Commentaire sur L’Exode 24:12

ויאמר ה’ אל משה AND THE LORD SAID TO MOSES — after the Giving of the Law,

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: ‘COME UP TO ME INTO THE MOUNTAIN.’ This is the same command which He had said to him on the preceeding day [i.e., on the sixth of Sivan], Come up unto the Eternal;⁵⁵¹Verse 1. and Moses alone shall come near unto the Eternal,⁵⁵²Verse 2. and now on the seventh day of Sivan He said additionally to him, and be there, and I will give thee the Tablets of stone etc., for Moses was to stay on the mountain until He would give him the Tablets of stone, and the law and the commandment. The expression which I have written refers back to the Tablets of stone; that thou mayest teach them relates to the law and the commandment. Thus the meaning of the verse is: “and I will give thee the Tablets of stone which I have written, and the law and the commandment that thou mayest teach them.” This is identical with what He said in the Book of Deuteronomy, And I will speak unto thee all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which thou shalt teach them.⁵⁵³Deuteronomy 5:28.
Rashi wrote: “Which I have written in the Tablets of stone.⁵⁵⁴This sentence is not found in our Rashi. That thou mayest teach them, for all the six hundred and thirteen commandments are implicit in the Ten Commandments.”⁵⁵⁵Our Rashi adds: “And Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon listed in his ‘Azharoth’ [Exhortations — liturgical poems treating of the Divine Commandments] the commandments which may be associated with each of the Ten Commandments.” — See further in my Foreword to “The Commandments,” Vol. I, pp. VIII-X. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “The law, this refers to the first and second commandments; and the commandment refers to the other eight mentioned.” It is a comment of no value, since the verse in Deuteronomy mentioned above, And I will speak unto thee, etc.⁵⁵³Deuteronomy 5:28. testifies that He is speaking about all the commandments. In accordance with the opinion of our Rabbis it is possible that the expression which I have written is a hint that the whole Torah was written before Him before the creation of the world, as I have mentioned at the beginning of the Book of Genesis.⁵⁵⁶Vol. I, pp. 8, 14-15.

עלה אלי ההרה, to the top of the mountain. This was after he had already approached more closely than the people with him, as we have read in verse 2, ונגש משה לבדו “only Moses alone is to approach any closer.” Nonetheless, at that point he had not ascended the summit of the mountain. It was on this occasion, while they looked after Moses disappearing into the cloud forming a shroud around the mountain, that the “nobles” and the elders had the vision just described. This is what was meant in verse 17 with the words ומראה כבוד ה' כאש אוכלת בראש ההר, “and the manifestation of the glory of the Lord was similar to a consuming fire at the top of the mountain.” We find this formulation (ראש ההר) again during the giving of the Ten Commandments in 19,20.

אשר כתבתי, the tablets inscribed by G’d at the end of 40 days.

ויאמר ה' אל משה עלה אלי ההרה, “The Lord said to Moses: “ascend to Me on the Mountain.” According to Nachmanides this is the same commandment he had been given on the previous day when G’d had said to him (verse 2) ונגש משה לבדו, “Moses alone is to come close.” Now, on the seventh day of Sivan, G’d added that Moses was to remain o the Mountain for forty days.

עלה אלי ההרה, “ascend to Me, to the mountain!” This paragraph also speaks of matters prior to the giving of the Torah. The wording proves it as otherwise it would not make sense for G’d to say: “I will give you there the Torah and the commandments.”
והיה שם, “and remain there.” Rashi explains that G’d meant “for forty days.”

All 613 commandments are . . . in the Ten Commandments. [Rashi knows this] because it says, “[The Torah and the commandment] which I have written in order to teach them.” This cannot refer to the Torah scroll, because that was written by Moshe, not Hashem, as it says (Devarim 31:24): “When Moshe finished writing the words of this Torah in a book, till they were completed.” Thus we must say that this verse speaks of [God’s writing] the Ten Commandments, [which contain all the 613 mitzvos].

V. 12. Da Mosche bereits (V. 9) mit den Ältesten und Aaron auf dem Berge war, so kann diese Aufforderung sich nur auf ein weiteres Hinansteigen bis zur Gipfelhöhe beziehen. אשר כתבתי, wie es Kap. 31, 18 am Schlusse des Aufenthaltes Mosche auf dem Berge heißt: אשר כתבתי להורתם — .ויתן וגו׳ ככלתו וגו׳ שני לחת העדת וגו׳ כתובים וגו׳: das niedergeschriebene Gesetz ist nur ein didaktisches Mittel, um die eigentliche Gesetzeslehre, die der mündlichen Belehrung verblieb, daran anzuknüpfen und festzuhalten.

עלה אלי ההרה והיה שם COME UP TO ME INTO THE MOUNTAIN AND REMAIN THERE forty days.

והיה שם, stay there for an extended period. The root היה appears in this sense in Deuteronomy 10,5 ויהיו שם כאשר צוני, “they have remained there as G’d had commanded me.”

ואתנה לך את לוחות האבן והתורה והמצוה אשר כתבתי להורותם, “I shall give you there the stone tablets as well as the Torah and the mitzvah which I have written down in order to teach it to them.” According to Nachmanides the words: “which I have written,” refer to what is inscribed on the Tablets, whereas the word להורותם, “to teach them,” refers to the Torah and the Mitzvah. Moses is to teach the words on the Tablets to the people. Rashi understands the words אשר כתבתי to mean that when closely examined, we would find that the entire Torah is included in the Text of the Ten Commandments. Ibn Ezra understands the word התורה as referring to the written Torah, whereas the word המצוה is supposed to refer to the oral Torah. The correct interpretation is that both words refer only to the Tablets. The proof is in the words אשר כתבתי להורותם, “which I (G’d) have written to teach them.” G’d never wrote the Torah, only Moses did. Some commentators claim that the word התורה refers to the first of the Ten Commandments, whereas the word המצוה refers to the remaining nine Commandments. Still other commentators understand the word התורה as referring to the negative commandments, whereas the word המצוה refers to the positive commandments, as in זכור ושמור that refer to the two aspects of the Sabbath. I believe the message in our verse is that both negative and positive commandments form an integral part of Torah legislation, and it is the purpose of each group of commandments to teach us the right way to conduct our lives. This is why G’d added the words אשר כתבתי להורותם, “which I wrote down in order to teach them.”

את לחת האבן והתורה והמצוה אשר כתבתי להורתם [AND I WILL GIVE THEE] THE TABLETS OF STONE, AND THE LAW, AND THE COMMANDMENT WHICH I HAVE WRITTEN TO TEACH THEM — All the six hundred and thirteen commandments are implicitly contained in the Ten Commandments and may therefore be regarded as having been written on the tablets. Rabbi Saadia specified in the אזהרות which he has composed those commandments which may be associated with each of the Ten Commandments.

והתורה, “and the part which requires profound study,”

והמצוה, and the part of the Torah which primarily requires action in order to fulfill it.

אשר כתבתי, “which I (the Lord) have written.” If it had not been for the sin of the golden calf, the entire Torah would have been handed to the Jewish people (Moses) as a signed and sealed document just like the Tablets with the Ten Commandments. Moses alluded to this when he described the approach of G’d to Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 33,2 ואתה מרבבות קודש מימינו אש דת למו , G’d was ready to hand us the whole Torah but the sin of the golden calf prevented this at that that time. Instead, Moses wrote down the Torah at G’d’s command (dictation). Moses is on record as having done this in Deuteronomy 34,27. In fact, Moses only brought the Tablets to within sight of the people in order to smash them before their eyes, so that they would understand what they had forfeited due to their disloyalty to G’d. This demonstration of Moses having smashed the Tablets was designed to shock the people into penitence.

להורותם, to teach them. Although everything was available in the form of a written text, as we know from our sages in Taanit 9 “is there then anything which has not either been spelled out or alluded to in the text of the Torah that Moses handed down to us?” And, the Talmud Gittin 60 adds that most is spelled out in the written text and only a relatively small part was reserved for what we call the “oral Torah,” the allusions in the Torah which require profound study and most ordinary Israelites would not understand them unless they had the guidance of scholars. Knowing this, a statement by the sages which appears to conflict with the statement we quoted from Gittin 60, and which states that most of the legislation of the Torah is derived from the “oral Torah,” is not in conflict with that at all. The former statement refers to people studying under the guidance of a competent Torah scholar.