Tafsiran Keluaran 24:7: Rashi, Chizkuni, Sforno & Rashbam

ספר הברית THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT — the book which we have said contained the part of the Torah from בראשית till the “Giving of the Torah” including the Commandments that were given to them at Marah (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi on v. 4).

ויקח ספר הברית, “He took hold of the Book of the Covenant;” It is well known that the Torah was not written in chronological sequential order. The Mechilta of Rabbi Yishmael, on the 19th chapter of the Book of Exodus, has proven this beyond any question. Among other proofs the author has cited is Leviticus 25,2, where the Torah wrote: ושבתה הארץ, that the soil of the land of Israel is to observe a year of lying fallow, (immediately after the Israelites entering that land) and the Torah proceeds to lists the laws pertaining to the sh’mittah cycles followed by the Jubilee cycles, concluding with 26,46: “these are the statutes and social laws that G-d has given as applying to the Jewish people all of which He had revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai.” The Jewish people heard and accepted all the laws including the blessings and curses applying to those who observed them and those who would disobey them, after which Moses took the remainder of the blood and sprinkled it upon them, as the seal of the covenant. He told the people to listen to detailed instructions of these laws starting on the day following. [In other words, the Jews had already bound themselves to be obedient to the Torah’s laws even though they had not yet been written down. There is considerable discussion about the term ספר הברית, here whether what was already written in there at the time Moses read from it was subsequently written in the Torah out of context or not. According to our author’s interpretation of the Mechilta when the Israelites said their famous: נעשה ונשמע generally understood as their giving G-d a blank cheque, this was not so, they simply expressed the wish to learn the details of what Moses had already read out to them. Ed.]

ספר הברית. The book in which G’d’s words had been recorded as well as the laws concerning which the covenant was concluded. Reference has to be made to this book in verse four of our chapter.