Commentaire de citation sur Les Proverbes 15:31

Nachmanides is of the opinion that the entire people heard all the Ten Commandments directly from G’d. According to his view this is the meaning of our verse: “G’d spoke all these words,” as well as Deut. 5,19: “these words G’d spoke to your entire congregation at the mountain out of the fire, etc.” Furthermore, it is written: “He told you of His covenant ....and He inscribed them on the two stone Tablets” (Deut. 4,13). From this we learn that just as G’d had communicated the Ten Commandments to the entire people directly by word of mouth, He subsequently communicated them to the entire people in writing. How does Nachmanides understand the words of the Talmud in Makkot 24 that the Israelites heard the first two commandments from G’d’s own mouth which suggests that they did not hear the other commandments from His mouth? He understands the word שמעום in the Talmud as relating to what the ear heard, similar to the meaning of the words in Proverbs 15,31 אזן שומעת תוכחת חיים, “the ear that listens to life-giving discipline.” This verse implies that the heart also understood the message as is evident from Kings I 3,9 (also Solomon speaking to G’d in his dream) לב שומע, “a heart that hears.” [Seeing that it is not the function of the heart to hear and to listen, clearly Solomon asked for something more, i.e. understanding, when he asked G’d to be granted a “heart which can hear.” Ed.] As far as the Israelites were concerned, they heard and understood only the first two of the Ten Commandments. The other eight commandments they “heard” without understanding what they heard. This is why Moses had to interpret for them what their ears had heard. This is the meaning of Deut. 5,5: “I was standing between G’d and you at that time in order to tell you the word of G’d.” This is also the meaning of 19,19: “Moses would speak and G’d would respond with a voice.” What G’d had said בקול, in an indistinguishable voice,” Moses interpreted to the people. The word עניה, which usually appears in the form of ויען means “beginning.” We find it in this sense in Job 3,2. [In that verse the word ויען could not have meant: “he replied,” as Job’s friends were reported sitting with him for seven days without opening their mouth. Ed.] This is the way Nachmanides understands what happened at Mount Sinai.

We need to understand the structure of this verse in which three (senses) attributes of man, each one superior to the following one are described. First we are told about the ability to speak, an ability connected to the soul, the ability to express what the soul feels. The opposite of this ability is to be a dumb, silent person. The second (sense) attribute the Torah mentions is the ability to hear, (a passive attribute). This ability is rated as superior to the (sense) attribute of sight. Here the Torah contrasts פקח and עור, someone possessing sight with someone who is blind. Solomon (Proverbs 15,30) writes: “enlightenment gladdens the heart, good news (received by the ear) puts fat on the bones.” Solomon made it clear that whereas the sense of sight expands the heart, the sense of hearing does something more tangible for man’s bones. In other words, the sense of hearing bestows greater benefit on man than the sense of sight. Our sages (Baba Kama 85) confirm this when they ruled that if one robs someone of his eyesight he has to pay compensation for the eye. If one robs someone of his hearing he has to pay compensation as if he had caused total disability. Seeing that the Torah had indicated that the ear is superior to the eye, Solomon continues (Proverbs 15,31) “the ear that listens to life-giving discipline will abide with the scholars.”

ויאמר אם שמוע תשמעו לקול ה', “He said if you will truly hearken to the voice of the Lord, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text Moses meant that if the Israelites were truly going to observe G’d’s laws then neither disease caused by internal causes such as the intake of rotten food, nor by external causes would befall them. The reason that Moses mentions “the voice of G‘d” in this instance is because he already alludes to the Ten Commandments which would be given to them by the ‘voice’ of G’d which they were going to hear at Mount Sinai. In Deut. 4,12 Moses reminded the people that they had heard קול דבריו, “the voice of His words.” He continues to break down the commandments into their constituent parts, i.e. rational ones, laws involving faith, and laws that are statutes, not accessible to our understanding.
והישר בעיניו תעשה, “and you will do what is right in His eyes.” These are the social laws, laws accessible to our logic. Nechemyah 9,13 refers to these laws by saying: ותתן להם משפטים ישרים, “You have given them laws which are “right, fair.”
והאזנת למצותיו, “and you will give ear to His laws.” These are the commandments whose performance demonstrates faith; they are commandments which no sane person would have invented by himself. One needs an ear in tune with G’d’s instructions in this matter. Proverbs 15,31 speaks of “He whose ear heeds the discipline of life.”
ושמרת כל חקיו, “and you will observe all His statutes.” This is a reference to all those laws which defy our logic to find reasons for them. The Torah promises that if in spite of our total inability to understand the reasons for these laws we observe them meticulously, we will be spared all the diseases and sicknesses other nations are suffering from at intervals. There was no need to tell us that we would not be stricken with the plagues G’d inflicted upon the Egyptians with which we are familiar from having watched the Egyptians. G’d promises that even ordinary sickness will not affect the Jewish people if they observe the חקים.
כי אני ה' רופאך, “for I the Lord, am your healer.” “I will preserve your good health so that you will not become a victim of natural diseases at all.”