Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 19:11

A kabbalistic approach to our verse: The words: “I will go down with you,” are an allusion to the Presence of G’d, the שכינה, which would go down to Egypt with the Israelites. Our sages in Shabbat 89 and elsewhere say that G’d’s Presence descended with the Israelites. In order to hint at this, Onkelos translates the words as אנא אחות [a “physical” as opposed to a merely spiritual descent, in anthropomorphic terms, of course. Ed.], instead of as אנא אתגלי which is his usual translation for the word ירד, such as in Exodus 19,11 when applied to G’d. This is especially remarkable considering the care Onkelos takes not to apply anthropomorphic terms to G’d or His activities.
The reason the Torah writes מצרימה instead of למצרים, i.e. concluding with the letter ה, and also writing the word עלה in a form ending with the letter ה, is to provide tangible proof that G’d’s Presence, i.e. “ה,” will accompany the Israelites to Egypt. The letter ה, the last letter in the Ineffable Name, is the attribute which provided sustenance for Egypt during the years of famine.
Joseph already hinted at this attribute when he told the Egyptians in 47,23 הא לכם זרע, “here is seed for you.” In the following verse Joseph speaks of the חמישית, “fifth” or “hand” which G’d used to enact retribution from the Egyptians for abusing the Israelites during their exile there. This “hand” of G’d was in evidence when the livestock of the Egyptians was struck in Exodus 9,3, and it was the attribute the Israelites witnessed at the sea 14,31. It is also the attribute which Ezekiel mentioned when he described G’d’s anger during the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple (Ezekiel 16,43). We also find the words לא אחמול, “I shall not display pity,” five times in connection with that destruction (commencing in Ezekiel 5,11) after having described such scenes as parents eating the flesh of their children and children eating the flesh of their parents, to illustrate this lack of G’d’s pity for the state His people were in at that time.
We find that Daniel 2,43 refers to this attribute when he speaks about iron not blending with earthenware. Daniel mentions five different categories of materials which cannot form a blend, an alloy. This word הא occurs a total of three times in the Bible, once in the Torah, once in the Books of Prophets (Ezekiel 16,43), and once in the Hagiographa (Daniel 3,25). The message is that this attribute of G’d will accompany the Israelites through all the various exiles. The very word עמך, “with you,” which G’d uses to describe Himself as accompanying Yaakov to Egypt, is also associated with צרה, distress, sorrow, trouble, as we know from עמו אנכי בצרה, Psalms 91,15 “I am with him when it is in trouble.” In our verse the choice of that word then is a double-entendre. It means that even when the Israelites were exiled to Babylon the שכינה was with them also. Our sages base this on Isaiah 43,14: “for your sake I send (the redeemer) to Babylon.” We have a similar situation regarding the exile under the Edomites, (the present exile). Isaiah 63,1 describes the redeemer as coming from Edom, his clothing full of blood, etc., an allusion to G’d taking His vengeance on our oppressors. The word זה in that verse is a reference to G’d Himself being that redeemer. The word זה referred to our redeemer, i.e. G’d, already when the Israelites had crossed the sea and watched the Egyptians drown. At that time they broke out in a song of thanksgiving adulating G’d by saying זה א-לי ואנוהו “this is my G’d and I want to enshrine Him.” The word זה, of course, also ends with this letter ה, the attribute we have been discussing. Interestingly enough, even Joseph phrased his invitation to his father to come to him in Egypt in a word ending with the letter ה, when he said (45,9) רדה אלי אל תעמוד, “come down to me, do not delay.” He added the letter ה instead of saying רד אלי, which would have been quite sufficient. He meant to convey his confidence that the attribute of G’d represented by the letter ה would accompany his father and his family. Keeping all this in mind, the phenomenal increase of the Jewish people from 70 souls to over 600,000 arms-bearing men at the time of the Exodus (only 210 years later) becomes much less surprising. Clearly the Presence of G’d’s benevolent שכינה must be credited for this. (the author had referred to the addition of the latter ה in Avraham’s name in Genesis 17,5 as supplying the element which would enable his descendants to multiply prolifically). This element came into its own while the Jewish people were in Egypt and actually was also a prime factor in their eventual enslavement (compare Exodus 1,7-13). Once they had attained the required number of 600.000 men over 20 years of age they qualified for G’d revealing Himself to them openly at Mount Sinai.

But this is its explanation, according to what is said, And Moses came and called the elders of the people, etc. and All the people answered, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do’ (Exodus 19:7-8). But the elders had not yet told them anything, so how did they answer immediately? Rather, certainly as soon as they saw that Moses spoke his words to the elders, they immediately understood that all the words would come through intermediaries — that the Holy One, blessed be He, would speak to Moses, and Moses to the elders, and the elders to Israel. Immediately, Israel jumped to answer Moses, indicating by this that they had no desire for the intermediation of the elders. And by saying All that the Lord has spoken we will do, they showed that they did not want Moses’s intermediation either. They said that they would do all that the Lord would speak to them, not what Moses would speak to them. They had [good] reason and rationale, as they wanted to see their King. They could have simply said, “We will do it,” but they specifically said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do to exclude Moses’s words. They also alluded [to this] in saying, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And the Holy One, blessed be He, said, Now if you will surely listen to My voice (Exodus 19:5). This implies that the Lord wanted them to hear the voice of the Lord speaking to them directly, not through intermediaries.
And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel (Exodus 19:6) — you yourself, not through any intermediation. Moses went and told the elders first, and Israel was very angry that the Lord would speak to them through two intermediaries. Therefore, they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do — to hear the voice of the Lord directly.
Therefore, the first time, Moses responded to the Lord only the matter on which the main mission depended, which is what they said, We will do all the words of the Lord, and the term responded is appropriate here. Moses had not yet told the Lord anything about what he understood from them — that they wanted to see their King — because Moses thought that surely God understood their ways and their thoughts, and would do according to their will.
When God said to him again, Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, etc., and they will also believe in you forever (Exodus 19:9), then he understood that the Holy One, blessed be He, still wanted to speak to them through intermediation. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord — he told Him what they said: All that the Lord has spoken we will doThe term told is appropriate here, not the term “responded,” because this matter is not a response to the main mission but merely a telling of what had happened with them.
And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “If so, do this: Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow” (Exodus 19:10) — because to see the face of their King, they need to be holy, for I am holy — and on the third day, the Lord will descend before the eyes of all the people (Exodus 19:11). Then they will see the face of their King. And indeed, He began to speak to them Himself, for they heard the first two commandments from the mouth of the Almighty, until they were afraid of the fire and the sounds. Then they retreated from their request and said, Speak you with us, and we will hear (Exodus 20:16).

This teaches that not one among them. . . You might ask: Did we not already learn this from, “In the sight of all the people” (19:11), as Rashi explained there? The answer is: Here it teaches that they did not go blind after the giving of the Torah. For even if someone looks at the kohanim’s hands while they bless the people [in the Beis Hamikdosh] his eyesight dims, as R. Chagai said in the Talmud Yerushalmi. And this is on account of the Shechinah’s presence upon the kohanim’s hands. [And we would think this applies] here even more so, since the people saw an even greater revelation of the Shechinah.