Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 68:9

a fiery law i.e., the Torah, which had been given among fire and lightning. Sa‘adya Gaon said further that God came on Sinai is an invocation, as if to say: “O, You Who descended upon Sinai, and bequeathed the Torah, may Reuven live etc. ”. But this is all farfetched, because in that case it would have to employ the second person masculine singular imperative, “grant life” and “do not kill”. Those who lack belief have said that Seir denotes the religion of Edom, while Paran denotes the religion of Ishmael. But these people are befuddled. Did they not see that he set out to bless Israel alone? — as it is written, “which Moshe, the man of God, bestowed upon the Children of Israel” [: 1], and then continues with shone to them from Seir . The correct interpretation, in my opinion, is that this section is a general benediction, covering all Israel, followed by the specific blessings for each individual tribe, after which he once again includes them all (in the passage, “Jeshurun, there is none like God” [: 26]). We find elsewhere that Deborah said, “God , when you came forth from Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom” [Judges 5: 4], where clearly “the field of Edom” does not denote a mountain, although Sa‘adya Gaon claims that our verse describes three mountains that adjoin one another, or that face one another. Also, from the book of Psalms: “God, when You went forth before Your nation, when You marched through the wilderness” [Psalms 68: 8], following which we have “the earth shook” [Psalms 68: 9]; and the abovementioned “march of the Divine Presence through the wilderness” did not occur on the day of the giving of the Torah, for they entered the desert upon leaving the wilderness of Paran. Moreover, Habakkuk said, “God came from Teyman ” [Habakkuk 3: 3] (the latter being one of the descendants of Edom — see “Teyman, Omer, …” [Genesis 36: 11]) meaning the same as “from the field of Edom” [Judges 5: 4]. These verses all speak about wars, as evidenced by “let God arise, let His enemies be scattered” [Psalms 68: 2]. Scripture likens God ’s rescuing of His servants to help “descending” from God , and to the earth trembling, and to mountains melting, and to the heavens clamoring. Further evidence can be found in the song of David: “the earth shook and trembled” [Psalms 18: 8]. I have explained “Sinai itself” [Psalms 68: 9] in its place [comment on Psalms 68: 9], but I shall repeat myself here: “God came” — denotes the entry of the Glory among Israel Sinai was the beginning of that entry. shone from Seir — during all the years that Israel was in the wilderness, God did not display His might among the nations, until Israel came to the field of Edom. From the verse “their Mount Seir, as far as El-Paran” [Genesis 14: 6] we see that Seir was near Paran. Clearly, then, the meaning of our verse is: from the place of Seir (i.e., from the time that Israel arrived at Seir), at that point the Glory shone upon Israel. appeared from Mount Paran — this is a parallelism, repeating the idea that here was the point at which He displayed His splendor.

And perhaps for this reason it was said at the giving of the Torah. Even the heavens dripped before God, this is Sinai (Psalms 68:9) to teach that in the merit of studying Torah, which is from heaven, rain will descend from heaven, for “if there is no Torah, there is no flour” (Avot 3:21), and in the merit of “statute,” meaning setting fixed times for Torah study, the rains will come in their proper time. And what it says and you shall keep My commandments refers to the purpose that results from learning, for it leads to observing the negative and positive commandments. Regarding the negative commandments it says and you shall keep My commandments, because wherever it says “keep,” “lest,” or “do not,” it refers to a negative commandment (Eruvin 96a). And you shall do them refers to the positive commandments. And since it does not merely say “keep and do,” why does it need to write them? This teaches that the commandments require proper intention, which is what is meant by the word them.

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.