Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 19:3

ויקרא אל משה, in view of our being told at the end of the last portion that Moses could not enter the Tabernacle (Exodus 40,35), this is why now G’d called to Moses from the Tabernacle. As a result, the meaning of the verse here is “G’d called to Moses from the Tent and spoke to him.” The meaning of the verse is parallel to Exodus 19,3 ויקרא אליו ה' מן ההר, where the operative clause is the word מן ההר, “from the mountain.” It is important for us to know from where G’d’s voice originated. At that time it came out of the mountain, whereas now it came out of the Tabernacle. At that time it signaled that G’d had “descended” into the domain of earth, i.e. on top of Mount Sinai, whereas now it signaled that G’d had taken up residence in His home on earth, the Mishkan. At a later stage, after G’d had limited His presence to the Holy of Holies, we hear in Numbers 7,89 that His voice was heard originating from above the kapporet, the lid of the Holy Ark, between the two cherubs. At the earliest stage of G’d communicating with Moses His voice originated in the burning bush, the site of Mount Sinai, also, as we know from Exodus 3,4. לאמור, there is a repetition here, i.e. וידבר and לאמור although both address the same subject. We explained this phenomenon in Genesis 8,15 This phenomenon occurs again also with Aaron in Numbers 8,2. [the author may refer to these phenomena to draw attention to his differing with the commentary of Torat Kohanim quoted by Rashi. Ed.] [The author’s understanding of the meaning of לאמור is that it is a repetition, emphasisng the preceding words, such as ויצו, or ויקרא. Ed]

ויקרא אל משה, וידבר, He called out to Moses and spoke, etc. According to Torat Kohanim on this verse G'd always called to Moses before He addressed him from the Tent of Testimony. We have to explore why the Torah records such a call on three separate occasions instead of allowing us to conclude that if it was stated once it would form the basis of a Mah Matzinu type of exegesis, i.e. that just as G'd called to Moses on the occasion mentioned here, or elsewhere, so He did on every other occasion He spoke to him from the Tent of Testimony. The author of Torat Kohanim proceeds to explain why such an exegesis could not be applied: "There are only two other occasions when this "call" is recorded as having preceded the דבור, the speech. The first time it occurred when Moses had the vision at the burning bush; the second time was at Mount Sinai, and the third time is here. We cannot establish a common denominator between these three occurrences as at the burning bush Moses had never previously been addressed by G'd and there was a need to prepare him mentally for such an address. At Mount Sinai (Exodus 19,3) G'd wanted Moses to convey His message to the entire Jewish nation. Neither of these two instances could serve as a valid precedent for G'd addressing Moses out of the Tabernacle on earth after having issued a "call." The reason that even this latter occasion does not serve as a precedent for the other two occasions is that in both other instances G'd had manifested Himself out of fire as opposed to the present occasion.

“And God spoke all these words, saying.” The text mentions both “dibur” [speaking] and “amirah” [saying] — one is harsh and one is soft, as it is written: Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob — these are the women, speak to them in soft language; and tell the children of Israel — to the males, words as harsh as sinews. For this reason, these are called the Ten Statements [“dibrot”], while all of creation is referred to as the Ten Sayings [“ma’amarot”], because all of creation was formed according to their own inclination, meaning in those forms which they chose for themselves — which is soft speech without decree. But God’s commandments are all royal decrees, as a person should not say “I don’t want to eat pork because I find it disgusting” but rather “I do want it, but the Holy One, blessed be He, has decreed against it” — which is harsh speech.
Nevertheless, for women who are intellectually weaker, one needs to explain in soft language to inform them of the benefits of the commandments, because any intelligent person accepts the decrees of the Holy One, blessed be He, while those with weaker intellect need explanation so that they will accept willingly. Even regarding the creation of heaven and earth it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made (Psalms 33:6). Since they possess intelligence, they accepted God’s decree upon themselves even if not according to their own inclination. But regarding the lower beings it says: Let all the earth fear the Lord… For He said, and it came to be (Psalms 33:8-9). This means that He talked to them with soft speech, and they were created according to their own inclination. However, with the higher beings we find rebuke, as it says: Let there be a firmament (Genesis 1:6), for “a rebuke enters a person of understanding,” and similarly Moses said: Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the sayings of my mouth (Deuteronomy 32:1). This works well with the language of “dibur” and “amirah,” whether speaking of heaven and earth in general, or speaking toward people who have [spiritual] height and their height is like the height of heaven, and toward the common people [“amei ha’aretz”].