Parshas
Yisro and the Ten Commandments2
Dovid
Eidensohn
We have previously released a study of Yisro
himself and two of the Ten Commandments mentioned in the Sedra. Now we want to
return to the first of the Ten Commandments to study a very innovative finding
of Rashi who is a master at dikduke and knows every word in the books of the
Torah with all of the grammar. Rabbeinu Tam a descendant of Rashi said that he
could compose a book on the Talmud as did Rashi, but not a book on the Torah.
Rashi there notes that the beginning of
the first of the Ten Commands is אנכי
השם אלקיך where the third word is written in the singular
so that the three words say not “I am the L-d your (plural) G-d” but the
singular “I am the L-d your (singular) G-d.” Meaning, that the Ten Commandments
were given not to the Jewish people but to Moshe.
This of course agreed with the opinion
mention in our previous piece from the Kli Yokor that the Jews heard the Ten
Commandments from Moshe and not HaShem. It would also seem to be proven by the
passage in Yisro[1] that
the Jews at Sinai heard before the giving of the Ten Commandments terrible
sounds or voices, saw lightning, heard the sound of a blowing Shofar and
noticed that Mr. Sinai was smoking.
They told Moshe, “You speak to us not
HaShem lest we die.” Nothing was mentioned about HaShem giving the Ten
Commandments, which could indicate what Rashi says, that HaShem gave the Ten
Commandments only to Moshe and not to the Jewish people.
Possibly, the voices that terrified them
could have been HaShem saying the Ten Commandments. But since the Ten
Commandments contain the entire Torah, and the Jews being terrified by other
things, and being terrified by the way HaShem spoke to them something they had
never experienced, they simply died with nothing of the Ten Commandments. They
therefore turned to Moshe that he teach it to them, with his large group of assistant
teachers as mentioned before in Yisro, who encouraged Moshe to hire them.
If so, we have another problem. If the
Jews could not assimilate the Torah from HaShem’s speaking for the above
reasons, but heard it from Moshe, was this hearing from Moshe equal to hearing it
from HaShem? If not, if Jews hear the Torah from Moshe, is that invalid? Obviously,
Torah is always taught by prophets such as Moshe and Yeshayeh. And their words
are often not biblical words but words and commands that are not part of the 613
commands of the bible commanded by HaShem. But even if they are not
individually Torah teachings of the 613 commands, they have the status of the Torah
that we must follow their commands.
A proof to this is that when HaShem
realized that the Jews had built a Golden Calf that was an idol and that some
Jews were worshipping it, he told Moshe to leave heaven and go back to the Jews
because there was trouble there. Moshe went, smashed the Tablets of the Ten Commandments
HaShem had made and destroyed the Golden Calf. He then called up “Who is for
HaShem come to me” and the tribe of Levi who only learned Torah in Egypt and
did not sin gathered to him, with swords, to obey when Moshe commanded them to
kill those who had worshipped the Golden Calf. Thousands of Jews were killed.
Moshe commanded this in the Name of
HaShem, who had never said this. But when a senior Rov makes a ruling to
protect the Jews from becoming wicked, this is a valid Torah procedure. This is
taught in Rambam Morech Nevuchim and the Rashbo and was used by the Gaon Reb
Elchonon Wasserman senior disciple of the Chofetz Chaim when he was in
Baltimore raising money for his Yeshiva. He once received from somebody a large
sum of money for his Yeshiva. The man explained that it was raised from a mixed
dance of men and women. Reb Elchonon immediately returned the money and
explained that the Rambam and Rasho ruled that when somebody or a group of Jews
act in a matter that could lead Jews to sin we may kill them. The proof is from
a group of Jews just after the time of Moshe who gathered to serve HaShem in a
new kind of way that the senior rabbis felt was dangerous for the religious
behavior of other Jews and threatened them with an army and they accepted not
to do it. Surely to do a mitsvah with mixed dancing is a terrible sin, and many
rabbis signed a letter forbidding mixed
dancing.
No comments:
Post a Comment