sons were of the tribe of Judah and not of Levi, the priestly tribe.

A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. This means that you shall be a kingdom of My servants.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים, this will make you special for only you will be a kingdom of priests, by teaching and instructing all of mankind to call out in the name of G’d and for all to serve him together. This was to be a forerunner of what will happen in the distant future as predicted by the prophet Isaiah 61,6 “and you will be proclaimed ‘priests’ of the Lord.” This is also the true meaning of כי מציון תצא תורה, “the Torah emanates from Zion.” (Isaiah 2,3) [This statement is attributed to the nations of the world at that time.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים "And you shall be unto Me a nation of priests, etc." Why did the Torah have to write the word ואתם, seeing that it addresses the same people it has addressed in the preceding verse? Perhaps the Torah now addresses Moses and Aaron; whereas up to this point G'd spoke to the entire nation and made them into an עם סגולה, Moses and Aaron might well wonder how they themselves would be special after all of Israel had been elevated spiritually to such a high level. G'd tells them, therefore, i.e. ואתם, that Aaron and his sons would be a kingdom of priests, whereas Moses and his family would be גוי קדוש, a holy nation. The Torah has used similar language in Numbers 8,17-18.

ממלכת כהנים, princes; we find this term used in a similar sense when applied to the children of David who were not priests in the hereditary sense such as the sons of Aaron. Compare Samuel II 8,18 ובני דוד כהנים היו, “and the sons of David were ‘priests.’”

ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, “a Kingdom of Priests, a holy nation.” Nachmanides understands the termממלכת כהנים as a kingdom that takes care and preserves intact My statutes, A nation that cleaves to the Holy G’d, as stipulated in Leviticus 19,2 “be holy, for I, the Lord, your G’d am holy.” This implies a promise by G’d to His people covering its existence both on earth and beyond.

(Ibid. 6) "And you shall be unto Me": I am not setting up any others over you, but only "Me." And thus is it written (Psalms 121:4) "He will not slumber and He will not sleep, the (sole) Keeper of Israel." "a kingdom of Cohanim": I do not crown kings from the peoples of the world, but only from you. And thus is it written (Song of Songs 6:9) "She is one, My dove, My perfect one, etc." R. Eliezer, the son of R. Yossi Haglili says: Whence is it derived that every one of Israel will have sons like those who left Egypt? From (Psalms 45:17) "In place of your fathers will be your sons." If "sons," I might think (even) the sick and the humble. It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "You will make the princes." If "princes," I might think merchants. It is, therefore, written (here) "a kingdom." If a king, I might think that he reverts to being a conqueror. It is, therefore, written "Cohanim," "idlers" (from war), as in (II Samuel 8:18) "And the sons of David were Cohanim." Variantly: From here ("a kingdom of Cohanim") it is derived that all of Israel were fit to eat of the offerings — until they made the golden calf. Once they made the golden calf, it (i.e., the status of Cohanim) was taken from them and given to the (official) Cohanim, as it is written (Jeremiah 50:17) "A scattered sheep is Israel, harried by lions … first it was devoured by Nevuchadnezzar, king of Bavel, etc." It (Israel) is compared to a sheep. Just as a sheep, when one of its lambs is smitten, all of its lambs feel it, so, Israel, if one of them is smitten, all of them feel it. As opposed to the nations of the world. If one of them is killed, all of them rejoice in his downfall. "and a holy nation": They are called "a holy nation," as it is written (I Chronicles 17:21) "And who is like Your nation, Israel, one nation in the land," holy of holies, separate from the peoples of the world and from their abominations. "These are the things" — not less and not more; "that you shall speak to the children of Israel" — in this order.

V. 6. und gerade für diese Bestimmung der gesamten Erde sollt ihr mir ein ממלכת כהנים und ein גוי קדוש sein. ממלכת כהנים, jeder einzelne von euch soll dadurch, dass er sich in seinem ganzen Tun von mir "regieren" lässt, in Wahrheit עול מלכות שמים auf sich nimmt und verwirklicht, ein כהן, ein Priester sein, der durch sein Wort und Beispiel die Erkenntnis und Huldigung Gottes verbreitet, wie es Jesaias 61, 6 ausgesprochen ist: "Ihr aber werdet Priester Gottes genannt werden, Diener unseres Gottes wird man euch nennen;" und גוי קדוש, und, wie priesterlich in jedem einzelnen, so soll eure Gesamterscheinung nach außen eine Gott heilige sein; ein einziges Volk unter den Völkern, das nicht dem eigenen Ruhm, der eigenen Größe, der eigenen Verherrlichung, sondern der Begründung und Verherrlichung des Reiches Gottes auf Erden angehört; und auch dieses wieder eben dadurch, daß es seine Größe nicht in der Macht, sondern in der absoluten Herrschaft des göttlichen Sittengesetzes sucht; denn das eben heißt לא פחות ולא יותר ,אלה הדברים וגו׳ — .קדושה, wie die Weisen erläutern, nicht weniger und nicht mehr. Ein Minderes genügt nicht für eure Zukunft, und eines Mehreren bedarf es nicht.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים “You are to become for Me, a kingdom of priests.” All this is the result of My fondness for you and My authority to do so since I own the universe.

אלה הדברים THESE ARE THE WORDS — these neither fewer nor more (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:6).

AND A HOLY NATION. I.e., to cleave unto the Holy G-d, just as He said, Ye shall be holy, for I the Eternal your G-d am Holy.¹⁶⁴Leviticus 19:2. Thus He has assured them [of life] in this world and in the World to Come.¹⁶⁵See Seder Beshalach, Note 346.

וגוי קדוש, never to disappear from the stage of history. You will continue forever to exist as one man, as it will be in the distant future of which the prophet Isaiah 4,3 said “those who survive in Zion and those who will be left over in Jerusalem, all those who are inscribed for life in Jerusalem- shall be called ‘holy’.” [the author is making the point that somebody called קדוש is by definition immortal. Ed.] Our sages in Sanhedrin 92 describe this concept in the following words: “just as He, the Holy One, is forever, so the Jewish people are forever.” It had been G’d’s intention to make the Jewish people immortal at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, giving them the status that Adam had enjoyed before he sinned. Alas, just as Adam had sinned and had become mortal in Gan Eden, the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf and suffered the same fate as first man. The disaster is documented in Exodus 33,6 “the Children of Israel had to divest themselves of their jewelry which had been given them at Mount Chorev.”

Another way of explaining this word is that it introduces a new reality; from this moment on Israel would be included in G'd's celestial retinue. In the celestial regions G'd has many servants who are all known as כהנים, priests. He also has a host which is described as קדוש, holy, as we know from Daniel 8,13. G'd is telling the Israelites that as of now He is substituting the Jewish people for these celestial servants known as ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. We find proof of this when G'd instructs the Jewish people to build a terrestrial Sanctuary for Him in their midst. We find that G'd repeated this concept when He said to the Jewish people in Leviticus 11,44: "you will become holy." The word ואתם was designed to convince the Israelites that G'd did not speak about something which would occur at some time in the future when soul and body would be separated after death, but it would occur right now, i.e. ואתם, "to you" who are still body and soul combined. We have found that the righteous amongst Israel actually achieved this level, that they are called both "angels, and holy." Sanhedrin 93 teaches that man's ability to rise to lofty spiritual levels by means of the Torah is such that he can attain levels even superior to that of the celestial angels.

There is another aspect to the meaning of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We have explained in connection with the meaning of סגולה that there are sparks of holiness scattered throughout the globe and that it is the task of the Jewish people to attract these sparks and fuse them into a solid body of holiness. The Jewish people themselves have also been described as עם סגולה. The Torah wanted to be sure that we understand that the סגולה represented by the Jewish people, the "collectors of holy sparks" is greater than the סגולה of the sparks, i.e. the items to be collected. The Torah does this by conferring on the Jewish people the additional title "kingdom of priests and holy nation." Priesthood and Holiness are different degrees of sanctity; this is why the Torah refers to both these phenomena separately. The people who "collect" the sparks of sanctity which are scattered all over the earth qualify for the title "kingdom" just as Moses qualified for the title "king" as a result of his leading the people out of Egypt.

אלה הדברים אשר תדבר, "These are the words you are to say, etc." G'd tells Moses and Aaron that they should not think the words: "you will be for Me a kingdom of priests" were addressed only to them; Moses was to address these words to the whole people inasmuch as they had attained this lofty spiritual level. As for my alternate explanation that the words introduced by the word ואתם had indeed been directed only at Moses and Aaron, the meaning of אלה הדברים would then be that Moses and Aaron should not add any words of their own to what G'd had told them. Should you say that this is so obvious that the Torah did not need to mention it, the question is why did G'd find it necessary to issue such a warning only here and not elsewhere?

The meaning of אלה הדברים is for Moses to communicate these words to the people of Israel word for word without any commentary. The reason G'd was so concerned about this was because these words contained elements designed to evoke both fear of the Lord and love for G'd. We have already dealt with this dilemma in our commentary on verse three on the words כה תאמר. G'd was worried that Moses might add words of his own designed to make the Israelites love G'd more or to make them fear Him more. This is why He warned Moses not to add any words of his own at this stage. If Moses were to tell the people things which would make the people fear the Lord more, they would wind up accepting the Torah because of fear, whereas G'd had alluded to the element of fear only in the manner a chef adds seasoning to a dish which is excellent even on its own. G'd was only interested in sufficient fear to stop a person from ignoring certain minor aspects of מצוה fulfilment by consoling himself that G'd loved him so much that He would not mind a minor infraction.

G'd may also have intended to subject the Israelites to a kind of test by limiting Himself to the minimum number of words possible in urging the people to accept the Torah. Should these words prove insufficient for that purpose it would prove that the people were still far from ready to accept the Torah with a pure heart. Anything Moses would add to G'd's words, even if causing the Israelites to accept the Torah, would negate G'd's test of the people.

AND MOSES CAME AND CALLED FOR THE ELDERS OF THE PEOPLE, AND SET BEFORE THEM ALL THESE WORDS. This means that he said to them: “Behold, I have presented before you the words [of G-d]. Choose you this day¹⁶⁶Joshua 24:15. if you will do so.” Therefore, they answered him, All that the Eternal hath spoken we will do.¹⁶⁷Verse 8. This is similar in meaning to the verse: See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,¹⁶⁸Deuteronomy 30:15. and also: And these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them,¹⁶⁹Further, 21:1. meaning that they are to say if they choose to observe them and accept [them] upon themselves. It is for this reason that it says there, And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Eternal, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Eternal hath spoken will we do.¹⁷⁰Ibid., 24:3. Similarly, And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel¹⁷¹Deuteronomy 4:44. means that Moses asked the generation that was to come into the Land whether they would accept the Torah upon themselves, for he was about to make a covenant with them in the plains of Moab, just as he had done with their fathers in Horeb.¹⁷²Ibid., 28:69. And the Gaon Rav Saadia¹⁷³Mentioned here in Ibn Ezra. On Rav Saadia Gaon, see Seder Va’eira, Note 229. said that the expression, and he set before them, is similar in meaning to the expression, put it in their mouth,¹⁷⁴Deuteronomy 31:19. [this being a reference to the Oral Law, which is the commentary to the Written Law]. But the correct interpretation is only as I have explained.
And all the people answered together.¹⁷⁵Verse 8. This also means that Moses called together the elders of the people, who are their wise men and their judges, for theirs is [the power of] choice. And he set before them all these words in the presence of the whole congregation, since it was with reference to all the people that G-d had commanded, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel.¹⁷⁶Above, Verse 3. But they did not wait for the counsel and decision [of the elders, but readily], all the people answered together — both small and great¹⁷⁷II Kings 23:2. — and said, All that the Eternal hath spoken will we do.¹⁷⁵Verse 8. And so it says again, and all the people answered with one voice, and said: All the words which the Eternal hath spoken will we do.¹⁷⁸Further, 24:3.

ויקרא לזקני העם, He called for the elders of the people, etc. In the two verses commencing with verse 7, we observe a remarkable phenomenon. The reason that Moses assembled the elders first was in order to inform them of the need to accept the Torah, and in order to blunt any opposition should these elders have any misgivings. Moses was certain that any doubts the elders might express would be expressed in a manner which was quite unobjectionable to G'd. He was worried that if he were to address the people as a whole without first having secured the assent of the elders some of the people might raise objections in a form which would be offensive to G'd. Once he had secured the assent of the elders, Moses planned to address the whole people showing them that their elders had already agreed. What happened, however, was that all the people simultaneously declared their readiness to accept the Torah before either they or the elders had a chance to hear what was written in it. 600,000 people accepted the Torah unconditionally and simultaneously. This is why the prophet Jeremiah 2,2 paid Israel the great compliment in the name of the Lord: "Thus says the Lord, I remember the kindness you have displayed for Me in your youth, your love for Me as a young bride, etc." The prophet used the word כלולתיך, as a double entendre, referring to the fact that כלל ישראל, the entire Jewish nation, had simultaneously displayed this love for G'd and His Torah. The word alludes to a double כלל, 1) all of them responded favourably without a single exception; 2) they did so simultaneously in the same tone of voice sounding like a choir.

וישם לפניהם, “and he taught them.”

וישם לפניהם. “He presented it before them in clear terms, etc.” According to Ibn Ezra, Moses did this verbally. Some people claim that Moses presented all this to the people in book form. Rabbeinu Saadyah gaon, says that the meaning is similar to שימו בפיהם, (Deut 31,19) where it means that G’d had asked Moses to make the people thoroughly familiar with His admonitions. Nachmanides says that G’d (Moses) told the people: “I have set out all these precepts for you to choose if you undertake to take these obligations upon yourselves.” The people responded by saying that everything G’d had said they were willing to carry out, just as is reported in Exodus

(Ibid. 7) "And Moses came, and he called to the elders of the people": We are hereby apprised that Moses accorded honor to the elders. "and he put before them": He enlightened their eyes; "all these things": first, first; last, last. "that the L rd had commanded him" — to the women as well.

V. 7. וישם לפניהם ist mehr als ein bloßes Überbringen der von Gott gesprochenen Worte. Es ist zugleich ein Auseinandersetzen und Klarmachen des ganzen Inhaltes. Daher konnte die Antwort des Volkes auch lauten: alles, was Gott gesprochen usw. Es war ihnen nämlich der ganz umfassende Inhalt der mit der Anforderung: סגולה, und der Bestimmung: ממלכת כהנים und גוי קדוש, ihnen gesetzten Aufgabe klar gemacht worden.

ויבא משה, “Moses came;” on the same day, and called the elders of the people to accompany him.

את כל הדברים, all the words, etc. The Torah emphasises that Moses said exactly what he had been instructed to say, no more, no less. We have mentioned this in verse 6.

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."

בעב הענן signifies in the thickness of the cloud, and this is the ערפל, the thick darkness mentioned in Exodus 20:18 “And Moses stepped near unto the thick darkness where God was” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:9:1).

IN A THICK CLOUD. This is the thick darkness where G-d was,¹⁸⁷Further, 20:18. and all the people saw it and recognized it as such, as it is said, And the appearance of the Glory of the Eternal was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.¹⁸⁸Ibid., 24:17.

בעב הענן, even though all of Moses’ prophetic stature underwent a drastic change on the occasion of the revelation at Mount Sinai, and he now received “clear” messages, something described in Numbers 12,8 as ותמונת ה' יביט, “he sees the message from G’d as a clear picture” (not merely as a reflection by a mirror) he was not to behold the Shechinah, but it was shrouded in thick cloud. The present communication with G’d which Moses used was not of the אספקלריא מאירה, “clear view” type.

הנה אנכי בא אליך "Here I am about to come to you, etc." Seeing that G'd was in the habit of speaking to Moses on a "mouth to mouth" basis, He may have announced to him that in this instance He would depart from that method. In this instance G'd would speak out of the thick cloud; this meant that His speech would not be as totally spiritual in nature as usual. G'd told Moses that the reason for this was not that Moses was not worthy of the usual mode of communication, but that G'd wanted the people to be able to hear that G'd spoke with Moses. Seeing the people were not on the level on which G'd usually communicated with Moses, He had to lower the level of His communication with Moses in order for them to become aware of what was happening. G'd added that the reason He wanted the people to hear that He, G'd, spoke with Moses was in order for the people to strengthen their belief in the level of Moses' prophetic powers. As a result of that experience their faith in Moses would become enduring. G'd hoped that this explanation would put Moses' mind at rest over the reduced level of communication between G'd and himself.

בעב הענן, a thick darkness to prevent him from seeing the presence of G’d with his eyes. [the people were to hear, not see. Ed.]

And they will also believe in you forever. They would comprehend that Moshe was on a higher spiritual plane than other people, even in that generation of prophets. From this they would infer that no one else would ever attain to his level, consequently the Torah received by him would never be replaced.

הנה אנכי בא אליך בעב הענן, “Here, I am about to come to you, within a thick layer of cloud.” Ibn Ezra writes that among the Israelites there were some who had ambiguous feelings about the existence of prophecy and the extent of it, or if indeed some people had been endowed with such powers. This was in spite of the Torah itself having testified that when at the edge of the Sea of Reeds the people appear to have been described as believers, i.e. ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו, “they believed in G’d and in His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14,31) The Torah had refrained from describing all of the people as sharing this absolute faith. Even after the crossing of the sea when the bodies of the dead Egyptians had become visible, the Torah does write “the Israelites saw Egypt dead on the edge of the sea,” (Exodus 14,30) again the Torah had omitted the crucial word כל, “all”, when describing who saw what. This is what is meant when after the revelation at Mount Sinai (Deut. 5,21) the people acknowledge היום ראינו, “on this day we have seen that the Lord has spoken to man and yet man has remained alive.” The fact that they had originally not believed completely in G’d, according to Ibn Ezra, is supported in that G’d had told Moses that as the result of His miracles not only would they have faith in Him but in Moses also. (compare וגם בך יאמינו, “they will also believe in you forever (our verse).” Nachmanides disagrees, saying that the Israelites never doubted either the existence of prophetic powers, as they had the tradition that their patriarchs had all been endowed with such powers. When G’d told Moses to approach him into the thick cloud, this was designed to reinforce the people’s belief in Moses’ superior prophetic powers, a level of prophecy never before attained by any human being. Exodus 4,31 is already testimony that the people had complete faith in G’d. In fact, to a certain degree, all the Israelites had been endowed with some prophetic powers as proven by the fact that they were bidden by G’d to approach as testified by Moses in Deuteronomy 4,10, i.e. that instead of having to depend on hearing G’d’s words through the mouth of a prophet they themselves would hear it directly. This would teach them to relate to G’d with the appropriate degree of awe, as is spelled out there. Once they would do this it would be easy for them to have full confidence in everything Moses would tell them in the name of the Lord. The words וגם בך יאמינו לעולם, mean that not only the present generation would have full faith in what Moses had related in the name of the Lord, but all future generations who had not known Moses personally, would have a similar degree of faith in the words Moses had handed down. This would have the effect that if there were to arise in the future someone claiming that G’d had appeared to him in a dream, or spoken to him while he was fully awake and that the message he had received would contradict the teachings handed down in the name of Moses, such a person would have proven himself to be a liar, a fake, someone totally fraudulent. The people’s experience of Moses’ superiority as a confidant of G’d would guarantee that they would not lend credence to anyone who would attempt to countermand G’d’s orders as conveyed by Moses. The people, because they had prophetic powers themselves, would know for a fact that Gd had spoken directly to Moses. At the conclusion of the revelation, as recorded by Moses to the next generation in Deuteronomy 4, they are quoted as having said that as of that day they had seen with their own eyes that G’d had communicated directly with Moses, and that just as they themselves had survived their own experience during the revelation, they had no longer any doubt that Moses had survived many such direct communications from G’d during his waking hours. Once this degree of trust in Moses had been established, they asked him to approach G’d on their behalf and to relate His words to them as they had become overawed by their own experience, and were afraid that they could not endure any more such experiences and remain alive. (compare Deut. 5,24 where they told Moses to become their intermediary.)

בעב הענן, “in the thickness of the cloud.” This is the cloud called ערפל, (20,18, Deut. 4,11). In the former verse the Torah says specifically: אשר שם האלו-הים “in which the attribute אלו-הים was (hidden).” Everybody present could not fail to recognize this as we know from 24,17: “the appearance of the glory of G’d was like consuming fire at the top of the mountain.” The instructions G’d gave to Moses in our verse were: ”I come to you in the thickness of the cloud so that the people will hear (My words) when I speak with you” (so that they themselves will attain the spiritual stature of prophets). Their belief in you will not be predicated on what they hear from others but on what they hear from Me directly. Compare Deut. 4,10: “when G’d said to me: ‘assemble the people to Me and I will let them hear My words so that they will learn to fear Me, etc.’” Here too, G’d added that the people would forever more believe in Moses. The meaning of these words is that if there were to arise in Moses’ life time a false prophet opposing Moses, the people would not even listen to what he had to say but would deny his legitimacy at once. They would do so because they themselves had attained sufficient prophetic stature to know that everything Moses did or said was divinely inspired. G’d reconfirmed all this to Aaron and Miriam when they dared to compare their level of prophecy and intimacy with G’d to that of Moses (Compare Numbers 12,6-8). When the people are quoted in Deut. 5,21 as having said at Mount Sinai: “this day we have seen that Hashem will speak to a person and he can live,” they referred to this experience of theirs that if G’d wants it this is possible.” From this experience they drew the conviction that Moses had attained the highest level of prophecy possible.

The thickness of the cloud which is called ערפל . Rashi is answering the question: Why are two terms [ עב and ענן ] necessary? עב also means cloud, as in (Yeshayah 19:1): “Behold, Hashem rides on a swift cloud ( עב ),” and as in (Melachim I 18:44): “Behold, there was a small cloud ( עב ) like a man’s palm.” Thus Rashi explains that here, עב refers to the thickness ( עובי ) of the cloud. This is ערפל , which is thicker than an ordinary cloud.

V. 9. In einer Verdichtung der Wolke: in einer solchen Weise, dass es die Sinne des Volkes ertragen. Wie sie der Tatsache des absoluten Eingreifens der göttlichen, Menschen- und Naturgewalt überwältigenden Macht durch eigene sinnliche Wahrnehmung gewiss geworden sind, so sollen sie nun auch die zweite Tatsache, die den zweiten Eckstein ihrer Zukunft bilden soll, die Tatsache, daß Gott zu Menschen reden kann, und zu Mosche geredet hat, mit der nur durch eigene Sinneswahrnehmung zu erlangenden Gewissheit erfahren.

ויגד משה, Moses told G-d what the people had said in detail. When we encountered a similar phrase previously in verse 8, it was appropriate for the Torah to use the expression: וישב, “he brought back a reply,” as at that point he brought back a reply to something that had been requested from them, i.e. “if you will surely listen to Me.” Now there was no need to phrase their comments in this mode, as their willingness to obey G-d’s wishes had been established already.

וגם בך AND IN THEE ALSO [WILL THEY BELIEVE] — The word “also” implies that they will believe also in the prophets who will come after thee (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:9:1).

IN ORDER THAT THE PEOPLE MAY HEAR WHEN I SPEAK WITH THEE. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that there were among the Israelites people who doubted the existence of prophecy. And even though it is written, and they believed in the Eternal, and in His servant Moses,¹⁸⁹Above, 14:31. it is said there, and ‘Israel’ saw,¹⁸⁹Above, 14:31. but not “all Israel.” It is this which they said to him [after the Giving of the Torah], This day we have seen that G-d doth speak with man, and he liveth,¹⁹⁰Deuteronomy 5:21. for at first they did not believe so. This is the meaning of the verse here, in order that the people may hear when I speak with thee, the Ten Commandments, and also believe in thee forever, i.e., “that you are My prophet,” for henceforth the matter of prophecy will be confirmed to them. [Thus far the words of Ibn Ezra.]
This is not correct. The children of Abraham never doubted prophecy, as they had always believed in it since the time of their forefathers. Scripture already has stated so: And the people believed, and they heard that the Eternal hath remembered the children of Israel;¹⁹¹Above, 4:31. and they believed in the Eternal, and in His servant Moses.¹⁸⁹Above, 14:31. Even though it does not say there, “and all the people [believed]” or “all Israel believed,” neither does it say here “that ‘all the people’ may hear.”
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that G-d said to Moses: “I come to thee in a thick cloud, so that you should draw near to the thick darkness¹⁸⁷Further, 20:18. in order that the people may hear when I speak. They themselves will be prophets when I speak, not [necessitating] that it should be confirmed to them through others,” just as it is said, When the Eternal said unto me: Assemble Me the people, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days.¹⁹²Deuteronomy 4:10.
“And they may also believe in thee forever, i.e., through all the generations. And if there will arise among them a prophet or dreamer of dreams¹⁹³Ibid., 13:2. to refute your words, they will deny him at once, for they have already seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears that you have reached the highest stage in prophecy. Through you, will become clear to them that which is written: If there be a prophet among you, I the Eternal make Myself known unto him in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is trusted in all My house; with him do I speak mouth to mouth.”¹⁹⁴Numbers 12:6-8. It is for this reason that He said, “in order that the people may hear when I speak with thee, for they will hear when I speak out of the midst of the fire,¹⁹⁵Deuteronomy 5:21. This verse had been used by Ibn Ezra to bring proof that before the Revelation there were some Israelites who still doubted the existence of prophecy. Ramban is now to interpret the true purport of the verse. and they will know that it is I the Eternal Who speaks to you. They will believe in My words and also in you forever.” Similarly, that which the people said, This day we have seen that G-d doth speak with man, and he liveth,¹⁹⁵Deuteronomy 5:21. This verse had been used by Ibn Ezra to bring proof that before the Revelation there were some Israelites who still doubted the existence of prophecy. Ramban is now to interpret the true purport of the verse. was to state: “Now the thing has been confirmed to us with the sight of our own eyes, as was the wish of G-d [that we should all become prophets]. Henceforth, Go thou near,¹⁹⁶Ibid., Verse 24. for we know that you have reached the great stage in prophecy, and hear all that the Eternal our G-d may say… and we will hear it from you, and do it,¹⁹⁶Ibid., Verse 24. for your prophecy has been confirmed to be above that of all prophets.”
Now I have seen the Mechilta where it is written:¹⁹⁷Mechilta on the verse here. “In order that the people may hear when I speak with thee. This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: ‘Behold, I will call you from the top of the mountain, and you will come up,’ as it is said, and the Eternal called Moses to the top of the mount, and Moses went up.¹⁹⁸Further, Verse 20. And they may also believe in thee forever, i.e., ‘in you and also in the prophets who are destined to arise after you.’” The words of the Mechilta incline towards the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra.¹⁹⁹Since the Mechilta states that “they may believe in you and also ‘in all the prophets,’” it would indicate that prophecy itself was still doubted, as Ibn Ezra wrote.

בעבור ישמע העם וגם בך יאמינו לעולם, they will believe in the possibility of this “face to face” communication between man and G’d, and the fact that you have been granted this level of prophecy by Me. (compare Deut.5,4 concerning the expression “face to face.”) One of the principal ingredients of this level of prophecy is that the prophet remains in full control of all his faculties including all parts of his body, something no one had been able to credit until they saw that Moses possessed such a capability.The Israelites commented on this in Deuteronomy 5,21 when Moses quoted them as having said: “this day we have seen that G’d can speak directly to man and man can survive such an encounter.” [In other words, it took the revelation at Mount Sinai, experienced by all the people, to teach them that Moses could enjoy such a relationship with G’d on an ongoing basis. Ed.] It is not that the people needed convincing that there were people who enjoyed prophetic stature and communicated with G’d and He with them. After all, they knew about all the patriarchs, Aaron and Miriam as well as Moses being prophets. However, up until this time all prophetic messages from G’d had been communicated either in a dream or in a vision involving the prophet losing touch with his surroundings at the time of such communication by G’d. [at the very least, if such a communication had been received while the recipient was awake he would have to sit down, as he would be unable to stand. [Avraham’s being able to run to welcome the angels, (his vision) was a sign of a higher than usual level of prophecy. Ed.] Now, for the first time, did the people witness that the recipient of such communications need not necessarily have to temporarily forego being in touch with all that goes on in our terrestrial world. You will understand this better in light of how G’d Himself explained to Miriam and Aaron in Numbers 12,7 the difference between their level of communication with G’d and that of their brother Moses, whom G’d described as thoroughly “at home” in all sections of “His house.” Only after having themselves experienced what this kind of prophetic level meant could they credit Moses as possessing it. Now they also understood that no other prophet, even a legitimate one, could challenge Moses, seeing that his stature as prophet was so superior to any other prophet.

ויגד משה את דברי העם אל ה', “Moses told G’d what the people had said.” Ibn Ezra feels that this is one of many verses in the Torah that should have been written previously but have not, and we must understand them as referring to events which had already occurred and which the reader may already know about. Nachmanides does not agree that we are dealing with such a verse here, as he does not understand the line (verse 8) וישב משה את דברי העם אל ה' as referring to Moses having reported the people’s words to G’d immediately, but that Moses had to return first to the Mountain taking the people’s reply with him, so to speak. We must remember that G’d is omniscient, and He did not need Moses to tell Him how the people had reacted to what He had bidden Moses to tell them. On the contrary, as soon as G’d had become aware of the people’s reaction, He immediately told Moses to enter the thick cloud surrounding the Mountain, etc. Upon setting out, Moses told G’d what the people had said to him, assuring G’d that His children had perfect faith in Him and welcomed all the instructions He either had issued already or would issue in the future. Our sages interpret these verses as dealing with the boundaries erected around the Mountain, to protect overenthusiastic Israelites in their desire to come close to G’d from becoming victims instead. Moses had ascended on the third of the month, and reported the famous נעשה ונשמע, “we will do as soon as we will know what to do,” to G’d. G’d immediately instructed him to draw boundaries around the Mountain beyond which the people were not to approach. Moses descended on the same day and relayed this information. He ascended again on the fourth, informing G’d of the people’s reaction in response to the boundaries. Even though the Torah reports this only later, the fact is that the Torah is under no obligation to narrate events in their chronological order. Some commentators say that initially, Moses told G’d that the people had said to him that whatever G’d would say they would do. G’d, Who can read between the lines, i.e. knows how to interpret what had not been spelled out. He realised that Moses was under the impression that the people referred only to what G’d Himself would say to them, but that they had not obligated themselves to carry out automatically everything they would only hear through Moses. He told Moses of the nature of the revelation, which would have as a by-product that henceforth the people would relate with the same degree of faith and trust to what they would hear from Moses’ lips, as they related to what they would hear from G’d directly. Subsequently, Moses confirmed to G’d that the people had indeed made such a commitment, i.e. that this had been their intention already when they had said that all G’d had commanded they would do.

On the following day. . . [It could not have been the same day] because Moshe always ascended the mountain early in the morning.

יאמינו לעולם, "they will believe forever." What is meant by "forever" are the subsequent generations. If people would have faith in future prophets it would be based on the father of all prophets, on Moses. Maimonides has explained this in detail in his Yesodey Hatorah chapter 8. This is what he wrote: "Any prophet who arose after Moses is credible not because of any miracles he may perform but because Moses commanded us in the Torah that if the prophet performs a miracle we are to consider this as confirmation that he is a prophet and we should obey him." Maimonides also wrote that the credibility of Moses as a prophet was not based on the miracles he performed but on the fact that the whole nation heard that G'd spoke to him. As a result the people became witnesses of his being a true prophet. Keeping these statements of Maimonides in mind, we can interpret the words: "they will also believe in you forever" as a reference to prophets who would arise in future generations. Any prophet who would arise in the future would bear further witness to the credibility of Moses as a prophet. G'd hinted here that when a future prophet would be sent by Him to the Jewish people, such prophets would be further proof of the credibility of Moses as a true prophet. None of the miracles such prophets would perform would in themselves establish their credibility. The only thing which would do this is the fact that G'd commanded in His Torah that we should obey such prophets. If not for the people witnessing that G'd spoke to Moses, all the miracles he had performed would not totally eliminate doubt in the minds of the people as to Moses' stature as a true prophet.

.ויגד Da schon V. 8 berichtet worden, dass Mosche Gott die Worte des Volkes zurückgebracht, so kann dies ויגד hier nur ein Wiederholen dieser Worte sein. Mosche wollte mit Wiederholung dieser Worte andeuten, wie das Volk sich bereits völlig und einstimmig für die Erfüllung aller von Gott zu erteilenden Gesetze bereit erklärt und damit ja auch sein rücksichtsloses Vertrauen in Mosche als den Überbringer dieser Gesetze kundgegeben habe, weshalb es einer so außerordentlichen Veranstaltung zur Begründung und Sicherung dieses Vertrauens vielleicht nicht bedürfen möchte. Wir haben es daher gewagt, dieses ויגד ganz buchstäblich durch entgegen halten zu übersetzen.

ויגד משה את דברי וגו׳ AND MOSES TOLD THE WORDS OF [THE PEOPLE UNTO THE LORD] on the following day which was the fourth of the month.

'ויגד משה את דברי העם אל ה, when he heard that his Creator had told him that G’d wanted the people to have absolute faith in the supremacy of his prophecy, Moses understood suddenly that the people had entertained some doubts about the nature of his prophetical powers. He conveyed the people’s words to G’d to show that they had unreservedly undertaken to accept everything G’d wanted from them as conveyed to them from him as G’d’s word. He emphasized that the people had not only said: כן נעשה, “so we shall do,” but had said כל אשר דבר ה' נעשה, “everything that G’d has said we shall do.” This was in fact a restrictive comment, meaning that if what they heard was G’d’s command they would do it, not if it was only the command of an angel. We know already from Exodus 23,21 that an angel is not empowered to forgive any errors committed by the people, כי לא ישא לפשעכם, and therefore Moses himself rejected the idea that the people be under the protection of an angel instead of under G’d’s personal supervision. The people were aware of this distinction. This is why they had committed themselves to obey only commands issued by G’d directly.

As hearing from the King. . . Since Hashem responded to Moshe: “For on the third day, Hashem will descend. . .” (v. 11), we may infer that Moshe had said this, and that the people had requested it. But Re”m, citing the Mechilta, explains [that we know this] because otherwise, what could B’nei Yisrael have told Moshe to say to Hashem?

We must pay careful attention to what Maimonides writes about any doubt the people might have entertained about Moses being a true prophet, seeing that the Torah has already told us in Exodus 14,31 "they believed in G'd and in Moses His servant." The Torah had made this statement in connection with the outstanding miracle Moses had orchestrated not only in splitting the Sea of Reeds but in reversing the process so that the Egyptians drowned in it. How can Maimonides claim that but for the fact that the people heard G'd speak to Moses they would have doubted his stature as a prophet? Granted that later prophets who did not perform those kinds of miracles needed to be connected to Moses by reminders that just as G'd Himself spoke to Moses in the hearing of the people in order to establish their respective credibility that they too had heard the word of G'd, but surely the same did not apply to Moses himself? How do we explain Maimonides who wrote that the miracles Moses performed were not in order for the Israelites to believe in him but because they were needed in order to advance the Israelites' cause? After all, eventually Moses would be revealed as a true prophet?

את דברי העם וגו׳ THE WORDS OF THE PEOPLE etc. — He said to God: “I have heard from them a reply to this statement — that their desire is to hear the commandments from You and not from me. One who hears from the mouth of a messenger is not the same (in the same position) as one who hears directly from the mouth of the King himself. It is our wish to see our King (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:9:2).

I believe that initially the Israelites believed that Moses was a true servant of the Lord who enjoyed G'd's ear, that G'd would respond favourably to Moses' prayers, etc. They did not believe that G'd actually spoke to Moses. They believed the theories of the philosophers that it is impossible for G'd to speak with man and for man to remain alive. The same philosophers admitted however, that man can speak to G'd and that He listens to man and responds positively. Inasmuch as this was a widespread belief, we may say that though the Israelites believed that Moses was a true servant of G'd, i.e. one to whose prayers G'd would respond and carry out his wishes, this did not mean that they also believed that G'd spoke to Moses. The suspicion still lurked in the back of the minds of the Israelites that G'd did not speak to Moses. This is why G'd now wanted to erase this suspicion from their minds by making them witnesses when He spoke to him. The people would then realise that it was possible for G'd to speak to man without man having to die.

The second matter that the people would believe from then on was וגם בך יאמינו לעולם, that through the experience the people had when they heard G'd speaking with Moses they would believe that other prophets would take the place of Moses in the future. If G'd had spoken to one prophet, i.e. Moses, there was no reason for Jews in the future not to believe that G'd spoke to other prophets. The word בך may also mean that when you, Moses, will command the people to obey the instructions of any prophet in the future who also identifies himself by means of a miracle, they will do so because they have seen you as a role model of a prophet. The deciding factor in obeying future prophets is not the miracle he performs but the instructions you have given the people to accept such a prophet in good faith. Having written this, I discovered the following statement in the Mechilta: "They will also have faith in you as well as in future prophets." This is identical to what I have already outlined.

Once the people heard all this from G'd they all agreed that G'd does indeed speak to man without man dying as a result. This whole problem has been spelled out in Deut. 5,21: "on this day you have seen that G'd speaks to man and man stays alive." The beliefs held by the Israelites up until that time were dispelled once and for all by their visual experience. At the same time they realised the great stature of Moses whom G'd had elevated to such a lofty spiritual niveau. This is the meaning of 19,19: "Moses spoke and G'd answered him by voice." The Mechilta describes this in greater detail.

ויגד משה את דברי העם, Moses relayed the words of the people, etc. Perhaps what Moses told G'd was that the Israelites had expressed their desire to hear the words of G'd from His mouth directly just as G'd had told Moses; alternatively, they may have said that there was no need to prove Moses' credibility as a prophet as they already believed in him as such. Moses told G'd all this in order to put the people in a good light. The Mechilta understands the verse to mean that Moses told G'd that the people had expressed a desire to hear G'd directly. Seeing that there are people who attributed to Israel the desire to see G'd, the expression ויגד is aptly chosen as it applies to relatively harsh words as we explained in connection with 19,3. The demand by the people to hear G'd or to see G'd is not really appropriate as it does not befit a slave to make demands on his master; this is why the Torah chose the word ויגד to describe what Moses told G'd in the name of the people. While it is true that G'd Himself had said: "in order that the people will hear when I speak with you," G'd had not said: "in order that the people will hear when I speak with them." Why did Moses need to tell G'd something that He was aware of already, just as He is aware of everything we think or say? Moses wanted to prepare the ground for G'd's reply. If he had not been on record as relaying the people's request, how could he portray G'd's reply as an answer to their request? We find that G'd replied immediately by saying: "sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, etc."

Adonoy said to Moshe. If that be so — that they make it necessary to speak to them [directly] — go to the people —

V’KIDASHTAM’ TODAY AND TOMORROW. Rashi explained: “V’kidashtam means ‘and thou shalt prepare them.’” And so is the opinion of Onkelos. A similar usage is found in the verse: I have commanded ‘lim’kudashai’ (“those who are prepared for Me” or “My consecrated ones”),²⁰⁰Isaiah 13:3. and also in the following verse: ‘hithkadshu’ (prepare yourselves) for tomorrow.²⁰¹Numbers 11:18. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it as meaning that they should bathe themselves in water. But if so, what is the sense of today and tomorrow when bathing was required only once? The correct interpretation is that they should sanctify themselves by separating from their wives, and from all uncleanness, for he who guards [himself] from being defiled by uncleanness is called ‘m’kudash’ (consecrated), just as it is said with reference to the priests, There shall none defile himself for the dead;²⁰²Leviticus 21:1. They shall be holy unto their G-d.²⁰³Ibid., Verse 6. And it is further written, because the priests had not sanctified themselves,²⁰⁴II Chronicles 30:3. that is to say, they had not purified themselves. Similarly, And David answered the priest, and said unto him: To a certainty women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy.²⁰⁵I Samuel 21:6. And it is known that [before the Giving of the Torah the people] bathed themselves in water, this being derived logically from the required washing of garments.²⁰⁶In other words, it is not necessary to explain v’kidashtam, as Ibn Ezra did, as meaning that they shall bathe themselves in water, for that requirement can be derived from the express commandment, and let them wash their garments (here, Verse 10). Hence, v’kidashtam must mean as Ramban explained it. The reasoning for the requirement of bathing or immersion is found here in the Mechilta: “And let them wash their garments. And whence do we know that immersion was also required? I reason as follows: If immersion is required in cases where washing of garments is not required (see Leviticus 15:16), is it not logical that immersion is also required in this case where washing of garments is expressly mentioned?” And so did the Rabbis say in the Mechilta:²⁰⁷Mechilta, ibid. “There is no case where washing of garments is required in the Torah without the requirement of immersion [of one’s body].”

וקדשתם, a way of saying “prepare them.” You have the same word in the sense of preparing for an event which did not require ritual purity as prerequisite in Numbers 11,18 before the people would receive meat.

וקדשתם, “you will sanctify, etc.” according to Rashi the word here means: “you will make preparations.” According to Ibn Ezra the meaning is that the people are to wash themselves with water. According to Nachmanides the meaning is that the men should refrain from sexual intercourse with their wives, and should also refrain from contact with anything else that confers ritual impurity upon them. Any person who makes a point of refraining from contact with ritual impurity is described as “holy.”

וקדשתם היום ומחר, “sanctify them today and tomorrow.” The meaning of the “sanctity” is that they were not to indulge in sexual relations with their wives (Pessikta Zutrata). They were also to avoid contact with any ritually impure object or creature. Anyone who consciously refrains from such contact is referred to as קודש, holy.

VV. 10.-—13. Gerade aber diese irrtümliche Zuversicht selbst eines Mosche in die bereits erlangte geistige und sittliche Reife des Volkes dürfte die Bedeutung und Notwendigkeit der nun folgenden Vorbereitungen und Vorkehrungen in ein um so helleres Licht stellen. Verstehen wir diese nämlich recht, so dürften sie alle den Zweck gehabt haben, den großen Abstand zum Bewusstsein zu bringen und für alle Zeiten zu konstatieren, der zwischen der geistigen und sittlichen Stufe, auf welcher das ganze Volk sich bereits befand, und derjenigen vorhanden war, zu welcher hinauf erst das zu empfangende Gesetz es durch einen Lauf von Jahrhunderten, ja, Jahrtausenden zu heben und zu erziehen bestimmt war. Enge damit im Zusammenhange steht dann auch ein zweiter Zweck: durch den ganzen Vorgang historisch dokumentiert sein zu lassen, dass Gott, s.v.v., räumlich dem Volke gegenüber gestanden, und sein Wort an das Volk und zu dem Volke gekommen, Gott nicht in ihm und unter ihm gewesen, und das Wort nicht aus dem Volke heraus gesprochen worden.

וקדשתם means AND THOU SHALT PREPARE THEM; i. e. tell them that they shall prepare themselves to-day and to-morrow (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:10:1; cf. Onkelos).

וכבסו שמלותם, “and that they wash their garments.” From the instruction that they were to wash their clothing we derive that they were also to immerse their bodies in a ritual bath. Compare Mechilta (bachodesh section 3) that wherever the Torah mentions the requirement to wash one’s clothing, the need to immerse one’s body in a ritual bath is an automatic corollary.

Ist ja das jüdische Gesetz das einzige, das nicht aus dem Volke hervorgegangen, das zu konstituieren es bestimmt war. Ist ja Judentum die einzige "Religion", die nicht aus dem Schoße der Menschen entsprungen, die in ihr den geistigen Boden ihres Lebens finden; und gerade diese "Objektivität" des jüdischen Gesetzes, der jüdischen "Religion", macht sie zu der einzigen ihrer Art, scheidet sie scharf und spezifisch von allem, was sonst auf Erden Gesetz und Religion heißt, und lässt sie das einzige Kulturmoment der Menschheit sein, das sich als Hebel und Höheziel jedes andern Fortschrittes betrachten darf, selbst aber als das gegebene Absolute über allen Fortschritt erhaben ist. Weil alle andern "Religionen" und Gesetze, nur aus dem Schoße der zeitlichen Menschheit hervorgegangen, nichts anderes sind als Ausdruck dessen, was zu einer gegebenen Zeit von einem bestimmten Menschenkreis als deren Überzeugung von Gott, von der Bestimmung der Menschen und ihren Beziehungen zu Gott und zu einander zum Ausdruck gelangte, darum müssen auch alle andern Religionen und Gesetze gleich allen übrigen aus dem Schoße der Menschen zeitlich hervorgegangenen Momenten der Kultur, der Wissenschaft, der Kunst, der Sitte, mit der Zeit fortschreiten. Sie sind ja ihrer Natur und ihrem Ursprung zufolge nichts anderes, als der adäquate Ausdruck einer zeitlichen Menschheitstufe in irgend einem Gebiete der Menschenentwickelung. Die jüdische "Religion" und das jüdische Gesetz waren aber nicht aus den zeitlichen Überzeugungen der Menschen entsprungen, sie enthalten nicht das, was zu irgend einer Zeit die Überzeugung irgend welcher Menschen von Gott und den göttlichen und menschlichen Dingen gewesen; sie sind vielmehr von Gott gegeben und enthalten das, was nach Gottes Willen die Überzeugung der Menschen zu allen Zeiten von Gott und den göttlichen, und vor allem von dem Menschen und den menschlichen Dingen bilden soll. Das Gottesgesetz befand sich von vornherein im Gegensatz zu dem Volk, in dessen Kreis es zuerst Eingang finden sollte. Es hatte seine erste Kraft an diesem Volke zu üben, das ihm als עם קשה ערף widerstand. Dieser Widerstand des Volkes, in dessen Mitte dieses Gesetz zuerst Stätte auf Erden gewann, ist das untrüglichste Kriterium des göttlichen Ursprungs dieses Gesetzes, das nicht aus dem Volke, sondern an das Volk kam, und erst nach jahrhundertlangen Kämpfen sich dies Volk zu seinem Träger durch die Geschichte eroberte. (Über die Einzigkeit des Judentums und sein Verhältnis zu Religion etc., siehe Jeschurun I. S. 3.)

Diesen, den Charakter und Ursprung dieses Gesetzes so wesentlich kennzeichnenden Gegensatz von vornherein bei seinem ersten Eintritt auf Erden, so entschieden und augenfällig als möglich erkennbar zu machen, erscheint als Absicht dieser Vorbereitungen und Vorkehrungen. Es kommt zum Volke. Seine Ankunft wird drei Tage erwartet. Und selbst um nur seiner Ankunft harren zu dürfen, muss erst das Volk sich durch Heiligung seines Leibes und seiner Gewänder, also dadurch sich würdig machen, dass es sich symbolisch die an ihm zu bewirkende Neugeburt des innern und äußern Lebens zum Bewusstsein bringt. Nicht wie es bereits ist, kann es das Gesetz empfangen. Nur der Entschluss, einst zu werden was und wie es sein soll, macht es der Gesetzempfängnis würdig. Auch räumlich tritt die völlige Scheidung hervor. Die Stätte, woher dem Volke das Gesetz wird, wird völlig, gleichsam spezifisch von ihm geschieden, in den Bereich des Außerirdischen gehoben, kein Mensch, nicht einmal ein Tier, darf sie betreten, sie berühren, und was sie betreten, muss getötet werden. Erst wenn die Gesetzgebung vollendet ist, wird die Stätte dem irdischen Bereiche wiedergegeben und darf von Menschen und Tier wieder betreten werden. Das Volk selbst wird durch eine Umgrenzung in seine Schranken zurückgewiesen und zurückgehalten. Alles dies, um die Tatsache der außermenschlichen und außerirdischen Herkunft des Gesetzes präsent zu machen.—

בו ,לא תגע בו וגו׳: den Berg. או ירה יירה. Das Objekt von ירה im Kal ist immer das Geworfene, nicht derjenige, auf den etwas geworfen wird; dieser wird dabei mit ל־ konstruiert: לירות וגו׳ לישרי לב (Ps. 11, 2) u. f. Auch hier heißt es nach Sanhedrin 45 a. b. nicht: mit Pfeilen beworfen, sondern: von einer Anhöhe hinabgestürzt werden, דחיה, der erste und wesentlichste Akt der סקילה. Er erleidet dieselbe Todesart, wie מגרף und ע׳׳עז. Auch da war die Todesart דחיה, und סקילה trat nur ein, wenn durch דחיה der Tod nicht erfolgt war. יבל במשוך היובל heißt: heimbringen, daher יבול (vergl. תבואה): der Ertrag des Feldes, יובֵל: das Jahr der Heimkehr. Daher heißt denn wohl auch das Signalhorn, womit das Zeichen zur Heimkehr, zur Entlassung geblasen wird, יובֵל. So wurden auch bei dem Umzug um Jericho יובלים geblasen. Ihr Signal war kein kriegerisches, denn Jericho sollte doch eben nicht durch Israels Schwert eingenommen werden. Es war vielmehr das Signal, die Aufforderung an die Mauern der Stadt, die Stadt frei und ihren nunmehrigen berechtigten Herren heimzugeben. Hier ist das יובל das Signal zur Heimkehr, das Signal der Entlassung des Volkes, somit der Beendigung der Gesetzgebung.

והיו נכנים AND LET THEM BE PREPARED — separated from their wives (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:15:1; cf. Rashi on Shabbat 87a).

THE ETERNAL WILL COME DOWN IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE. I.e., so that all the people will behold His coming down, meaning that they will see the appearance of the Glory of the Eternal like devouring fire on the top of the mount,²⁰⁸Further, 24:17. but they will not see G-d, for it is written, for man shall not see Me and live.²⁰⁹Ibid., 33:20.

והיו נכונים, that not only the mind, the spirit, be in readiness for the revelation but also the body that houses the spirit. This was necessary because the level of prophecy they would experience at the revelation would far surpass anything an ordinary prophet experiences, something for which he does not have to prepare his body by ritual immersion, and loss of any residue of seminal fluids the body ejaculated during the days immediately preceding the prophetic vision. Moses was not forbidden physical contact with his own wife until he had attained this level of prophetic stature. This would commence from the time of the revelation and onwards. At that time he released the other Israelites from the restriction of carrying on marital relations with their wives by saying to them: “return to your tents” (Deuteronomy 5,27-28). Moses himself had been told by G’d at that time: “you remain standing here with Me.” This is what our sages explained in Shabbat 87.

ירד ה' לעיני כל העם, one probably has to understand the beginning of verse 10 ויאמר ה', as referring to an angel who said what follows. Therefore he could say the words ירד ה' in the third person. G’d, personally, had not said verse 10 as otherwise here it should say ארד “I will descend.” I have already explained a similar construction in Genesis 19,24 in connection with who made it rain on Sodom, and the meaning of the words מן השמים “from the heaven,” in that verse. Bereshit Rabbah 51,3 describes the first half of the verse as having been spoken by the angel Gavriel, whereas the second half was spoken by G’d Himself.

ירד ה' לעיני כל העם, “Hashem will descend in full view of all the people.” This means that the fiery spectacle of G’d’s descent to the top of the Mountain will be perceived as a spectacle of consuming fire. The people will obviously not see the essence of G’d, as we have been told in Exodus 33,20 כי לא יראני האדם וחי, “it is inherently impossible for a living human being to see Me.”

Separated from their wives. This is learned by a gezeirah shavah between נכונים here and נכונים in v. 15. Here it is written והיו נכונים , and there it is written היו נכונים לשלשת ימים אל תגשו אל אשה (“. . .do not come near a woman”).

(Ibid. 11) "And have them ready for the third day": the sixth day (of Sivan) on which the Torah was given, viz. (Ibid.) "for on the third day the L rd will go down, etc." "the L rd will go down before the eyes of all the people on Mount Sinai": This is one of the ten "descents" in the Torah. "before the eyes of all the people": We are hereby apprised that there were no blind ones among them. Variantly: "before the eyes of all the people": We are hereby apprised that they saw at that time what Ezekiel and Isaiah could not see, it being written (Hoshea 12:11) "and by the prophets I shall be imaged," (but at Sinai they saw the Shechinah.) Variantly: "before the eyes of all the people": We are hereby apprised that if they lacked (in unity of heart) even one, they could not receive (the Shechinah). R. Yossi says: Even if they numbered 22,000, they could receive it, it being written (Numbers 10:36) "And when it (the ark) rested, he (Moses) would say: 'Return, O L rd (to) the (two) ten thousands (two) thousands of Israel.'"

ליום השלישי, “for the third day.” This was the Sabbath on which the Torah would be given, the third day after Moses had been commanded to prepare the people for that day on the fourth of the month, a Thursday. On that day G-d would descend to the Mountain. Seeing that at this point the Torah did not spell out a specific time or date, this had to be done on another occasion, i.e. in Deuteronomy 5,27 where Moses is to tell the people to return to their daily routine, whereas he is to ascend Mount Sinai and receive the whole Torah there during the next 40 days, as detailed at the beginning of chapter 24 in Exodus. Some commentators accept neither the opinion of the majority of the scholars nor that of Rabbi Yossi, both of whom held differing views as to the precise sequence and timing of the days of the week and days of the month on which events commencing with the Israelites encamping in the desert of Sinai and the conclusion of the revelation have been reported in the Torah.

ליום השלישי AGAINST THE THIRD DAY, which is the sixth of the month. On the fifth Moses built the altar under the mountain and the twelve monuments — the whole narrative as is stated later on in the Sidra ואלה המשפטים (Exodus 24:4), for there is neither “earlier” nor “later” (there is no chronological order) in the Torah (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:10:1-2).

This teaches us that there were no blind among them. . . This was in response to their request, “It is our wish to see our King!”

לעיני כל העם BEFORE THE EYES (in the sight) OF ALL THE PEOPLE — This tells us that there was not a blind person amongst them — that they had all been healed of their blindness (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:11).

והגבלת AND THOU SHALT SET BOUNDS — set boundary marks for them as a sign that they should not approach the mountain from the boundary and beyond.

כל הנוגע בהר מות ימות, a warning to deter the people from being harmed in the event they would trample the boundary markers around the mountain in their eagerness to catch a glimpse of G’d. Such people, if they were to become victims of their own folly, would mar the entire joyful experience of the giving of the Torah by defiling the earth around them with their carcasses. They would cause their relatives to become mourners on what should have been the most auspicious experience of their lives. The presence of G’d, the Shechinah, does not manifest itself to people in mourning.

והגבלת את העם סביב, "set a boundary for the people all around." It appears that the instructions to set up this fence applied only for what would take place on the third day; it was meant so that the Israelites would get used to the fact that the Mountain was out of bounds and as a measure of respect for what would happen. It does not mean that touching the Mountain or its edge was forbidden already on the two days preceding the revelation. Mechilta 24 confirms that the obligatory nature of this prohibition applied only on the third day.

והגבלת, mark the border up to which the people are allowed to approach by clearly visible signs.

The boundary says to them. . . Re”m explains [that Rashi knows this] because “Set bounds for the people” cannot mean “Tell them to be careful.” This is because setting bounds for an area and warning people are two different things. Therefore, [since the verse is not speaking of Moshe’s verbal warning, we must say that] לאמר is connected to the boundary, not to Moshe. However, the Torah never punishes without a verbal warning. Therefore Rashi adds, “And you, too, warn them,” for Moshe also told them to be careful. This being so, לאמר connects to Moshe as well as to the boundary.

(Exodus 19:12) "And you shall 'bound' the people": I might think only at the east of the mountain, (where they were encamped). It is, therefore, written "roundabout." "saying": We are hereby apprised that they exhorted each other in this regard. "Take heed unto yourselves": this constitutes a negative commandment. "not to go up on the mountain": I might think that he may not go up, but he may touch it; it is, therefore, written "Whoever touches the mountain." I might think that he may not climb and that he may not touch it but he may ascend in a sedan-chair; it is, therefore, written "not to go up on the mountain" (in any manner). "Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death": This is the punishment.

והגבלת את ההר, “you are to “fence in“ the mountain; actually the Torah writes: “you shall set boundaries for the people,” את העם. Our author understands this as fencing off the east side of the camp from the mountain. This is the direction from which the glory of G-d would appear, as we know from what Moses described in Deuteronomy 33,2 when he spoke about G-d having first offered His Torah to the gentile nations, who, upon enquiring what it contained decided to decline acceptance. He said then: ,וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פרן, “He shone forth from the land of Seir (in the east) and He appeared from around Mount Paran.”

לאמר SAYING — The boundary says to them, “Take care not to ascend from here and further on” and you, too, admonish them regarding this.

Even its edge. [Rashi knows this] because otherwise, [if ונגוע meant literally, “And touch its edge,”] it would not need to say, “Not to go up the mountain.” For it is impossible to go up without [first] touching its edge. (Re”m) [A second approach:] I heard from a certain sage that Rashi is telling us not to think that, “Not to go up the mountain and touch its edge,” refers to its uppermost edge. Therefore Rashi explains, “Even its edge.” Alternatively, [now returning to the first approach:] It seems to me that Rashi means as follows: “Be careful not to go up” implies not to ascend, but standing at a distance and touching is permitted. Therefore Rashi explains that “And touch its edge” means: “Even to stand at a distance and touch its edge.” (Maharshal)

לאמר, “to tell as a warning so that each Israelite would warn his neighbour.”

ונגע בקצהו OR TOUCH THE EXTREMITY THEREOF — i. e. even the extremity thereof.

ירה יירה HE SHALL SURELY BE CAST DOWN — From this we derive the law regarding those who are sentenced to be stoned that they have to be thrown down from the place of stoning, which was a spot of the height of twice a man’s stature (Sanhedrin 45a).

WHEN ‘HAYOVEIL’ (THE RAM’S HORN) SOUNDETH LONG, THEY SHALL COME UP TO THE MOUNT. “The Hebrew word hayoveil denotes a ram’s horn, and the horn used here was that of Isaac’s ram.”²¹⁰Genesis 22:13. Thus Rashi’s language. But I have not understood this, for Isaac’s ram was burnt as a whole-offering,²¹⁰Genesis 22:13. and horns and hoofs were completely burnt in whole-offerings.²¹¹Leviticus 1:9 and 13. Perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, shaped the ashes of the horn [of Isaac’s ram] and restored it to what it was originally. But in my opinion, this Agadah (homily) contains a secret. Thus they²¹²Evidently, a reference to the masters of Cabala. The source of this statement, i.e., that the Voice heard on Mount Sinai was that of Pachad Yitzchak, is unknown to me. have said that this Voice [heard on Mount Sinai, as stated in Verse 16], was that of Pachad Yitzchak (the Fear of Isaac).²¹³Genesis 31:42.. See Ramban, ibid. (Vol. I pp. 388-389). And in Bachya’s commentary here (Vol. II, p. 172 of my edition): “This is the Pachad Yitzchak which they perceived at Mount Sinai.” It is for this reason that Scripture says, and all the people that were in the camp trembled.²¹⁴Verse 16. “Just as it says [in Genesis 27:33], in the case of Isaac: And Isaac trembled” (Bachya, ibid.) At this manifestation of G’vurah²¹⁵Literally: “strength.” But here it denotes one of the Ten Emanations, the one which is synonymous with Pachad Yitzchak. they did not grasp the commandment itself but only a voice.²¹⁶Deuteronomy 4:12. See also Ramban further on Verse 19.

לא תגע בו יד, anyone touching the mountain with his hands would be subject to immediate death as spelled out in verse 12. Moses was to execute people like that from a distance so that the executioner himself would not erroneously approach too closely to the mountain. This is why the Torah wrote the words לא תגע בו יד, meaning “do not lay a hand on him,” the one who ignored My command. Such violators of G’d’s command, if any, were to be shot by arrows.

לא תגע בו יד, “a hand shall not touch it” (the fence) some commentators believe that the word בו in our verse refers to the Mountain itself; and that a person doing this is liable to the death penalty, but that the execution must not involve that the person being executed be touched by a human hand in the process. Rather he should be stoned to death, by throwing the stones at him. If the victim escapes the stones by running away, he is to be shot dead by arrows.

אם בהמה אם איש לא יחיה, “whether animal or beast he shall not live.” The word בהמה in our verse does not refer to four-legged animals; it refers to the wicked people who are deemed no better than animals. The Torah tells the Jewish people that regardless of whether the person touching the mountain is an otherwise righteous person or whether he is a wicked person he will not survive touching even the edge (beyond what was fenced off) of the mountain.
When Solomon in Kohelet 3,21 wrote: מי יודע רוח בני האדם העולה היא למעלה ורוח הבהמה היורדת היא למטה לארץ, “who knows the spirit of man which ascends on high or the spirit of the animal which descends downwards, to earth,” he did not refer to actual animals. He referred to the soul of the sinner which descends just as the “soul” (abstract life-force) of an animal perishes with the body it inhabits, to the soul of the righteous which ascends when the body it had inhabited dies. Solomon’s question (rhetorical if you will) was “while both people are alive on this earth, the sinner and the righteous, how can we know what is in store for a certain person? Do we humans know who is a צדיק and who is a רשע, i.e. a בהמה?” Solomon teaches that while we are in this world מקרה אחד לכל לצדיק ולרשע כמות זה כן מות זה, “while on earth both the righteous and the wicked appear to share the same fate, i.e. death of the body.” (Kohelet 3,19-20). Verse 21 refers to verse 20 preceding it where death for every creature made of dust is described, thus placing different people on the same level. However, this changes the moment these differing personalities no longer have a body.
The same is true in our verse. In this life it makes no difference whether a person is wicked or righteous, לא יחיה, he will not live forever. The very fact that the comparison between the wicked and the just is limited to לא יחיה, neither of them escaping physical death, is what makes it plain that as soon as death of the body has occurred the fate of the righteous and that of the wicked will become radically different from one another. Whereas the words לא יחיה apply to the wicked both in this world and in the next, the same words when applied to the righteous refer only to his life on earth, not to his life after the death of his body. Proof is found in the fact that Nadav and Avihu who died for transgressing the commandment not to touch the mountain were nevertheless accorded life in the hereafter. This is why we read about their death on Yom Kippur. [This presupposes, as has been mentioned in several Midrashim, that they had been guilty of death before the day they died but that their death and the manner of their death had been delayed due to a variety of considerations culminating in their bringing incense into the Sanctuary. The words בקרבתם לפני ה’, וימותו “due to their coming close to the presence of G’d they died” (Leviticus 16,1) refer to their touching the mountain. Ed.]

From here we learn that those who are stoned. . . [Rashi knows this] because of the repetitive ירה יירה , [which teaches that “cast down” applies not just at Mt. Sinai].

לא תגע בו יד, “do not touch it with your hand;” Why did this have to be repeated when we had heard already in the preceding verse that anyone touching the mountain would be subject to the death penalty? The two verses have to be understood as follows: “when you are about to execute a person guilty of having touched the mountain, do not do so by using your hands against him but stone him to death.” The stones are to be thrown from some distance away from the culprit. If you were to approach the area where the sin was committed you would be in danger of committing the same offence, even though unintentionally. Our author thinks that the repetition was to make clear which method of execution was to be applied to the offender, as the usual method, strangulation involves touching the victim.

לא תגע בו יד, “you must not touch him;” (the offender in order to pull him back) rather he shall be killed by stoning or by shooting arrows at him, but he must not be touched by human hand in order to be brought before a court of law to be dealt with. The Torah adds therefore that his death should occur without humans touching him. This prohibition applies equally to the Israelites’ beasts. If you were to ask why ascending the mountain is a worse offense than killing such a person by stoning him while ascending? The reason is that if the offender were to be killed through human action, the party touching that body, dead or alive, would also be considered as having personally touched that Mountain, whose holiness is such that it must not be touched by human bodies. Seeing that the Torah did not even allow a beast to touch that mountain, and a beast is not ritually impure while alive, how much more would the Torah not allow a human being to touch it, seeing that a living human being is subject to being ritually defiled while alive as well as when dead; so why did the Torah have to spell out this regulation as applying also to the people?The answer to this question can be learned from matters involving a high level of sanctity, such as the Tabernacle which was completely out of bounds to non priests. As soon as Nadav and Avihu approached to offer incense not prepared in accordance with the regulations pertaining to it, they were killed by lightning descending from G-d. They were not convicted after trial by a human court. Their corpses defiled the Tabernacle, although if they had been jailed and executed after a trial, the sanctity of the Tabernacle would not have been defiled. The same thing happened when Uzziah, King of Yehudah, not a priest, ascended the altar in the Temple of Solomon, planning to offer incense; after having been warned and having ignored the warning, he was struck by the dreaded skin disease of tzoraat on his forehead, something which defiled his entire body even though he was standing on the holiest place on earth. (Chronicles II 26,16) A different interpretation of the words: כי סקול יסקל, “for he will be stoned to death;” either with stones only, or with hail (stones). The words או ירה יירה, referring to the kind of hail that was a plague in Egypt would symbolise death both by stoning and by burning. Rashi claims that we would have expected the Torah to decree death by either drowning in water, i.e. ירה יירה, as in Exodus 15,4 when the Egyptian army was tossed into the sea to drown, or if not then by stoning. He bases this on the principle stated in Sanhedrin 45, that prior to stoning, the victim is pushed down by one of the witnesses who had testified against him from a wall two stories high into a pit, and if that did not kill him the others stone him by throwing stones at him. Alternately, the word או in our verse here does not mean: “or,” but means the same as אשר, “which,” as it does in Exodus 21,6, והגישו אל הדלת או אל המזוזה, “to the door, i.e. the door post;” this line has been translated by Yonatan ben Uzziel Targum as ויקריבנו לות דשא דלוח מזוזתא “he will bring him close to the entrance which is the doorpost.” The meaning of the line accordingly, is: “for the person violating this commandment will eventually be stoned to death after first having been thrown down into the pit.”

יירה means HE SHALL BE THROWN BELOW to the ground, the word being similar to, (Exodus 15:4) “He hath cast down (ירה) into the sea”.

במשוך היובל, once the presence of G’d would withdraw and the sound of the shofars and the lightning would cease.

במשוך היובל, “upon a prolonged blast of the shofar, etc.” Ibn Ezra says that the word יובל is another word for the horn we know as shofar. It is the horn being blown in the Jubilee year, the שנת היובל. Translators generally [Bible scholars viewed as heretics by Ibn Ezra in his introduction to the Book of Genesis. Ed.] refer to יובל as a sheep, כבש. As to the allegorical explanation offered by Rashi, according to which the sound of the shofar at the revelation was the horn which had been part of the ram which Avraham had offered on the altar after G’d had stopped him from slaughtering Yitzchok, Nachmanides writes [as the plain meaning of the text. Ed.] that he does not understand that commentary, seeing that the entire ram had been offered as a burnt offering, i.e. including the horns which were burnt up at that time. He speculates that possibly Avraham or G’d had gathered up the ash from that horn and it had been resurrected to its former condition. [these speculations are pursued already in commentaries on the oldest text of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. Ed.]

It is a sign of the departing. This is because singers and musicians make a long, drawn-out note at the end. The ceasing of the sound signified the departing of the Shechinah, which had arrived accompanied by sounds, lightning and horn-blasts. After the Shechinah departed, they were allowed to ascend the mountain. (Re”m)

או ירה יירה, “or shot through with arrows;” according to our author as distinct from Ibn Ezra and Rashbam, the meaning of the word או here is not “or,” but “if” is that the guilty party must be thrown from a height after having been pushed. Alternately, “if throwing the victim down from a height has not killed him he must be shot subsequently to insure that he does not have to die a slow death. [Seeing that this commandment will never be applied again, assuming it even had been necessary to apply it then, it does not really matter which interpretation is the correct one. Ed.]

אם בהמה אם איש, “regardless if man or domestic fourlegged animal; the category “bird” is not mentioned seeing that the messengers of the court would have no means of bringing it to justice. It would escape by flying away as soon as chased.

במשך היבל WHEN THE RAM’S HORN SOUNDETH LONG — when the ram’s horn draws out a long sound that is a sign of the departure of the Shechina and that the Divine voice is about to cease, and as soon as “I” shall depart they shall be permitted to ascend [i. e. המה יעלו בהר is not obligatory, signifying, “they shall go up”, but it is permissive] (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:13:2).

המה יעלו בהר,”they may ascend the Mountain.” According to Ibn Ezra permission to ascend the Mountain after the revelation was granted only to the elders but not to the people at large. Personally, I do not understand why the ordinary people should not have been allowed to ascend the Mountain after G’d’s glory had departed from it. [I do not understand the author’s reservations, as in my edition of Ibn Ezra a very plausible case is made for the word המה being restrictive, and referring only to Aaron and the elders who already prior to the revelation had been permitted to approach more closely than the ordinary people. Ed.]

The horn of Yitzchok’s ram. [Rashi knows this] because it is written במשוך היובל , implying a certain horn. This is the horn of Yitzchok’s ram, about which it is written (Yeshayah 27:13), “On that day He will sound a great horn.” (Maharshal) The Ramban asks: Was not Yitzchok’s ram offered as an olah, thus its horns and hoofs were burnt [on the Altar]? Re”m answers: Perhaps the horns were removed while the ram was still alive, in which case they would not be burned, although they may not be used for non-sacrificial purposes. Alternatively, they were removed after the ram’s blood was cast on the Altar [but before the ram was placed on the fire], in which case they may be used even for non-sacrificial purposes.

במשוך היובל, “after the ram’s horn emits a long blast, etc.” actually, the reference is to the horn of the ram, קרן היובל, not the ram, יובל, as written here. It is not equivalent to the shofar used during the yovel year. That shofar was not used until after the Tabernacle had been built during the second year of the Israelites’ wanderings. On this occasion, Moses used a ram’s horn to signal to the people that the Revelation and all this entailed had been concluded. based on the interpretation by Rabbi Saadyah gaon. Still another interpretation: the words: במשוך היובל, mean: “when the sound of the celestial shofar the people had been hearing during the revelation had come to end.” We find the word משך used in this context also in Hoseah 7,5: משך ידו את לוצצים, “he extended his hand to scorners (instead of protecting the king).” The expression here signals that the presence of the glory of Hashem above the Mountain had come to an end.

היבל — This denotes a ram’s horn, for so do they term, a ram in Arabia — יובלא (corresponding to the Hebrew יובל) (Rosh Hashanah 26a). The horn used here was that of Isaac’s ram (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 31).

והגבלת את ההר, “and you shall fence off the mountain.” The idea is to set a boundary approximately 2000 cubits distant from the mountain to prevent accidental infraction of G’d’s command.

כל הנוגע בהר מות יומת, “whoever touches the mountain shall be executed.” Anyone actually guilty of ascending the mountain would most certainly also die.
לא תגע בו יד, “you are not to touch it by hand.” Seeing that the Torah had already said: “anyone touching it will be executed,” why did the Torah have to write these words? The meaning is that the death penalty to be administered to someone violating the commandment does not involve touching the convicted person by hand such as death administered by the sword or by strangulation as opposed to shooting arrows, but the penalty is stoning which occurs at a distance from the victim. This is why the Torah elaborates כי סקול יסקל או ירה ייראה, “he shall be stoned or thrown down.”

מן ההר אל העם [AND MOSES WENT DOWN] FROM THE MOUNTAIN UNTO THE PEOPLE —This tells us that Moses did not betake himself first to his personal concerns but went direct from the mountain to the people (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:14).

AND MOSES WENT DOWN FROM THE MOUNT UNTO THE PEOPLE, AND SANCTIFIED THE PEOPLE. This verse teaches that the command expressed in the [above] verse, And the Eternal said unto Moses: Go unto the people and sanctify them,²¹⁷Above, Verse 10. was also given to him on the mountain which Moses ascended everytime that he was about to speak to Him. In the Mechilta, the Rabbis have explained:²¹⁸Mechilta on the verse here. “This teaches that Moses did not turn to his personal affairs nor go to his house at all, but he went directly from the mount unto the people.”

וירד משה מן ההר, “Moses descended from the Mountain, etc.” This is mentioned so that we the readers will know that even the instruction to Moses to ensure that the people sanctify themselves on that day and the following day were issued to Moses while he was on the Mountain. Moses ascended the Mountain every time that G’d spoke to him.

(Exodus 19:14) "And Moses went down from the mountain": We are hereby apprised that Moses did not turn to his affairs or go down to his house, but (directly) from the mountain to the people. I might think, only for this directive. Whence do I derive (the same for) all other directives? It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 20) "And the L rd descended upon Mount Sinai, etc." Now this has already been stated. Why need it be stated (Ibid. 25) "And Moses went down to the people"? To teach that Moses did not turn to his affairs or go down to his house, but (directly) from the mountain to the people. This tells me only of the directives of Mount Sinai. Whence do I derive (the same for) the directives of the tent of meeting? From (Ibid. 34:34) "And he would go forth (from the tent of meeting) and speak to the children of Israel what he had been commanded." And whence is it derived that all of his ascents were in the morning? From (Ibid. 24) "And be ready in the morning … and let no man go up with you … And he hewed two stone tablets, etc." Let it not be written (4) "as the L rd commanded him." It serves as a prototype, viz.: Whenever Moses ascended, it was in the morning. (Ibid. 19:14) "Vayekadesh the people": He readied them. "and they washed their garments," and they cleansed themselves.

וירד משה, “Moses descended;” on this same day, the fourth of the month, a Thursday.

ויקדש את העם, “he sanctified the people.” The three days of sanctification commence on this day and concluded on the morning of the third day, although technically they could have immersed themselves in a ritual bath already after nightfall of the previous day, seeing that there was such a huge number of people, Moses extended the period for ritual immersion until the morning of the third day, thus giving them additional time. [“days” here are parts of days, according to the halachic principle of מקצת היו ככולו, any portion of a “day” is considered as if it had been a full day.” Ed.]

היו נכנים לשלשת ימים means be ready by the end of three days, that is, by the fourth day — for Moses added a day of his own accord to the time appointed by God. This is the opinion of Rabbi José. But according to the opinion of him who says that the Ten Commandments were given on the sixth of the month Moses did not add anything, and the words לשלשת ימים do not signify after three days but mean the same as ליום השלישי (v. 11), i. e. by three days (cf. Shabbat 86b-87a).

By the end of three days. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is not written ליום השלישי , as Hashem commanded Moshe — but rather לשלושת ימים , implying when three days have already passed.

ויאמר אל העם, “he said to the people;” on the same day when he issued the instructions he told the people to be ready for the needs of what was going to occur at the end of this period of consecutive three days of sanctifying themselves, (by not having marital relations).

אל תגשו אל אשה DO NOT GO NEAR A WOMAN during the whole of these three days, this was in order that the women may immerse themselves on the third day and be pure to receive the Torah. If they have relations within the three days, the woman could [involuntarily] expel semen after her immersion and become unclean again. After three days have elapsed, however, the semen has already become putrid and is no longer capable of fertilization, so it is pure from contaminating the woman who expels it. (cf. Shabbat 86a)

The woman might expel the seed. . . You might ask: Why was the Torah particular about impurity from seed, and not about impurity from zav, tzaraas or relations with a nidah? Tosafos in Shabbos 86a already answered: [In earlier times, someone impure from seed was forbidden to study Torah]. See there.

לשלשת ימים, according to the plain meaning of these words the meaning is: “in anticipation of the third day.” According to the plain meaning, Moses did not add an additional day of preparation (sanctification) as suggested by some scholars. Other examples of a similar formulation in the Bible as here are Genesis 42,17: ויאסוף אותם אל משמר שלשת ימים, “Joseph put them in jail for three days.” Or, in the verse following: ויאמר אליהם יוסף ביום השלישי, “Joseph said to them on the third day;” or Genesis 40,19: בעוד שלשת ימים, “within another three days;” and in the verse following: ויהי ביום השלישי, “it was on the third day;” or Exodus 19,16: ויהי ביום השלישי, “it was on the third day;” there are numerous other examples.

בהיות הבקר lit., WHEN IT WAS BEING MORNING — This phrase tells us that He was there before them at the place of the Divine Revelation, something which it is not customary for human beings to do — that the teacher should await the arrival of his disciple. A similar instance we find in Scripture (Ezekiel 3:22, 23): “[God said unto me]. Arise, go forth into the plain, [and I will there speak with thee]. Then I arose, and went forth into the plain; and, behold the glory of the Lord stood there already” (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 15; cf. Nedarim 8a).

ויהי קולות וברקים. The spectacle was similar to that experienced by the prophet Elijah at the same mountain in Kings I 19,11-12. David, in Psalms 68,9, also describes what happened at Sinai in similar terms.

ויהי ביום השלישי בהיות הבקר, “it was on the third day, during the morning,” the third day after they started sanctifying themselves, the sixth day of the month.
ויהי קולות וברקים, “and there was thunder and lightning.” The “voices” which we translated as “thunder” were those of the angels praising the Lord each and every morning, as we know from Job 38,7: “when the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted for joy.” The “lightning” also referred to angels, a different group. We know that angels are described as lightning from Psalms 104,4: “He makes the winds His messengers, fiery flames His servants.” We also find this thought reflected in Ezekiel 1,13: “this fire, suggestive of torches, kept moving among the creatures; the fire had a radiance, and lightning issued from the fire.”
וענן כבד, and “heavy cloud.” The purpose of that was to separate between the angels and the people. If the Israelites had seen the angels they would have become frightened. We have a verse describing something similar occurring in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1,4) ”a huge cloud and flashing fire, surrounded by a radiance;” this was followed (verse 5) by: “in the center of it were also the figures of four creatures.” The foregoing is a relatively new interpretation of this verse by Rabbeinu Chananel. It does not contradict, and must not be understood as contradicting the plain meaning of the words, i.e. that it was a cloudy day, that the קולות וברקים were thunder and lightning accompanied by some rain. This is in line with the plain meaning of Judges 5,4 where Devorah describes the weather on the day of the battle against Siserah, saying: “the earth trembled; the heavens dripped; yea the clouds dripped water. Mountains quaked, etc.” Rabbeinu Chananel’s explanation may be viewed as perhaps the foremost amongst the proverbial 70 facets according to which the written Torah may be explained. The cloud came first, followed by lightning and thunder, as is usual on such days. The reason the Torah does not report events in that order may have been to give prominence to the sound of the shofar. Had the Torah described events in their chronological order then the reader would have made a conceptual linkage between the words קולות and קול שופר, something which would have been wrong. By mentioning the thunder first, the Torah made certain that we would not associate the blast of the shofar with ordinary thunder experienced on that day. The difference between the sound of the thunder and the sound of the blast of the shofar may be described as similar to the difference between physical and spiritual sensations man experiences.

ויהי קולות וברקים. The sounds which resembled thunder were the sounds made by the angels who accompanied G’d and who sang His praises. It is something the angels do every morning. We base this knowledge on Job 38,7 “when the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted for joy?” The beings described as ברקים are also angels seeing that we are told in Psalms 104,4 עושה מלאכיו רוחות משרתיו אש לוהט, “He Who employs His angels as winds which are His messengers, fiery flames His servants.” We also have the following verse in Ezekiel 1,13: ונגה לאש ומן האש יוצא ברק, “there was a brilliance to the fire, and from the fire went forth lightning.”

VV. 16.—19. Das Volk sah die ganze Natur erzittern bei dem Nahen der Gottesherrlichkeit, nur es, der Mensch, sollte aufrecht bleiben und blieb aufrecht, seines Gottes, des Gottes des Weltalls, gewärtig. Es lernte die unvergleichliche, höhere Erhabenheit und die unmittelbar Gott nahe Stellung des Menschen, sobald er bewusstvoll in den Dienst Gottes tritt. Himmel und Erde, das zitternde Weltall liegt hinter seinem Rücken, und er steht aufrecht vor seinem Gott. Die ganze Natur wird laut — Donner rollen, Blitze zischen, Berge beben, die Luft weht Posaunentöne, Israel hat nur Ohr für Gottes Zwiegespräch mit Mosche — es hört Mosche reden und Gott ihm antworten laut!

ויהי ביום השלישי, “It was on the third day;” this was the Sabbath on which the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the third day of the preparatory ritual of sanctification. It was the third day after the fourth day of the month when these preparations had commenced. You have a total of six days from the day when the people made camp in the desert of Sinai, as stated in the first verse of our chapter. This is the interpretation of these verses according to the majority opinion of the scholars of the Talmud who held that the revelation took place on the sixth day of the month of Sivan. I shall now proceed to explain the view of Rabbi Yossi according to which the Torah was given to the people on the seventh day of Sivan. The words: ביום הזה, “on this day” in verse 1 of our chapter, which was the first day of the month as well as the first day of the week, is based on the tradition that the day of the Exodus was on a Thursday. Accordingly, the first day of Sivan of that year would have been on a Sunday. On that day the people arrived at the desert of Sinai, and on that day Moses did not tell them anything as they were tired and were required to pitch their tents, etc. On the second day, i.e. on Monday, Moses ascended the Mountain. This is followed by: “He called to him, etc.” until verse 8 where the people express their willingness to carry out any instructions they would receive from G-d. On the day following, on Tuesday, Moses conveyed the people’s answer to G-d. On the same day G-d told Moses in verse 9 that He would appear to Him screened by a thick cloud, up to and including the words: “they will believe in you forthwith.” The day after, on the Wednesday, Moses relayed the people’s answer to G-d, i.e. ויגד משה את דברי העם. On the same day G-d says to Moses that the people should sanctify themselves on that day and the day following including their garments by immersing them in a ritual bath, activities performed on Wednesday and Thursday so that they would be ready for the revelation on the day following, (the third day of the preparations (verse 11) On the day following that day on the seventh day of the week, on the Sabbath, the Torah was given to them as agreed by all the scholars seeing that on that day G-d would descend onto to Mount Sinai, the day when it was forbidden to ascend the Mountain as the people had been warned in verse 13. In verse 14, we read about Moses descending from the Mountain and carrying out G-d’s instructions. That day was Wednesday He told them to be ready on the third day (verse 15) by the end of the first 12 hours [the day is divided into two periods of 12 hours each. Ed.] on the fourth day as he had been on the Mountain until daybreak on that Sabbath. It emerges from this that Moses had added an additional day for the people to prepare themselves for the revelation, seeing that G-d had only spoken of היום ומחר, “today and tomorrow.” (verse 10). G-d had referred to the Wednesday and Thursday, whereas Moses added Friday. According to the opinion that the letter ל in the word: לשלושת in verse 15 is superfluous, just as the letter ל in Exodus 14,28 is superfluous in the phrase: לכל חיל פרעה, and just as the letter ל is superfluous in Exodus 27,3 in the phrase לכל כליו תעשה נחושת, G-d ordered the people to prepare for three whole days as explained by Rashi. When Rashi wrote: “at the end of three days, i.e. the fourth day,” this refers to Wednesday when Moses still stood on Mount Sinai.

וענן כבד על ההר. This cloud was in order to create a physical barrier between the Israelites and the angels. If the Israelites had seen the angels with their eyes they would have been frightened out of their wits. We have a similar verse in Ezekiel 1,4-5.

בהיות הבקר, “during the early hours of the morning;” according to Rashi, G-d put in an appearance before the Israelites did, although, normally, the students assemble before the teacher arrives, in this instance G-d did so for their sake.

ויחרד כל העם, in this instance the root חרד does not mean that the people were afraid, but the meaning is similar to Samuel I 14,15: המצב והמשחית חרדו, “the garrison and the spoilers also made a commotion.” See also Samuel I 13,7: וכל העם חרדו אחריו, “and all the people rallied to him.” Seeing that the people while still in their beds, heard the commotion outside, they rallied to their appointed positions.

לקראת האלהים [AND MOSES BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE …] TO MEET GOD — This (the word לקראת, “to meet”, which is used when two persons are approaching one another) tells us that the Shechina was going forth to meet them, as a bridegroom who goes forth to meet his bride. This is what Scripture means when it says, (Deuteronomy 33:2) “The Lord came from Sinai”, and it is not said, “[The Lord came to Sinai” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:17:1).

לקראת האלוקים, toward the army of angels forming the entourage of the Divine presence, in anticipation of the descent of the Shechinah on the mountain in verse 20.

ויוצא משה את העם, Moses lead out the people, etc. Perhaps this was necessary because the people had become afraid of the Mountain by now. Moses took them to the edge of the Mountain so that they would accept the Torah while standing there.

ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר, “they positioned themselves (beneath), at the base of the Mountain.” This teaches-as our sages have taught us- that G’d had made the Mountain assume a threatening posture, such as an inverted bucket above one’s head. This exerted psychological pressure on the people to declare their willingness to accept the Torah, as they felt that unless they did so the Mountain would crush them. There are sages who feel that in spite of the previously expressed willingness of the people to accept the Torah, this referred only to the written Torah and not to the oral Torah. The threatening posture of the Mountain persuaded the people to also accept the oral Torah. The background to that interpretation is the wording of the people who had said כל אשר דבר ה' נעשה ונשמע, “everything that Hashem has said we will do and learn to do.” They had not said: “everything G’d is going to say we will do, etc.” Rabbi Joseph Kimchi disagrees, claiming that the people’s acceptance had been comprehensive. The posture of the Mountain is to be understood as something after the event, G’d hinting that the people had done well to accept the Torah already, as a refusal might have had dire consequences, to wit the mountain collapsing upon them. G’d hinted that although He could put up with the refusal of the other nations to accept His Torah, He would not have come to terms with the Israelites’ refusal.

ויוצא משה את העם לקראת האלו-הים מן המחנה, “Moses took the people toward G’d out of the camp.“ The “camp” mentioned here was the camp of the 600,000 Israelites. The words לקראת האלו-הים mean toward the “camp of G’d”, i.e. the area where the ministering angels who had descended from heaven had made their camp. According to Tanchuma Tetzaveh 11 the number of ministering angels who had assembled there matched the number of male adult Israelites. When Yaakov (Genesis 32,3) “saw the camp of G’d” this is what he saw already at the time. He named the camp מחנים, “two camps,” as he envisaged a “return trip” by these angels to earth on the occasion of the revelation at Mount Sinai. Alternately, he envisaged the two camps, the Israelites and the angels taking up position, one opposite the other.
In Song of Songs 7,1 Solomon referred to these two camps when he said: כמחולות המחנים, “as a dance by angels.” Solomon mentions the word שובי, “turn back,” four times in that verse in Song of Songs as the Jewish people experienced four periods of exile during each of which they were urged by their host countries to abandon their religion in favour of the local religions. We, nowadays, who are in the fourth of these exiles are the subject of the last of these four שובי, i.e. to us applies the author’s paraphrasing שובי ונחזה בך, “return so that we may make out of you rulers, people in authority.” based on Yitro’s use of the words ואתה תחזה מכל העם, “and you appoint from among all the people, etc.” (Exodus 18,21).
In Shir Hashirim Rabbah our sages interpret the word שולמית [a word occurring in lieu of the name Israel, Ed.] as a composite of אומה אשר שלום העולמים דר בתוכה“a nation in whose midst dwells the One Who represents eternal peace.” That nation is perceived as responding: מה תחזו בשולמית, “what authority can you possibly offer to a nation such as me?” Israel shuns all that the nations of the world have to offer as they cannot match what we have already experienced at Mount Sinai when we were chosen by G’d as His people. This is the meaning of the words כמחולות מחנים, it is impossible to duplicate the joy that pervaded the Jewish people when they saw themselves as paired with 600,000 angels, their equal, at least. Our sages in Taanit 31 have elaborated on this theme when they said that in the future G’d will arrange dances for the righteous in Gan Eden. In view of all this the “Shulamit” spurned all the offers from the Gentile nations to accord them honour and distinction. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 29,2 have further stated that 22,000 angels participated at that sacred site. They were the angels closest to the Shechinah, closer than the 600,000 angels we mentioned already They are referred to in Psalms 68,18 as רכב אלו-הים רבותם אלפי שנאן, “G’d’s chariots are myriads upon myriads, thousands upon thousands.” The number of these angels corresponded to the number of 22,000 Levites who had taken up position around the Holy Ark which was within the Tabernacle. Psalms 144,15 proclaims “hail to the people who have experienced this.” At the time the people saw the 4 figures Ezekiel had seen surrounding the throne of G‘d. This is alluded to in the word שנאן which is an acrostic for the creatures supporting the throne of G’d in Ezekiel’s vision i.e. שור, אריה, נשר, plus the letter ן which symbolizes אדם. Five major angels named אוריאל, רפאל, גבריאל, מיכאל, (נוריאל) were seen by the Israelites at that time, the first four representing whole encampments surrounding the Shechinah and presided over by the fifth angel נוריאל who “rode” above the others. This concept has been called ארגמן by Solomon when he wrote in Song of Songs that G’d’s chariot is Argaman (Song of Songs 3,10). The idea described at length in Bamidbar Rabbah 2,2 of the reason for the Jewish camp being provided with flags also goes back to what they experienced a few months earlier when they saw the flags held by the angels. This evoked in them a desire to be given flags also, a request which G’d honored at the time the Tabernacle was erected. According to another Midrash the experience of listening to G’d’s voice at Mount Sinai was of such overwhelming proportions that each time the people heard a word (commandment) their soul escaped their bodies. They were revived immediately, i.e. they experienced multiple resurrections on that day. This is also alluded to in Song of Songs 5,6 when Israel is quoted as recalling: נפשי יצאה בדברו, “my soul departed when He spoke.” A similar Midrash is found in Devarim Rabbah according to which the sun stood still five times for the sake of Moses; they were the day of the Exodus, the day the Israelites had crossed the Sea of Reeds; the day of the battle against Amalek; the day on which the Torah was given, and on the day the Israelites observed the rivers of blood in the river Arnon (Numbers 21,14-15).

This tells that the Shechinah came out. . . Meaning: The word לקראת is used only when two parties approach one another, as in: “Behold, he (Aharon) is setting out to meet you” (4:14).

ויתיצבו, “they stood at attention;” the expression ויתיצבו, as opposed to the normal ויעמדו, for “they stood,” is the reason why our sages said that the mountain had assumed a threatening posture, i.e. they felt that unless they agreed in advance to accept the Torah, they were doomed to die there. (Compare Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 88). How can we reconcile this with the statement on the same folio that the people by saying: נעשה ונשמע, (Exodus 24,7) “we are ready to accept the laws of the Torah before we have even heard any details” had paid G–d the greatest possible compliment? We need to say that when G–d wanted to give the Torah to Israel, they asked Him how many different Torahs He had at His disposal? He told them that He had both a written and an oral Torah at His disposal. They answered that they were willing to accept the written Torah, but could not promise to accept the oral Torah. As soon as G–d heard this, the mountain began to assume a threatening posture, and they became frightened. (Tanchuma on the portion section 58, paragraph 3) This is what caused the Talmud on folio 88 in Shabbat, to coin the expression that at Mount Sinai the Jewish people accepted the Torah under great moral/psychologial pressure, whereas during the period of Achashverosh, in exile, they accepted it wholeheartedly without any external pressure. (Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah, second section item 389). G–d is supposed to have wrapped a sword inside the Torah, implying that unless they accepted the Torah they would die by the sword. This is also supposed to be the reason why the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 1,19, wrote: אם תאבו ושמעתם טוב הארץ תאכלו ואם תמאנו ומריתם, חרב תאכלו כי פי ה' דבר, “if you agree and give heed, you will eat the good things of the earth; but if you refuse and disobey, you will be devoured by the sword.” What occasion did the prophet have in mind when he wrote these words? None other than when the people stood at attention at Mount Sinai. This is also the meaning of a famous liturgical poem in the prayers recited on Shavuot which begin with the words: ראשית עטיפת הזיין צהלה ורנה, [none of these liturgical poems are found in the machzorim in use in eretz yisrael. Ed.]

.ויוצא משה את העם, “Moses brought forth the people;” some commentators claim that Moses brought them forth because without his urging they were too scared to come forward.

בתחתית ההר AT THE NETHER PART OF THE MOUNTAIN — According to its literal meaning this signifies “at the foot of the mountain”. But a Midrashic explanation is, that the mountain was plucked up from its place and was arched over them as a cask, so that they were standing בתחתית beneath (under) the mountain itself (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:17:2; Shabbat 88a).

And arched over them like a barrel. You might ask: Since they had already said (24:7), “We will do and we will listen,” [why was this necessary]? Tosafos in Shabbos 88a already answered: Because they might otherwise retract when they see the great fire, and their souls depart. A further answer: They said, “We will do and we will listen,” regarding the Written Torah. But the mountain arched over them so they will accept the Oral Torah. It was for their benefit that Hashem forced them, as now the Shechinah will not leave them and He will not cast them off. For it is written regarding a woman forced into relations (Devarim 22:19): “She shall be his wife; he may not cast her away all his days.” (Mahara”i)

ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר, “they took up a position at the base of the Mountain” due to the lightning and thunder. Rashi here writes that G-d threatened to bring down the Mountain upon them. This sounds strange, as they had already expressed their willingness to accept the Torah without examining what is written therein. [Exodus 24,7, that whole chapter describes events prior to the revelation Ed.] We would have to understand this Rashi as referring to the Israelites accepting the oral Torah which they had not yet accepted.

עשן כלו WAS ALTOGETHER ON A SMOKE — This word עָשַׁן is not a noun, because the ש is punctuated with Patach, but it has the meaning of “it was doing something”, similar to and אָמַר and שָׁמַר and שָׁמַע. On this account, its translation in the Targum is תָּנֵן כֻּלֵּהּ “it was altogether giving forth smoke” (תָּנֵן is a verb corresponding with the Hebrew עָשַׁן). and it does not translate it by תְּנָנָא (a noun denoting smoke, corresponding to Hebrew עָשָׁן). But wherever else the word עשן occurs in Scripture it is punctuated with Kametz because it is a noun.

והר סיני עשן כלו, and Mount Sinai was completely wrapped in smoke, etc. Fire dominated the Mountain itself and burned its stones so that they turned into limestone. The stones of Mount Sinai have remained limestone ever since. When the Torah says: "the whole Mountain trembled," this is a description of the reaction of the stones when fire dominates them just as the stones in a furnace. The sounds that the stones give off are similar to the sound of someone trembling.

עשן כולו, the word עשן here is neither a proper construct mode, in which case it should have two vowels patach, nor is it completely “unattached,” as it would then have to have two vowels kametz. In other words, it is not a noun “smoke,” and not an adjective, “smoking.” It therefore must be a verbal mode. If it would be a noun it should follow the pattern of davar, devar, word, word of, or bakar, bekar, cattle, cattle of. (compare Numbers 7,88 בקר זבח השלמים).

והר סיני עשן כלו, “and the entire mountain of Sinai was smoking.” The mountain was smoke, not the fire; for the fire which sort of separated between the people and G’d had no smoke. If the Torah nonetheless speaks of כעשן הכבשן “like the smoke of a furnace,” we know that in a parable the comparisons do not have to be accurate This is especially so when physical concepts are being compared to meta-physical phenomena. Seeing that we are terrestrial human beings, bound to concepts which we can visualise, the Torah cannot describe matters of a spiritual nature except by using terms familiar to us from our daily experience on earth. Similarly, we find that Scripture compares even the brilliance of the sun to the beauty of human beings, and the sun’s orbit to the runner circling a certain prescribed route in the stadium in which he races. This is the meaning of Psalms 19,6: “who is like a groom coming forth from his chamber, like a hero, eager to run his course.” Everybody knows that such a comparison between sun and a human runner is not even remotely similar. Nonetheless, the psalmist chose to make this comparison to give us an inkling of what he had in mind. The same thing applies to the prophet Amos 3,8 comparing G’d to a lion when he writes: “a lion has roared, who can but fear? My Lord G’d has spoken, who can but prophesy?” The reason that the prophet arrogated to himself the right to make such blatantly inaccurate comparisons is simply that he wanted to compare the most powerful and fear-inspiring phenomenon amongst earth’s inhabitants to G’d in order to give man the feeling that he must relate with at least as much fear to G’d as he does to a lion. Our sages have termed all these so-called comparisons as דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם, “the Torah having adopted a style of expression with which human beings are familiar” (Berachot 31).

And he did not translate it תננא . . . As he translated כעשן הכבשן .

הכבשן A FURNACE of lime (i. e. in which lime is burnt and which emits vast quantities of smoke). One might think that the mountain emitted smoke only like such a furnace and not to a greater degree! Scripture therefore states in another passage, (Deuteronomy 4:11) “[And the mountain] burned with fire unto the very midst of the heavens”. Then what reason is there for stating that it smoked only like a furnace? This is said in order to make intelligible to the human ear as much as it can understand: Scripture gives human beings an example (a comparison) which is well-known to them. A similar case is, (Hosea 11:10) “As a lion does He (God) roar”. But who gave the lion power if not He, and yet Scripture compares him only to a lion! But the reason is that we describe Him by comparing Him to His creatures in order to make intelligible to the human ear as much as it can understand. A similar example is: (Ezekiel 43:2) “And His voice was like the sound of many waters”. But who gave the waters a thunderous sound except He, and yet you describe Him by comparing Him to His handiwork — it is to make it intelligible to the human ear (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:18:2).

הולך וחזק מאד WAXED LOUDER AND LOUDER — The manner of an ordinary person is that the longer he continues to blow a trumpet the sound he produces becomes weaker and fainter; but in this instance it went on getting stronger. And why was it thus (i. e. not so loud) at first? To make their ears receptive to as much as they were able to hear (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:19:1).

MOSES SPOKE, AND G-D ANSWERED HIM BY A VOICE. In the Mechilta, the Rabbis have said²¹⁹Mechilta here. The language is that of Rashi. that this verse refers to the time of the Giving of the Torah, when Moses was proclaiming the commandments to Israel, as Rashi has written.
By way of the plain meaning of Scripture, the verse here does not yet speak of this. It is rather [to be explained as follows]: The Glorious Name²²⁰Deuteronomy 28:58. came down upon the mountain²²¹Verse 20. on the third day, and Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet the Glory which appeared to them, and they stood at the nether part of the mount.²²²Verse 17. Moses went up near to the head of the mountain, where the Glory was, in a place designated for himself, and he spoke with Israel, teaching them what to do. The Israelites heard the Voice of G-d answering Moses and commanding him, but they did not understand what He said to him. Thus He commanded Moses the precepts mentioned further on in this section: Go down, charge the people;²²³Verse 21. Go, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee, etc.²²⁴Verse 24. This happened before the Giving of the Torah and also during the time when the Ten Commandments were given, for Moses did not go up to the top of the mount unto the thick darkness where G-d was²²⁵Further, 20:18. until after the Giving of the Torah. And so he said, “I stood between the Eternal and you at that time, to declare unto you the word of the Eternal; for you were afraid because of the fire, and went not up into the mount, saying²²⁶Deuteronomy 5:5. [that you will not ascend] as I did go up.” Some scholars²²⁷I have not been able to identify them. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 387, Note 5. explain that the Israelites were very much afraid of the voice of the horn which waxed louder and louder,²²⁸Verse 19 before us. and Moses would say to them at first: “Direct your thoughts, for now you will hear the Voice in such a manner,” and immediately G-d answered him by a voice.

משה ידבר והאלוקים יעננו בקול, Moses would speak and G'd answered him by voice. Moses may have uttered words of song and praise before G'd, much as someone who is received in an audience by a king praises the ruler who has granted him the audience. The קול with which G'd answered may have been the sound of the shofar mentioned in the next verse. This sound was an indication that G'd approved of what Moses told him. The word בקול means "in a loud voice," so that all the people could hear G'd speak with Moses and accept him as a true prophet. I believe that the Torah mentions this to tell us that Moses experienced a promotion when G'd answered him thus although G'd had also answered Moses previously. Our sages in the Mechilta understand the answer the Torah speaks of as the Ten Commandments which G'd was about to address to the people. They say that G'd increased the power of Moses' voice so that he could be heard by the whole nation. I believe that this is a homiletical approach to our verse.

משה ידבר, to G’d, but his voice was not audible to any human being, only G’d Himself could hear him. However, when it came to G’d’s reply, יעננו בקול, G’d responded in a loud voice audible to all. This was necessary as otherwise the sound of the shofar which was ongoing and getting stronger all the time would have drowned out G’d’s voice and Moses could not have heard G’d’s responses.

משה ידבר והאלוקים יעננו בקול, “whenever Moses would speak, G’d would answer in an audible voice.” Rashi understands this line as referring to the Ten Commandments, the ones inscribed subsequently on the Tablets. G’d lent extra power to Moses’ voice [who proclaimed the last eight of these Commandments. Ed.] so that all the people could hear it. Other commentators understand the words יעננו בקול to mean that Moses had prepared the people beforehand that they should concentrate, as they were about to hear the sound of G’d’s voice. Immediately thereafter Moses concluded saying this, G’d would intone the Ten Commandments. Nachmanides does not consider our verse as referring to the Ten Commandments, but to the message that G’d would descend onto the Mountain on the third day (6th of Sivan) at which time the people were to be positioned at the bottom of the Mountain, whereas Moses would have ascended close to the summit of the Mountain and would speak to the Israelites from that position to instruct them what to do next. The Israelites would hear the sound of G’d’s voice as He answered Moses and instructed him in what is recorded later in the Torah commencing with the words רד העד בעם, in verse 21. Whereas the people hear G’d speaking to Moses, they did not understand what G’d was saying to him. This is why Moses explained to them what he had been told. All of this took place before the giving of the Torah. At the time the Ten Commandments were being given, things were not materially different, as Moses had entered the thick cloud behind which G’d’s glory was hidden, only after the conclusion of the giving of the Ten Commandments. In the interval he had been standing within full view of the people, though partly up the Mountain. Ibn Ezra writes that although the sound of the blast of the shofar was overpoweringly strong, so much so that all who heard it were trembling, at the time when G’d spoke to Moses and the people, he alone could hear [understand] the voice of G’d and was not distracted by the sound of the shofar blasts.

משה ידבר והאלו-הים יעננו בקול, “Moses would speak and G’d would respond to him with a voice.” The fact that the Israelites could hear both Moses and G’d’s response at a distance of 12-13 miles away where the Israelites had their camp was in itself already a miracle. Every Israelite was able to hear Moses clearly. Seeing that simultaneously the blast of the shofar is reported to have been constant though intermittent but did not interfere with Moses’ voice being heard, this clearly added to the magnitude of the miracle. This is why the Torah considered it as appropriate to mention this miracle along with other miraculous happenings on that occasion. The word יעננו, is similar to the verse in Hoseah 2,23 אענה נאם ה’, אענה את השמים, “In that day I will respond declares the Lord; I will respond to the sky.” The word reflects someone’s preparedness to extend assistance.

משה ידבר, “Moses would be speaking,” he would be speaking with G-d, but his voice could not be heard except by G-d. This is why the Torah writes that G-d answered him in a loud voice. This was also because the sound of the blasts from the shofar which are described as loud, would have to be overpowered by G-d’s voice.

משה ידבר MOSES SPAKE — When Moses was speaking and proclaiming the Commandments to Israel — for they heard from the Almighty’s mouth only the Commandments אנכי and לא יהיה לך, whilst the others were promulgated by Moses — then the Holy One, blessed be He, assisted him by giving him strength so that his voice might be powerful and so become audible (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:19:2).

יעננו בקול signifies He answered him in respect to (ב) the voice, just as (1 Kings 18:24) “He that answereth באש” — “in respect to the fire” — i. e. by causing fire to descend. (So here: God answered Moses’ petition that his voice might become audible to the vast concourse of people).

וירד ה׳ על הר סיני AND THE LORD CAME DOWN UPON MOUNT SINAI — One might think, then, that He actually came down upon it! Therefore it states, (Exodus 20:19) “Ye have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven”. These two texts together teach us that He bent down the upper and lower heavens and spread them out over the top of the mountain like a bed-spread over a bed and the throne of Glory descended upon it (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:20).

AND THE ETERNAL CAME DOWN UPON MOUNT SINAI. If you will succeed in having insight into this section [of the Torah], you will understand that His Great Name, [i.e., the Tetragrammaton], came down upon Mount Sinai, and that He abode thereon in fire and spoke to Moses. The communication to Moses in the entire section was by this Proper Name of the Eternal. However, the ascent [of Moses — as mentioned in Verse 3: And Moses went up unto G-d] — and his bringing forth [the people out of the camp — as mentioned in Verse 17] — were towards the place of the Glory, as I have explained.²²⁹Above, Verse 3, also in Verse 19. And He warned, lest they break through unto the Eternal to gaze,²³⁰Verse 21. because even the nobles of the children of Israel²³¹Further, 24:11. did not see Him, and all Israel heard the Voice of G-d out of the midst of the fire.²³²Deuteronomy 5:21. It is this which Scripture says, And ‘Elokim’ (G-d) spoke all these words,²³³Further, 20:1. just as our Rabbis have said:²³⁴Mechilta, ibid. “Elokim designates the Judge.”²³⁵“The Judge who is just in meting out punishment and faithful in giving reward” (Mechilta, ibid.) And they have also said [with reference to the first two commandments]:²³⁶Makkoth 24a. See Maimonides’ “The Commandments,” Vol. I, p. 1. The term Hagvurah (the Almighty) is analogous to “the Judge.” “We have heard them from Hagvurah (the Almighty Himself).” In Deuteronomy it is written: These words the Eternal spoke unto all your assembly.²³⁷Deuteronomy 5:19. And according to the above explanation, it should have said, “Elokim spoke.” That is because, etc. That is because Scripture explains there [in the same verse] that He spoke out of the midst of the fire.²³⁸Ibid., 5:4. And this is the sense of the verse, The Eternal spoke with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire.²³⁸Ibid., 5:4. And this is why it is said, I am the Eternal thy G-d.²³⁹Further, 20:2. “This alludes to the verse [in Deuteronomy 5:4, mentioned above]: Face to face, etc.” (Abusaula). The allusion is to the two Divine Names — the Tetragrammaton and Elokim — mentioned together here in 20:2. Now do not find a difficulty in what the people said to Moses, For who is there of all living flesh, that hath heard the Voice of the living G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire?²⁴⁰Deuteronomy 5:23. This would indicate that they heard Elokim chayim speaking (Abusaula). They did not say “that they heard G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire,” but they said the Voice of G-d, referring to what they perceived. This is why they said, Go thou near, and hear all that the Eternal our G-d may say.²⁴¹Ibid., Verse 24. And so did Moses say to them, Did ever a people hear the Voice of G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire?²⁴²Ibid., 4:33. The word “speaking” here is referring to “the Voice,” something like the verse, and he heard the Voice speaking unto him.²⁴³Numbers 7:89.
From this you will understand what the Rabbis have always said in Midrashic homilies, i.e., that the Torah was given in seven voices.²⁴⁴Shemoth Rabbah 28:4, “Rabbi Yochanan said: ‘The One Voice was divided into seven voices.’” They are the ones to which David alluded in the psalm: Ascribe unto the Eternal, O ye sons of might.²⁴⁵Psalms 29:1. This psalm was considered by the Sages of the Talmud as referring to the Giving of the Torah (Sifre, V’zoth Habrachah, 343). The voice of the Eternal appears seven times in this psalm: The voice of the Eternal is upon the waters (Verse 3); The voice of the Eternal is powerful; the voice of the Eternal is full of majesty (Verse 4); The voice of the Eternal breaketh the cedars (Verse 5); The voice of the Eternal heweth out flames of fire (Verse 7); The voice of the Eternal shaketh the wilderness (Verse 8); The voice of the Eternal maketh the hinds to calve (Verse 9). This is also the number of times [that the Voice] is alluded to in this section of the Torah.²⁴⁶1. And there were ‘koloth’ and lightnings (Verse 16). Since the word koloth is written defectively without the letter vav, it signifies the singular: “and there was a voice.” 2. And the voice of a horn (ibid.) 3. And the voice of the horn (Verse 19). 4. And G-d answered him by a voice (ibid.) 5. And all the people perceived ‘hakoloth’ (Verse 15). Here too the Hebrew hakoloth is written defectively and therefore refers only to one voice: “and all the people perceived the voice.” 6. And the voice of the horn (ibid.) 7. And G-d spoke (20:1). Thus there are seven voices mentioned in this section of the Torah (Abusaula). The verse, And there were ‘koloth’ and lightnings,²⁴⁷See Note 246, number 1. is written defectively and therefore counted as one; likewise, the verse, And all the people perceived ‘hakoloth,’²⁴⁸Ibid., number 5. is missing the vav which signifies the plural, [and thus refers to only one voice]. Thus there are six [‘voices’ mentioned here in the section], and [in addition] it clearly says, And G-d spoke.²⁴⁹Ibid., number 7. In Deuteronomy, Scripture likewise mentions seven ‘voices’ in connection with the Giving of the Torah.²⁵⁰1. Ye heard the voice of words (Deuteronomy 4:12). 2. Only a voice (ibid.) 3. A great voice (5:19). 4. The voice out of the midst of the fire (5:20). 5. And we have heard His voice (Verse 21). 6. If we hear the voice of the Eternal our G-d (Verse 22). 7. The voice of the living G-d speaking (Verse 23). In Tractate Berachoth,²⁵¹Berachoth 6b. however, the Rabbis have said in the Gemara²⁵²For the meaning of the word Gemara, see Seder Bo, Note 204. that the Torah was given in five ‘voices.’ That is because they counted only the voices which are concealed, while the two — i.e., I am the Eternal thy G-d and Thou shalt have no other gods before Me]²⁵³So interpreted by Abusaula. See my Hebrew commentary, pp. 387-388. — are explained in Scripture. The purport of this is that Moses our teacher was given the Torah in seven ‘voices,’²⁵⁴“This is an allusion to the seven [lower of the Ten] Emanations” (Bachya). and he was the one who heard them and contemplated them. The Israelites, however, heard one voice, as it is said, a great voice, and it went on no more,²⁵⁵Deuteronomy 5:19. and it is said again, Ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only a voice.²⁵⁶Ibid., 4:12. Here also Scripture alluded thereto in saying, And all the people perceived ‘hakoloth,’²⁵⁷See above, Note 246, number 5. with one vav missing, [thus making it singular, ‘the voice’], for all voices appeared as one. By way of the Truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], this is Scripture’s intent in saying, G-d hath spoken once, twice we have heard this.²⁵⁸Psalms 62:12. The verse actually reads: ‘I’ have heard this. The sections of the Torah are thus explained, without anything being changed with another.

וירד ה׳ על הר סיני, G'd descended on Mount Sinai, etc. According to Sukkah 5 G'd never came closer to earth than ten handbreadths above the Mountain. We therefore have to understand why the Torah uses the expression "on top of the Mountain" when He did not actually descend all the way to the Mountain. Perhaps the Torah wanted to inform us that the שכינה did not descend on the sides of the Mountain although this would have been more than 10 handbreadths above the ground. We had to be told because on other occasions the שכינה descended to other locations on earth which are lower than the top of Mount Sinai. The essential point the sages make is that in keeping with the principle that whereas the Heavens belong to G'd He assigned earth as an exclusive domain for man. We can deduce from the report of the Torah about the wanderings of the Israelites through the desert when the שכינה was present wherever the Israelites made camp, i.e. in places much lower than the top of Mount Sinai, that G'd's presence descends to lower regions above the earth.

וירד ה’ על הר סיני, “G’d descended on Mount Sinai.” Whenever the Torah mentions the term “descent or descending” in connection with G’d, the meaning is that He revealed Himself in some form which could be assimilated by one’s mind. The term is similar to וירא אליו ה’ which the Torah (Genesis 18,1) writes when it describes G’d revealing Himself to Avraham. This is also the way Onkelos translates the words וירד ה’ here; in Genesis 18,1 Onkelos uses the very same words for וירא אליו ה’ i.e. ואתגלי השם, “G’d revealed Himself,” except that he uses a different attribute for G’d. Why then did the Torah choose to express a form of גלוי שכינה here as a “descent” instead of as a “vision?” The reason the Torah used the term “descent” here is to remind us that whenever G’d makes Himself perceivable by any of the 5 senses we have been equipped with this could only have been preceded by His “lowering” Himself to the parameters of the terrestrial part of the universe. In this instance, He became “visible” to the entire nation. It had already been announced in verse 11 that on the third day G’d would “descend” before the eyes of the whole people. They had been made aware that when they would observe the glory of G’d in the form of a consuming fire, that behind that “consuming fire” there would be G’d Himself. It did not mean that human eyes would behold an image purporting to be G’d. G’d had told Moses clearly that even he could not have a visual perception of the Essence of G’d while alive (compare Exodus 33,20). What is meant here is simply that the manifestations that the Israelites would experience at the Mountain would convince them that none other than G’d Himself had orchestrated all these phenomena, i.e. that they had “seen” G’d (at work). What happened to the individual Avraham in Genesis 18,1 was similar. Moreover, it is well known that the level of revelation which the patriarchs experienced was not that of the attribute represented by the tetragram but that of שדי, a level which may be compared to שער לה’, the gateway to the attribute י-ה-ו-ה. This is why the Torah added there “he was sitting at the entrance to he tent;” these words were an amplification of the words וירא אליו, “He appeared to him.” The Torah teaches that the level of revelation Avraham enjoyed at the time was one that emanated from the “entrance of the gate,” not from the innermost part of the Sanctuary of G’d. The Torah was at pains to alert us to the fact that the level of revelation the Israelites had at מתן תורה was superior to the revelation Avraham enjoyed in Parshat Vayera.

(Exodus 19:20) "And the L rd descended upon Mount Sinai": I might think that the "Glory" itself descended on Mount Sinai. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 20:19) "that from the heavens I spoke to you." We are hereby apprised that the Holy One Blessed be He bent the lower heavens and the upper heavens of heaven and spread them over the top of the mountain and the Glory descended on top of the mountain. (He did this) as one spreads a bolster on a bed, (and He spoke) as a man speaking from a bolster, viz. (Isaiah 63:19-64:1) "Had You not split the heavens and descended, the mountains quaking before You, as fire kindles brushwood, fire boiling water, etc." R. Yossi says (Psalms 115:16) "the heavens are the heavens of the L rd, etc." Moses and Eliyahu did not ascend above, and the glory did not descend below. But the L rd said to Moses: I will call you from the top of the mountain, and you ascend, viz. (Exodus 19:20) "And the L rd called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses ascended."

VV. 20 — 25. פן יהרסו וגו׳ לראות וגם הכהנים וגו׳ יתקדשו, nicht zu sehen, zu hören war ihre Aufgabe, und zwar zu hören mit dem vollen, klaren Sichbewusstwerden, dass das Wort objektiv, von außen an sie komme, dass sie Gott gegenüber stehen und Gott an sie sein Wort richte. Und auch die Priester — damals noch die Erstgebornen (siehe oben zu Kap. 13, 1), — die sonst als die Familien-Repräsentanten zu Gott beim Opfer hintreten, sollen sich nicht höher und heiliger, nicht Gott näher als das Volk dünken, und nicht in diesem Dünkel dem Volke vorandrängen, sollen vielmehr daran denken, dass auch für sie noch erst die Aufgabe sei: להתקדש, sich zu derjenigen Stufe der Heiligkeit, d. h. des absoluten Bereitseins für Gott, hinanzuarbeiten, die sie befähige, dem Volke voranwandelnd vorzuleuchten. Keiner, auch die Priester nicht, war bereits auf der Stufe, zu welcher erst das zu erwartende Gesetz alle hinauf rufen und hinauf erziehen werde. Daher die wiederholten Warnungen vor dem Vordrängen. Und selbst Mosche sollte sich unten beim Volke befinden in dem Augenblick, als Gott aus der Höhe sein Wort an Israel richtete. Mosche (V. 25) ging hinab zum Volke und sprach mit ihnen, da (Kap. 20, 1) sprach Gott alle die Worte, die folgen. Das Gesetz sollte nicht nur durch Mosche, sondern an Mosche wie an das Volk gerichtet sein.

על הר סיני, “on Mount Sinai.” The reason why the Torah was not given to the people in the land of Israel was so as not to give us a pretext to claim that since this law was given in the land of Israel, gentiles had no share in it [refusal to accept converts. Based on Talkut Shimoni Yitro paragraph 275. The edition I own was printed over 300 years ago in Amsterdam. Ed.] Our author quotes the same Yalkut as saying almost the reverse, i.e. that if the Torah had been given in the land of Israel, they could claim that this was the reason that it was not addressed to them and they were not morally bound by it. An alternate explanation: If the Torah had been given to the Israelites when they were in the land of Israel, this would have resulted in jealousy between the different tribes. Each one would have claimed that it had been given in his part of the country. It is significant that the word: סין, when it appears in Scripture (16,1) was changed to סיני, Sinai, The implication is that something that had been the cause of strife, negatively, was changed after the Ten Commandments, had been given, i.e. “My strife,” constructive competition, (in fulfilling My commandments.)

We still need to understand why the Torah did not write: "G'd descended on the top of Mount Sinai?" although we find such an expression immediately following the statement that He descended on the Mountain;" Perhaps G'd thought that if He described the descent of the שכינה in these words they could be misunderstood. In order to avoid misunderstandings, G'd is first described as descending on the Mountain, i.e. to within ten handbreadths of the top, whereas later on the exact part of the Mountain G'd's presence descended on is described as "the top of the Mountain."

Another version of what happened is expressed in the Mechilta according to which G'd lowered the upper heavens on to the top of the Mountain. According to this explanation G'd Himself did not descend at all. The word על would refer only to the fact that G'd's position on top of these upper heavens would be lower than it had been previously when speaking in terms of the distance of the heavens from earth.

Another meaning of the verse is that as G'd began to lower His presence onto the Mountain, the Mountain began to shake and rise towards G'd much as a servant runs toward his master when the master approaches. The Torah here did not really tell us to what place exactly G'd descended; the verse was more concerned with informing us that though the Mountain is basically inert matter, in this instance it was transformed into a living creature so that it could rise before G'd would descend to what used to be its top. Afterwards the Torah describes the target of G'd's descent as "the top of the Mountain." The major message of the verse is that the Mountain rose towards G'd before G'd had reached the top of the Mountain during His descent.

העד בעם signifies, WARN THEM not to ascend the mountain.

רד העד בעם פן יהרסו, when I will be speaking to them. Perhaps they will think that because they have been found worthy to have prophetic insights that they have attained the level of “face to face” prophecy as had Moses their leader. This could prove fatal if they tried to cross the boundary separating Me from them. Your presence down below will act as additional safeguard.

פן יהרסו אל ה׳ לראות, "lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze;" The Torah means that people should not think that they would catch a glimpse of G'd though they would die in the process; Psalms 63,4 expresses this thought succinctly when David says: "it is better to experience Your faithfulness than life itself." The people would consider their death under such circumstances as the beginning of their true life. The expression פן יהרסו is to be understood as the people's willingness to lose their lives in order to become part of such an experience as gazing at the glory of G'd. ונפל ממנו רב, "and many of them woul fall;" G'd warns that in such a scenario the people would experience a much greater "fall" than they had bargained for. Alternatively, G'd merely warns that if the people would approach to an area out of bounds to them, He would have to reduce the blinding light accompanying the revelation as otherwise they would die from exposure to this light. This then would be the meaning of פן יהרסו אל השם, they would break through towards His light in order to gain a glimpse. This also tells us that the people would not achieve their aim to gaze upon G'd even if they would break through the barrier. It is part of the meaning of the word פן in our verse. In the event that we would have thought that the people's endeavour to gaze upon something they could not see anyway would have neither positive nor negative consequences, the Torah writes ונפל ממנו רב, that it would have very negative consequences for those concerned. The word רב may refer to the leading members of the people. The Torah would then tell us that even the most spiritually advanced of the people would not be allowed to gaze upon the spectacle but they would be punished severely if they tried.

פן יהרסו, so they would not cause destruction by leaving their positions and coming too close in their eagerness to see.

רד, “descend!” this happened prior to the giving of the Torah, and also when the Torah was given Moses did not ascend into the thick cloud where G’d was manifest. He did so only after the conclusion of the Ten Commandments having been given. This is why he refers to himself as אנכי עומד בין ה' ובינכם, “I was standing between you and Hashem.” (Deut. 5.5)

ונפל ממנו רב, “and many of them would fall.” The choice by the Torah of the word נפל, singular, in connection with רב, many, teaches that even if a single Israelite were to “fall,” i.e. to die or be executed, it would be equivalent to a whole world dying.

Warn them. . . [Rashi says that העד , which usually means “testify,” here means “warn.”] It is like (Bereishis 43:3), “The man warned ( העד ) us.” Warning is expressed as עדות because it is ordinarily delivered before witnesses.

(Exodus 19:21) "And the L rd said to Moses: Go down and warn the people": lest they break their bounds to see. "and there fall of them many": If one of them falls, it is (to Me) as if all have fallen; the one detracts from the many. One of them who falls is reckoned against the entire act of creation, viz. (Zechariah 9:2) "for to the L rd (will be) the eye of (one) man and (it will be reckoned as) all the tribes of Israel."

'ויאמר ה' אל משה לך רד העד וגו, “the Lord said to Moses: “go on down and warn the people, etc.;” ויאמר משה אל ה' לא יוכל העם לעלות אל ההר, Moses said to the Lord: “the people cannot ascend the mountain;” ויאמר אליו ה' לך רד ועלית אתה ואהרן עמך, “the Lord said to him: “go down and you and Aaron with you will ascend towards the mountain.” G–d’s answer to Moses claiming that the people could not ascend the mountain (as they had been warned not to) is difficult to understand. Neither for that matter, was Moses’ answer. Do we not have numerous laws in the Torah which have been repeated several times? Furthermore, why did G–d tell Moses to descend and to subsequently ascend again? We need to understand the plain meaning of these verses as follows: Moses had warned the people not to ascend the mountain and violate the fenced off area, but he had not spelled out that to do so would result in the person doing so being executed. (Compare verse 15) G–d had spelled out the penalty for violation to him in verse 12, but he is not on record as having included this in his asking the people to prepare for the revelation. This is why G–d had to tell him to first descend and remedy this omission. [Moses, being who he was, had thought that his fencing off the area was sufficient. The idea that anyone would dare disobey had not occurred to him. Ed.] He was told that this warning not to breach the fence was a greater violation than the disobedience of many other commandments, which do not carry the death penalty. Moses’ reply that the people could not try and ascend the mountain was based on the assumption that seeing that both he and Aaron would be there, they would surely be able to prevent this. They too had been included in the warning not to try and ascend or even touch the mountain. G–d responded that not as he thought that he too could not ascend the mountain, he would be asked to do so, and even Aaron would be able to approach closer than the people. This is why he had to warn the people once more not to violate the prohibition on pain of death. Thereupon Moses immediately descended and carried out G–d’s command.

פן יהרסו lit., LEST THEY BREAK DOWN — warn them that they shall not break down their post because that their longing is אל ה׳ TO THE LORD לראות TO SEE Him and they therefore would approach nearer towards the mountain,

That they not break down their position. [Rashi knows this] because הריסה applies only to things separating from one another, such as the separation of [the parts of] a building, or separating people who are positioned [together].

ונפל ממנו רב AND MANY OF THEM FALL — whatever of them it may be that falls, even though it be a single person only, will be regarded by Me as רב, many (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:21).

Even if only one. . . [Rashi knows this] because otherwise, it should have said ונפלו , [the plural form, rather than ונפל ]. Thus he explains, “Any of them that will die. . .”

פן יהרסו — The term הרס, “breaking down”, always denotes the separation of the collection of parts that constitute the edifice. Similarly those who depart from the position which people have taken up break down that position.

וגם הכהנים AND THE PRIESTS ALSO — the first born sons also, through whom the sacrificial service was carried out (Zevachim 115b),

AND THE PRIESTS ALSO, THAT COME NEAR TO THE ETERNAL. I.e., who offer the sacrifices to the Glorious Name²⁵⁹Deuteronomy 28:58. and who come near to Him with them. [They also must sanctify themselves and not go outside of their designated place.]

וגם הכהנים הנגשים אל ה׳ יתקדשו, "And also the priests who approach G'd have to sanctify themselves, etc." Although the priests (the firstborn in the main) are closer to G'd than the people at large, being allowed to perform sacrificial service in sacred locations, they too have to undergo a special sanctification process prior to the revelation. The fact that they normally adhered to strict standards of purity was not enough in this instance. They had to consider themselves as no better than the people at large. The meaning of the word יתקדשו is similar to the meaning of the word ודשנו in Numbers 4,13 where the priests are described as removing the ashes from the altar. The priests too had to remove themselves from the Mountain.

הכהנים, the firstborns of each tribe.

וגם הכהנים הנגשים אל ה’, “and also the priests who approach G’d.” The “priests” mentioned here are either the firstborn who would perform the priestly functions in those days, i.e. offer the sacrifices, or it may refer to the sons of Aaron who would be consecrated as priests some time later. This is not so strange as in Genesis 2,14 we read about a river flowing from Gan Eden in the direction of Ashur, a city that would not exist until some 1700 years later.

(Exodus 19:22) "And also the Cohanim, who draw near to the L rd": We are hereby apprised that the Cohanim are not included in "the people" (above, 21). And thus is it written (Leviticus 16:33) "for the Cohanim and for all the people of the congregation shall he make atonement" — the Cohanim are not included in "the people." And who are "the Cohanim"? R. Yehoshua b. Karcha says: Nadav and Avihu, (i.e., even the most prominent of them.) (For) it is not written (merely) "the Cohanim," but "the Cohanim who draw near to the L rd." "And also": to include the elders with them.

וגם הכהנים וגו׳, “and also the priests, etc.” who were these “priests?” They were the seventy elders who are all firstborns at the same time. (compare Mechilta on בחדש הזה Exodus chapter 12). [Seeing that at this time the tribe of Levi had not yet been chosen to replace the functions of the firstborns. Ed.]

‘הנגשים אל ה WHO MAY DRAW NIGH UNTO THE LORD to offer sacrifices — let them also not rely upon their rank and ascend the mountain, but

יתקדשו, by occupying their proper positions.

יתקדשו, “they will be sanctified.” This verse helps us understand Leviticus 10,3 where the two sons of Aaron who died performing a priestly function are described by Moses as בקרובי אקדש, G’d saying: “I will be sanctified by those who are near to Me.” The word קרובי matches נגשים, and the word אקדש corresponds to יתקדשו in our verses here.

יתקדשו, “shall become sanctified;” they shall be warned to be prepared for this, and shall not say: “seeing that we are already appointed to perform the priestly functions, we do not need to undergo an additional process of sanctification.” They shall not presume on their familiarity with Hashem.

יתקדשו LET THEM BE PREPARED to remain at their post,

פן יפרוץ בהם ה’, “lest the Lord make a breach amongst them.” This was an allusion to their death, for G’d פרץ בהם, “killed them.” G’d did not want to punish them now at the time when the Torah was being given so as not to disturb the communal joy. He waited until the eighth day of the consecration rites to carry out the decree against them (Tanchuma Acharei Mot 6). The word וגם is a reference to the seventy elders.

הנגשים אל ה׳, the Torah underlines that precisely the people appointed as priests need to be the first to sanctify themselves instead of presuming on their superiority. An alternate explanation of this verse: Who is meant by the word: הנהנים, the people’s elite, the nobility, and the judges. Based on the verse in Deuteronomy 1,17, ני המשפט לאלוקים הוא, “that ultimately true justice is reserved for G-d,” i.e. that if the judges err, justice will still be done, these judges are not ever to lose sight of this by acting superior. In this instance, they might have argued that they are busy studying the halachot Moses had taught them in order to carry out the judicial duties, i.e. being busy with one commandment frees you from the need to perform another commandment at that time; [that argument is true only when due to time limitations on the performance of both commandment they conflict with one another. Ed.] It is impossible to accept the word: כהנים in the accepted meaning as there were not yet any kohanim at that time.

פן יפרץ LEST [THE LORD] BURST FORTH — The word פרץ is of the same root and meaning as פרצה “a breach”; the sense is: He may slay some of them and thus cause a breach in their ranks.

לא יוכל העם THE PEOPLE CANNOT [COME UP TO MOUNT SINAI] — There is no need for me to warn them, for they have been standing under such a warning these three days, and they cannot go up for they have no permission so to do.

וקדשתו, the term is used here as in Exodus 3,5 when Moses was warned not to step on “holy” ground with his sandals as this might prove fatal. Similarly, here; the people had been told that neither man nor beast would survive touching the mountain. [during this period. Ed.]

ויאמר משה…לא יוכל העם, Moses said…"the people are unable, etc." What exactly was the distance between Moses and G'd so that G'd had to tell Moses again in verse 24 to descend and warn the people? Why was G'd's previous directive in verse 21 not sufficient? Moses himself tells G'd that there is no need for any new directive, the previous directive having been sufficient to ensure the people would not breach G'd's warning to establish a fence around the Mountain and to sanctify the people.

'ויאמר משה אל ה' לא יוכל העם וגו, the one who interprets the Torah as quoting Moses saying these words, i.e. “You have already told us to fence off the mountain etc. (verse 12) so how could anyone ascend it?” is in error. [a rejection of Rashi’s commentary who understands the word יוכל as “having permission.” Ed.] There is nothing wrong with repeating warnings to people when the time of paying with their lives for warnings which they have ignored draws near. G’d Himself repeated instructions to Moses in verse 24 when He told him to descend and to allow only Aaron to approach a little closer to the mountain. What news did this verse contain? The point is that Moses’ remarks were a question. He asked if G’d had added an additional restriction to what He had issued on the previous two days when He had said in verse 12 that touching the mountain would prove lethal?שלא יוכל העם לעלות אל הר סיני, Moses wanted clarification of the expression פן יהרסו ממנו רב, as opposed to השמרו לכם עלות בהר. He wanted to know if not only touching the mountain was forbidden on pain of death but even approaching it from a relative distance. G’d told him that while it was all right for Aaron to approach a little closer, neither the priests nor the people at large were allowed to come within a certain distance of the base of the mountain. They would ignore such warnings at their peril. He added that even Moses himself would not be granted a visual revelation, he had only been commanded to ascend the mountain in the thick cloud.

לא יוכל העם לעלות, “the people are unable to ascend, etc.” Some people have trouble understanding the words of Moses here, for who prevented the people from ascending if they wanted to? We must understand the words of Moses as being the words of a messenger who reports back to the sender that he had carried out his mission, in this instance, that as a result of Moses having carried out his mission to warn the people not to ascend the Mountain, they were as of that point in time unable to ascend the Mountain. Ibn Ezra explains that G’d told Moses to descend and to warn the people, but that Moses did not see the need to warn them about anything, seeing that he had already done so. This is why he said to G’d that the people are unable to ascend the Mountain. In response to Moses’ [naïve belief?. Ed.] ] that the warning received was sufficient, G’d told him that the warning had to be repeated. It was only G’d Who knew if the first warning had been sufficient. Some commentators feel that the warning at this time included an additional warning not even to approach the forbidden area too closely. This is the reason for the additional words פן יהרסו אל ה' לראות, “they shall not break through to behold, etc.” I do not believe that this interpretation is acceptable, seeing that the Torah writes later in verse 24 specifically אל יהרסו לעלות אל ה' פן יפרץ בם, “the people must not break trough in order to ascend, lest G’d in His turn will burst forth against them.” The last mentioned interpretation is tenable only if we assume that Moses had told G’d on his most recent ascent that he had warned the people not only not to ascend, but also not to behold what they thought was the manifestation of Hashem. Seeing that it is impossible for Moses to enforce a ban on looking at something from a distance, G’d would then have amended His command and told Moses to warn them only against ascending. An approach to these verses by my sainted father the רא'ש. The words פן יהרסו אל ה' לראות, (verse 21) are problematic, for how could G’d issue a decree that the people would in the main be unable to honour? Such a prohibition was also not included in the warning in verse 12 not to ascend the mountain or to touch its edge. The only thing which had been forbidden then was the ascent and the touching of the Mountain. We find the warning not to ascend the Mountain repeated once more in verse 24. G’d told Moses in addition that the people were not to look at the Mountain. Concerning the second prohibition not to ascend the Mountain, Moses said to G’d that this was impossible as the people had already been warned concerning this. To this G’d replied to Moses that it was necessary to warn them again so that in their understandable enthusiasm to get a glimpse of the revelation, they would not expose themselves to mortal danger. G’d told Moses to descend and to ensure this together with Aaron. When the people would see that Aaron had also descended before the revelation, even though he had previously been allowed to approach more closely to the Mountain, they would realise that if a closer approach spelled danger even for Aaron and the priests, it would certainly be very dangerous for them to expose themselves to G’d’s anger if they were to ignore the warning.

(Exodus 19:23) "And Moses said to the L rd, etc.": I have already warned them and set bounds for them.

It would appear that originally G'd ordered the people in a general directive neither to ascend nor to touch the Mountain. The Torah also stated in verse 22 that the priests who are normally allowed closer to sacred sites must not approach the Mountain. Subsequently, in verse 24 G'd told Moses that the priests should sanctify themselves. G'd was afraid that the Israelites would apply a method known as דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל ללמד על הכלל יצא, that if something had previously been part of a general rule and was singled out by the Torah by name, the reason is that the special rule now applied to this "something" will also be applied generally forthwith. Initially, both the priests, the people, and even Aaron were included in the prohibition to ascend the Mountain or to touch it. As soon as the priests were mentioned separately such as in 19,22 as being normally permitted to approach G'd, this implied they could at least touch it also in this case. In view of the rule cited above about כל היוצא מן הכלל, the people would now also be allowed to touch the base of the Mountain. While it is true that since the Torah had not been given yet, the rule we quoted was not yet in effect, the fact remains that since the rule is based on logic, some intelligent Jew might have figured it out already before the Torah was actually handed down to the people. Even assuming that no one could have figured out this rule, G'd desires justice and righteousness and He would not apply the death penalty to a person who touched the lower part of the Mountain when his counterpart the priest would not be punished for doing the same thing by reason of his being a priest. In order to prevent such a potential miscarriage of justice, G'd told Moses to descend from the Mountain and warn the people (the non-priests) not to touch any part of the Mountain. The effect of this warning was to invalidate the rule about כל היוצא מן הכלל which we explained earlier. Moses had not understood this immediately because G'd had not yet revealed to him the rule about כל היוצא מן הכלל as well as the other principles which guide us when interpreting the written Torah. Moses thought that the partial relaxation of the prohibition applied only to Aaron and the priests whereas the people were forbidden to touch even the base of the Mountain. He could not understand why such a repeated warning was necessary, seeing G'd had already warned the people not to ascend the Mountain or to touch it. G'd therefore told him that only he and Aaron were allowed to ascend any part of the Mountain. Moses was to warn the people that the very places he and Aaron were allowed to ascend would be out of bounds to the people at large. We see that G'd had to spell out a prohibition where logic would have dictated that there was no prohibition or that such a prohibition had been relaxed.

According to what we have explained, the word הנגשים in verse 22 refers to areas in which the priests were permitted access once the Tabernacle would become operational. In short, G'd told Moses that there would be three different areas on the Mountain. The people could not ascend any part, Aaron could accompany Moses part of the way; the upper regions of the Mountain were accessible to Moses only. The new element in G'd's second warning is that He permitted Aaron to ascend part of the Mountain, something that had been excluded by the wording of the previous warning.

Another reason G'd issued a second warning to the people was that the first warning did not include a time frame, i.e. when it would begin to be effective. Although the Torah had spoken about "three days," those days had not been specifically linked to the restrictions of ascending the Mountain beginning on the third day. This is why G'd told Moses as soon as He had descended on to the Mountain that he should descend and tell the people that the restrictions concerning ascent of the Mountain were effective forthwith. We need to study Moses' reply. Perhaps he had thought that the prohibition of ascending the Mountain became effective already at the moment G'd had issued it seeing G'd had not said specifically: "do not touch the Mountain on the second day," or something similar. He had been wrong on that count, and this explains why G'd now had to send him down to tell the people that the prohibition of which they had been told was now in effect. When G'd had issued the warning the first time He had said that anyone violating it would be stoned to death, i.e. would be punished by a human tribunal. G'd now repeated the warning to make it plain that if someone would violate the prohibition in such a way that no judicial action could be taken against him such a person would nonetheless be punished by heaven. The reason the Torah phrased the potential violation in the plural was that even if all the people would violate the prohibition this would not save them from the penalty G'd would impose.

לך רד GO, GO DOWN and warn them a second time. God said this, because the rule is that one admonishes a person before an action is to be done and then one again admonishes him at the very moment when the action is to be done (cf. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:24:1).

לך רד, now, when I am speaking with you, be with them at the bottom of the mountain.

רד ועלית אתה ואהרון, "descend and then ascend, you and Aaron." Why did G'd say both לך and רד? The word לך meant that Moses was to move, the word רד that he was to descend; perhaps he had to descend as he had previously not stood on a place assigned to him on the Mountain but had stood on the peak. When Moses refused to move G'd may have told him to descend (from that peak) but to ascend again with Aaron. He should know that just as there was a limit to how far Aaron could ascend there would also be a limit to how far he, Moses, could ascend. This is implied when the Torah describes Aaron as ascending עמך"with you."

One might think they, too. . . “They, too” refers to the kohanim [and not the people. This is evident because later,] Rashi mentions the [area of the] kohanim, but does not write: “. . .And the people.” [Rashi knows that the kohanim were closer to Moshe] because it is impossible for the people, too, to be with Moshe. For if so, to whom would “Do not break through” apply? [Everyone would be with Moshe!] Perforce, [it is as Rashi said]. Rashi is saying as follows: If you suggest that the kohanim are included in the warning, “Do not break through,” [for they are with the people,] why did it not say ואהרן עמך והעם אל יהרסו , [omitting והכהנים ]? This would convey that the kohanim, too, should not break through. But the verse states והכהנים . If so, perhaps והכהנים should be read with the preceding, thus the kohanim are with Moshe? Therefore the verse says ועלית אתה , to exclude [a certain set of people from being with Moshe]. But since the excluding אתה is written before ואהרן , perhaps it implies that Aharon, too, is excluded. Therefore it says עמך , to indicate that Aharon is indeed with Moshe in the same area — he is not with the kohanim. [To resolve these seemingly contradictory inferences,] we are forced to conclude that אתה means Moshe has his own area, not with Aharon. And Aharon has his own area, not with the kohanim, for it says עמך . And “they”, the kohanim, have their own area, not with the people. Re”m, [who does not grant the kohanim their own area], happened upon a different version of Rashi. (Nachalas Yaakov; see there.)

ויאמר אליו ה' לך רד, Hashem said to him: “go and descend, etc.” If you were to ask why was there any need for three separate warnings (verse 12, verse 21 and this verse)? The warning in verse 23 refers to the warning in verse 21 where G-d had warned the people not to approach the mountain in order not to become a victim of destruction by trying to have a visual image of G-d. Moses had assumed that the very fact that they had been warned would be equivalent to the people’s inability to violate G-d’s commandment. G-d had already said in verse 12 that the people would be immediately killed if they were to try and ascend the Mountain or even its lower edge. Surely they could exercise control over their feet! Concerning their having control over their eyes, not to try and see the glory of G-d was a much more difficult task. This is why the warning had to be repeated. They would think that it was a good deed to try and catch a glimpse of their King! Moses had misinterpreted the prohibition as applying only to a physical ascent of the Mountain. This is why G-d had to add that not only ascent was potentially fatal, but even touching the base of the Mountain and even trying to catch a glimpse of G-d’s Majesty.

ועלית אתה ואהרן עמך והכהנים AND THOU SHALT COME UP, THOU AND AARON WITH THEE AND THE PRIESTS — One might think that they (the priests) shall also be with thee! Therefore it states “and thou shalt come up”. Consequently you must now admit that this is what God spake to him: thou hast a designated place for thyself, and Aaron a designated place for himself and they a designated place for themselves — Moses approached closer than Aaron and Aaron closer than the priests — but let the people under no circumstances break down their position to go up to the Lord (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:24:2).

ועלית אתה ואהרן, at the conclusion of the Ten Commandments and the portion Mishpatim as we read in Exodus 24,1. The Torah writes there: עלה אל ה' אתה ואהרן “ascend to G’d, you and Aaron.” [the elders and Aaron there are bidden to prostrate themselves from a distance. Ed.]

ואהרן עמך, “and Aaron with you;” he was allowed to accompany Moses part of the way to the base of the Mountain. Moses was going to explain to the people the last nine of the Ten Commandments, starting with the words: לא יהיה לך, “You must not have, etc.” which the people had not heard or understood clearly from G-d’s mouth. Another way of interpreting G-d’s instructions here: G-d told Moses to descend in order that the people and the priests would not be under the mistaken impression that Aaron was no better than they as they had all been forbidden to ascend or even begin to ascend the Mountain. By being allowed to accompany Moses far closer to the Mountain than they had been, it became clear to them that Aaron was on a higher spiritual level than they. To prevent the people from thinking that Aaron could ascend all the way G-d told Moses to descend before Aaron could do so.

פן יפרץ בם LEST HE BURST FORTH UPON THEM — Although it (the word יִפְרָץ) is punctuated with a Chataf Kametz (our Kamets Chataf — short Kametz), it has not departed from its normal grammatical form, for thus is the way of every word which has the vowel Melopum (our חולם) in its hit syllable, that being a closed syllable: when it comes with a Makkef (a hyphen) after it the vowelling is changed to a Chataf Kametz (our short Kametz).

ויאמר אליהם AND HE SPOKE UNTO THEM this warning.

ויאמר אלהם, he conveyed G’d’s warning to them as well as the penalty for violating G’d’s command. (verse 21)

ויאמר אליהם, he told them of the commandment to fence off the mountain as of immediately.

.ויאמר אליהם, “he (Moses) said to them,” that only he and Aaron had been given permission to proceed further.