NEXT DAY, MOSES SAT AS MAGISTRATE AMONG THE PEOPLE, WHILE THE PEOPLE STOOD ABOUT MOSES FROM MORNING UNTIL EVENING. BUT WHEN MOSES' FATHER-IN-LAW SAW HOW MUCH HE HAD TO DO FOR THE PEOPLE, HE SAID, "WHAT IS THIS THING THAT YOU ARE DOING TO THE PEOPLE? WHY DO YOU SIT ALONE, WHILE ALL THE PEOPLE STAND ABOUT YOU FROM MORNING UNTIL EVENING?

(Shemot 18:13-14)

 

 

From morning until evening - Is it really possible to say so - [that Moses sat the whole day long?] But [the explanation is that] any judge who gives a rightful decision as truth demands it, even though [he spends] but one hour [on it], Scripture accounts it to him as though he had occupied himself with the Torah the whole day long, and as though he became co-partner with the Holy One, blessed be He, in the work of Creation of which it is stated, It was evening and it was morning, one day (Bereishit 1:5).

(Rashi on Shemot 18:14, Silbermann translation)

 

The "Law of Man" Preceded the Giving of the Torah

...and do not be troubled by the question of how Moses judged the people before the Torah was given. Many laws are deducible by human reason even when they are not commanded, such as [the prohibition of] theft, robbery, perjury, and the like. And had they not already received the commandments of Shabbat, and circumcision, and [the prohibition of] human bloodshed, and all of the other rational commandments which are called the "law of man," or "the seven Noahide laws?" Moses spent the whole day applying those laws.

(R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio, Italy 19^th cent.)

 

 

From Servitude to Treasured People

Rami Pinchower

The sharp transition from Shabbat Shira to Shabbat Matan Torah best symbolizes Israel's great and instantaneous transformation from a people whose fate and daily life were determined by the Egyptian master, to that of freed slaves, who have apparently gained autonomy.

The first moments of liberation are moments of happiness and elation, but the moments following them are "as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea." The Shawshank Redmption is an excellent film version of Stephen King's novel, which portrays the brutality of American prison-life in the 1940s and 1950s. A memorable scene shows us the release of one of the film's heroes after decades of terrible incarceration. After a short time, he feels himself incapable of contending with an environment of freedom, and longs to return to awful yet familiar prison existence. Trapped, he ends his own life.

The Israelites passed through a similar process. As soon as their singing ended, they forgot the horrors of enslavement and the great miracles that had occurred in Egypt and during the Exodus from it. All of the wonders they had witnessed by the sea were wiped from their consciousness. They encountered a problem and were immediately struck with feelings of helplessness. All they could do was to cry out and complain to Moses Why did you take us up from Egypt... (Shemot 17:3). They had left Egypt for but a few hours, leaving their drudgery behind them, bursting into euphoric song, and then they were already longing to return to the "warm" and familiar embrace of servitude.

The solution arrives immediately: So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet. There He made for them a fixed rule, and there He put them to the test (15:25). In the Mekhiltah and Tanhuma, the Sages ponder the question which kind of tree gave the sweetening wood. The "deep darshanim" of the Mekhilta offer a wonderful derasha: "He showed him words of Torah, which are compared to a tree, for it is said, It is a tree of life for those who grasp it (Proverbs 3:18)" (Mekhilta Beshalah, Horowitz-Rabin edition, pg. 156). As soon as one's life gains meaning, the moment Torah enters one's life, one's attitude towards life changes. The bitter waters become living waters, and perhaps even bitter people become sweet. (See R. Levi in Tanhuma VaYakhel 9). It might be said that this derasha almost gives the plain meaning of the passage. There are two pieces of evidence for this claim. First: The word vayoreihu [He instructed him] is used, rather than vayira'eihu [He showed him] (as noticed by R. Shimon bar Yohai in the Mekhiltah and Tanhuma). Second: A fixed rule was given to them, along with the water. As it says: and the water became sweet. There He made for them a fixed rule, and there He put them to the test. According to the "deep darshanim" the word there refers to in the water.

However, only a few days passed before the complaints resumed, stronger than ever. It seems that the localized therapy did not produce a wonder-cure.

That short bit of experienced showed the Holy One blessed be He that a nation which had grown accustomed to the yoke of slavery over hundreds of years becomes incapable of freeing itself from it. That nation requires a new yoke; it needs responsibilities, a fixed rule. Lacking direction from above to set out what is permissible and what is forbidden, man will lose his way. The transition from euphoria to despair, from eminence to abasement, from a unique moment of song - be it ever so glorious - to the grind of daily life can be sudden and painful if it falls upon a person unprepared, upon one who lacks the tools for contending with transition.

How can this crisis be transformed into a far-reaching source of positive impetus in one's life? How is the newly freed slave to be fitted with a non-threatening yoke of obligation?

Here we reach the event which Prof. M. D. Cassuto referred to as "the climax of the entire book... its central and most elevated concern; everything preceding it came as a preparation, everything following it is its outcome and supplementation."

According to the original plan explained to Moses during his consecration at the burning bush, God promised him that one day You [plural] shall worship God on this mountain (Shemot 3:12). The unspecified term worship does not specify the nature of future events. However, when the day does arrive, Israel experiences its foundational event - the theophany at Sinai and the reception of the Ten Commandments.

What is it about the Ten Commandments that makes them the "central and most elevated concern?" "After all, there is not a single duty or prohibition included among the Ten Commandments (excepting You shall not covet) which does not appear in similar form elsewhere in the Torah." (So Prof. Weinfeld asks in his article, "Aseret ha'Dibrot - Yihudam U'mekomam Be'masoret Yisrael" in the volume Aseret Ha'Dibrot Be'Re'ee Ha'Dorot). Prof. Weinfeld responds to his own question:

The commands of the Ten Commandments are formulated in a succinct and precise fashion. They are universal, timeless, categorical, incumbent upon each and every individual, regardless of situation or circumstances. The commands are formulated in the present, as if they were directed personally to each individual, and they do not include abstract moral principles. The Ten Commandments are concrete commands. They constitute the essence of the demands made by the God of Israel upon those who have entered His covenant, commands that include, in the first section, particularistic commandments stemming from Israel's special relationship with its God, and in the second part, commandments of a social and ethical nature.

There is no doubt that the unusual formulation of the Ten Commandments is only a part of their uniqueness. The event itself is no less important, both in its preparative stages and especially in the moment in which God spoke directly to each and every Israelite from every generation: I am the Lord your God, making the event into an eternal covenant between God and His people. If Moses was sanctified at the burning bush, all of Israel was sanctified at Mount Sinai. (That is the reason why the story of Jeremiah's sanctification was chosen as the haftorah for parashat Shemot, in which Moses was sanctified and the story of Isaiah's sanctification was chosen to serve as the haftorah for parashat Yitro.) The descent to Egypt begins with God's personal revelation to Jacob, I am the God, God of your father, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt (Bereishit 46:3), and it ends with a very similarly phrased communal revelation to all of Jacob's children of all the generations: I am the Lord your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt... This is the transition from a personal covenant between God and the Patriarchs to a covenant between God and the entire nation.

This covenant re-inserts the nation of freed slaves into an obligatory framework; it establishes limits to their freedom, allowing them to become treasured from among the nations - only if they uphold their part of the covenant.

Rami Pinchover in an engineer

 

And you shall be for me... (Shemot 19:5) - That you shall be available for Me and occupied with Torah, not busy with other things. ... a treasure... - as a person favors his special treasure, so I shall favor you. R. Yehoshua ben Korha says: Take note! A wife is unconditionally tied to her husband, and a son to his father, and a slave to his master, and a maidservant to her mistress. Could it be that you are unconditionally bound to me? [No], we learn from the verse: ... for all the land is mine.

 (Mekhiltah parashat Ba'Hodesh 2)

 

Yitro's Advice and the Giving of the Torah

Parashat Yitro does not begin with the giving of the Torah and the revelation at Sinai, but rather with the arrival of Moses' father-in-law, Yitro, to Moses and the Israelite camp, and with the advice he gave Moses, in accordance with which Moses instituted a system of national government by appointing captains over thousands, and over hundreds to serve as judges and magistrates.

This matter must be considered from a number of standpoints. The passage implies that Moses did not originally intend to appoint a system of national administration. Rather, he intended the people to be administered by divine inspiration as transmitted through him - the man who knew God face to face. He also attempted to execute this plan. We read that he sat from morning until evening, judging the people through the holy spirit within him.

Later he was to learn from his gentile father-in-law - who had drawn near to Israel - that even divinely instructed leadership required human instruments, drawn from the skills and abilities present within human beings themselves. And so human beings are appointed to administer and judge the people. They must posses very high moral qualities - men of valor, God-fearing, men of truth, who hate [ill-gotten] gain (Shemot 18:21). These are rare human qualities, but they are human qualities. It is not demanded of them to be infused with divine inspiration.

Thus, the Torah leaves administration and jurisprudence in the hands of human beings to the extent of their knowledge and understanding of God's Torah and their desire to preserve that Torah.

(From Prof. Yishayahu Leibowitz z"l's comments on the parshiyot)

 

And Moses conveyed the peoples' message to God: Did Moses have to convey their message!? Rather, here the Torah teaches good manners; Moses conveyed the response to He Who had sent him, for Moses said: "Even though He certainly knows, I shall convey the response to He Who sent me."

(Mekhilta, Yitro, Massekhet De'ba'Hodesh, 2)

 

Before they pray, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will respond (Isaiah 66:24). That is: The blessed Lord answers and decides to fulfill the righteous man's request before he calls; the righteous stands pleading before God, unaware that He has already answered him. God hears his voice and, as it were, is pleased by his words and listens to his voice, even though He had already decided to save before being called.

(R. Tzvi Elimelekh Mi'Dinov, Iggeret de'Kallah 202b)

 

You shall have no other gods before Me

And you serve other gods (Devarim). Could they really be gods? Does it not say, and have their gods committed to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but man's handiwork of wood and stone (Isaiah 37:19)? And why are they called other gods? Because they cause those who worship them to be different.

Another view: Why were they called other gods? Because they are separated from those who worship them, and so it says, If they cry out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save them from their distress (Isaiah 47:7).

(Sifrei Eikev 43)

 

...and it further appears that this precise language addresses the fact that a king or magistrate may also be referred to as elohim ["god"], and it is permitted and proper for one to recognize the authority of such an elohim. Only the recognition of a spiritual providence is forbidden, that is to say, a leader in heaven - this is the point of the words before Me.

(Ha'Amek Davar on Shemot 20:3)

 

 

 

 

 

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