Commento su Esodo 24:3

ויבא משה ויספר לעם AND MOSES CAME AND RELATED TO THE PEOPLE — on that same day (the 4th of Sivan).

AND MOSES CAME AND TOLD THE PEOPLE ALL THE WORDS OF THE ETERNAL. At the time that this whole commandment mentioned here was given, Moses was at the place where he drew near unto the thick darkness where G-d was,⁵⁰⁸Above, 20:18. and now he came to that “far off” place where the people had been at the time of the Revelation,⁵⁰⁸Above, 20:18. and told them all that he had been commanded [i.e., beginning with Ye yourselves have seen — above 20:19 — up to the end of all the commandments and ordinances, 23:33], and they listened to his voice. Scripture does not say here: “and he came down from the mountain,” for they were all then at the lower part of the mountain,⁵⁰⁹Ibid., 19:17. and not at the top where the Glory of G-d was; [the difference] was only that Moses was near the place of the thick darkness, whilst the people stood from afar at the time of the giving of the commandments, as I have explained.⁵¹⁰Ibid., 19:19, and 20:15. When Moses left his place and began coming towards the people, all the heads of their tribes and their elders came up to the place where the priests that come near to the Eternal⁵¹¹Ibid., 19:22. stood, and said to him, Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us;⁵¹²Deuteronomy 5:22. Go thou near, and hear etc.,⁵¹³Ibid., Verse 24. for they thought that the Revered G-d Himself would tell them all the commandments of the Torah just as He had told them the Ten Commandments. Then Moses came together with the heads of the tribes and the elders to the place where the people were standing and told all of them all the words of G-d, and they said, “We will do all that He has commanded us in the Ten Commandments, and we will hearken⁵¹⁴Verse 7. to your voice in everything that you have commanded, or will command in His Name, exalted be He.” When Moses went back afterwards to the edge of the mountain with the elders, as G-d had commanded him,⁵⁰⁶Above, Verse 1. then G-d said to him again, Come up to Me into the mountain, and be there.⁵¹⁵Verse 12. It was at that time that He informed him, I have heard the voice of the words of the people, which they have spoken unto thee; they have well said all that they have spoken,⁵¹⁶Deuteronomy 5:25. and He commanded him: Go say to them: Return ye to your tents. But as for thee, stand thou here by Me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which thou shalt teach them.⁵¹⁷Ibid., Verses 27-28. It is with reference to this that He said here, And I will give thee the Tablets of stone, and the law and the commandment,⁵¹⁸Verse 12. See Vol. I, p. 7 for Ramban’s interpretation of each term mentioned. meaning, that to you alone I will give the law and the commandments which you will teach them, and they will keep them as they have undertaken to do.

'ויבא משה ויספר לעם את כל דברי ה, the matters Moses told the people were those reported in the Torah between 20,8 and the beginning of chapter 21.

ויבא משה ויספר לעם את כל דברי ה', “Moses came (back) and told the people all the words of the Lord.” This is a reference to the commandment to separate from their wives in anticipation of G’d’s revelation, as well as the instruction to fence off the mountain. When our verse mentions ואת כל המשפטים the reference is not to all the social legislation which has been in the preceding pages of Parshat Mishpatim. We have already proven that this chapter deals with matters which occurred prior to Matan Torah. The expression המשפטים in our verse refers to the legislation introduced at Marah (i.e. laws about the red heifer, rules about litigation and parts of the Sabbath legislation 15,25).

The command to separate [from their wives] and the setting up of boundaries. [Rashi knows this] because it says afterwards (v. 4), “He arose early in the morning, and built an altar beneath the mountain,” and that must have been on the 5th day, as Rashi explained earlier in Parshas Yisro. Therefore, what he told the people was one day earlier, on the 4th day, as Rashi explained above that the mitzvah of separation was told to them on the 4th day. The Re’m was puzzled by this, for in Gemara Shabbos (86a) it is clear that according to all opinions, Moshe told them the mitzvah of setting up boundaries on the 3rd of the month, and they separated from their wives on the 4th. Yet from Rashi here, we see that both these mitzvos were on the 4th. The Re’m left this unresolved. The Gur Aryeh writes that the Re’m did not analyze this sufficiently. For [these mitzvos] were surely told to them on the 3rd of the month, but the actual separation was only on the 4th of the month. He brought a proof for this; see what he wrote there.

כל הדברים אשר דבר ה' נעשה. The word נעשה, “we will do,” here includes all the commandments of the Lord, negative commandments as well as positive ones, the ones requiring an exertion, an activity. The reason why this is not a misnomer is that if someone refrains from violating a negative commandment he is considered as having “performed” a commandment, i.e the commandment not to violate G’d’s legislation in that matter. We have a complete verse confirming this in Psalms 119,3 אף לא פעלו עולה, בדרכיו הלכו, “they have done no wrong, but have followed His ways.” In other words, not doing evil is considered equivalent to doing good.

V. 3. ויבא משה, von der ערפל-Nähe (Kap. 20, 18), wo er die bisherigen Gesetze empfangen hatte, um sie dem Volke zu überbringen und dann, der Weisung gemäß, mit Aaron und einer Elite des Volkes wieder den Berg hinanzutreten. — ויספר ist nicht der gewöhnliche Ausdruck für die Überbringung von Befehlen, ist vielmehr die Darstellung von Ereignissen. Auf Gesetze angewendet, kann es nur eine über den bloßen Wortlaut hinausgehende Darstellung der durch die Gesetzgebung zu verwirklichenden Verhältnisse bezeichnen, umfasst somit die Gesetzesnorm in ihrer Vollständigkeit für die Praxis, also תשב׳׳ב und תשב׳׳פ, das niedergeschriebene Gesetz und dessen mündliche Erläuterung.

ויבא משה, “Moses arrived, etc;” in the camp of the Israelites, after descending from the Mountain. He proceeded to tell the people all that G-d had told him, commencing with the words: 19,4) אתם ראיתם) up to now.” There follows: 24,4) וישכם בבקר) until ויאכלו וישתו, “they ate and they drank” (verse 11) something that occurred on the fifth day of Sivan as I have explained on the relevant verse in Parshat Yitro. (19,15)

את כל דברי ה׳ ALL THE WORDS OF THE LORD — the commands concerning their keeping apart from women and the setting of bounds at Mount Sinai.

ואת כל המשפטים AND ALL THE JUDGMENTS which had been ordained before the Sinaitic legislation: the seven commands given to the “Sons of Noah” (the non-Israelite world), the law of the Sabbath, of filial respect, of the “red heifer” and regarding the administration of justice, all of which had been given to them already in Marah (cf. Sanhedrin 56b).