“saying” by the simultaneous people
עתה ידעתי כי גדול ה’ מכל האלקים, כי בדבר אשר זדו עליהם.
Now I know that G-d is greater than all powers: because that which they [the Egyptians] prepared [wickedly] was the actual thing prepared against them.[i]
Question
The Anomalies of Revelation
The giving of the Torah is the singular, pivotal event of Jewish history. However, an analysis of the Prasha brings us to two questions: one regarding the method of the revelation, and one regarding the introduction to the revelation.
- The Simultaneous Utterance
Rashi notes a contradiction in the verses. The introductory verse[ii] states את כל הדברים האלה לאמר – that G-d spoke all these words, implying a simultaneous delivery. However, thereafter the Torah starts listing them individually. The explanation is that G-d initially stated all Ten Commandments[1] in a single, simultaneous utterance—something the human ear cannot normally process – and only afterward began repeating them one by one.
The Difficulty: If G-d intended to repeat them individually so the people could understand, what was the purpose of the initial simultaneous blast? Furthermore, the people eventually[iii] begged Moshe to intervene because they could not physically handle the revelation, to which G-d agreed. Why then did G-d begin with a method (simultaneous speech) that was vastly beyond their capacity?
- The Yisro Preface
The Torah chooses to preface the event of Mount Sinai with the arrival of Yisro. Specifically, the Torah highlights three distinct aspects of this introduction:
- His Conversion: He וישמע ויבא – heard and came,[iv] joining[2] the Jewish people from the outside.
- His Blessing: He declared[v], ברוך ה’ אשר הציל אתכם וגו’ – Boruĉ Hashem who saved you, a praise that the Gemara[vi] [in the name of Rabbi Papyus] notes even Moshe and the myriads of Jews had failed to make.
- His Advice: He restructured the leadership into a hierarchy of judges (a legal system).[vii]
The Difficulty: Why are these three specific elements the necessary introduction to the giving of the Torah? In other words, why does the Giving of the Torah – Divine Wisdom – depend on the conversion of a pagan priest, his specific wording of thanks, and his bureaucratic advice on creating a judiciary?
Expanding the Question
The Cycle of Death and Revival
The difficulty regarding the method of revelation is compounded when we look at the Midrashic description of what occurred during those moments. The Gemara[viii] teaches ‘with every single utterance that went forth from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, the souls of the Jewish people departed’. Their physical bodies could not contain the intensity of the Divine revelation, and they essentially died. G-d then had to revive them with the Dew of Resurrection so they could hear the next commandment.
After this happened twice[3] (for אנכי and לא יהיה לך), the people could no longer endure it. They turned to Moshe and begged[ix]: דבר אתה עמנו ונשמעה, ואל ידבר עמנו אלקים פן נמות. G-d acquiesced to this request[x], and for the remaining eight commandments, Moshe received the word and relayed it to the people.
The Strategy of Simultaneity
This sequence sheds light on the purpose of the initial “Simultaneous Utterance.” Presumably, G-d – who knows the future – was fully aware that the people would not be able to physically withstand his direct speech. He knew they would die, be revived, and eventually demand that Moshe serve as an intermediary.
Therefore, G-d opened the revelation by stating all ten commandments simultaneously. By doing so, he ensured that the people heard the entirety of the Ten Commandments directly from him before they had the chance to succumb to their frailty and interrupt the process. Had he started one-by-one, they would have stopped him after the second one (as they indeed did), and they never would have heard the other eight from G-d directly.
The Core Difficulty: However, this strategy only makes the question stronger:
- Futility: What is the value of hearing something that kills you? If the human vessel is incapable of containing the revelation, what is achieved by forcing it in?
- Purpose: If the goal was for them to וחי בהם – to live by them[xi], why introduce it through a mechanism that causes the opposite of life?
- Contrast: As we know, this speech of the Ten Commandments, which caused the death of the people, stands in stark contrast to the Ten Utterances used in the original creation of the world, where the fact of G-d’s speech created life, as it says in the verse[xii] כי הוא צוה ונבראו – as he commanded they were created, and more specifically, the Utterance which gave rise to and continues to create mankind, namely[xiii] נעשה אדם – let Us make mankind. Why does the speech of the Ten Commandments – which parallel that of Creation – cause the recipients to die[4]?
Exploring the Question
The Parallel between עשרת הדברות and עשרה מאמרות
As we noted, there is a parallel between the עשרת הדברות – the Ten Commandments – the foundation for the Torah, given at Mt Sinai to the Jewish people, and the עשרה מאמרות – the Ten Utterances by which G-d created the universe.
This is discussed in Kabbala based on the verse[xiv] עשרה עשרה הכף בשקל הקדש – that each Commandment was given to correspond to a particular Utterance:
- אנכי ה’ אלקיך – I am G-d, your personal Almighty being, corresponds to יהי אור – Let there be light.
- לא יהיה לך – There shall not be for you other gods, corresponds to יהי רקיע בתוך המים – Let there be a separation between the ‘upper waters’ [holiness] and the ‘lower waters’ [the mundane]. Similarly, this Commandment is the prohibition of Idolatry which separates the Divine from the mundane.
- לא תשא את שם ה’ אלקיך לשוא – Do not take the name of G-d, your personal Almighty being, in vain, corresponds to יקוו המים – Let the waters be gathered, by establishing boundaries for the sea. Taking G-d’s name in vain breaches the boundaries of sanctity.
- זכור את יום השבת – Remember[5] the day of Shabbos, corresponds to תדשא הארץ דשא – Let the earth sprout forth vegetation. The entire purpose of the growth of food and sustenance in the world is for the purpose of Shabbos, and in turn, Shabbos is the sustenance of the world.
- כבד את אביך ואת אמך – Honor your father and your mother, corresponds to יהי מארת ברקיע השמים – Let there be luminaries in the sky above. Just as the luminaries provide light and guidance throughout the year, so too one’s parents’ guide the next generation, and illuminate their path through life.
- לא תרצח – Do not murder, corresponds to ישרצו המים – Let the waters swarm [with life]. As G-d commanded life to exist, do not murder that life.
- לא תנאף – Do not commit adultery, corresponds to תוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה – Let the earth bring forth living [animals] who will [reproduce] in accordance with their species. As G-d commanded that each animal should stick with its own, so too people must remain faithful with their own and not seek out another’s spouse.
- לא תגנב – Do not steal[6], corresponds to נעשה אדם בצלמנו – Let us make mankind in Our image. Just as G-d is the source of all sustenance, and needs to steal from no one, so too we are commanded to refrain from stealing, as doing so corrupts the form in which we were created – the image of G-d.
- לא תענה ברעך עד שקר – Do not bear false witness on another, corresponds to הנה נתתי לכם את כל – Behold I have given to you everything. Testifying falsely leads to an improper distribution of property. Just as G-d properly distributes his world and its resources, so too we are commanded to refrain from testifying falsely to redistribute resources improperly.[xv]
- לא תחמד – Do not desire [that which is not yours], corresponds to לא טוב היות האדם לבדו אעשה לו עזר כנגדו – It is not beneficial for mankind to be alone, I shall make for him a helpmate counterpart. Just as you were provided with that which is appropriate for you, accordingly you should not desire that which is not appropriate for you.
The Nature of G-d’s Speech
With the above correlation in mind between the Ten Commandments and the Ten Utterances, several additional points need to be understood:
In the context of the creation of the world, speech is the mechanism of reality-building. When G-d says, ‘Let there be light’, he isn’t conveying information. That statement is what creates existence out of non-existence, as explained in Tanya, that statement remains suspended moment by moment continuing to bring light into existence out of non-existence.
In contract, the speech euphemism in prophecy, and in relating the Mitzvos throughout the Torah, is a means of conveying information and explaining what G-d wants from those he is communicating with. It does not create the reality being addressed, it relays information about the reality.
- If the Ten Commandments are truly parallel to the Ten Utterances, what reality was created thereby? The world is already spoken into being by the Ten Utterances. What creation is being added by the Ten Commandments.[7]
The Time Differential
There is also the discrepancy between the two, between the Ten Commandments and the Ten Utterances, in terms of the time taken to say them:
- The Ten Utterances were recited over the course of a week, as if allowing the creation of the world to acclimate itself into a state of existence,
- While the Ten Commandments were uttered simultaneously – in a single supernatural blast that transcended time.
If the Commandments truly paralleled the Utterances, why was the method of delivery inverted. The opposite should have occurred:
- Creation of the physical world is a process of ex nihilo, time has no bearing on creation, because time too is a creation. Therefore, the Ten Utterances should have been said in a single supernatural blast.
- The issuance of Commandments to the Jewish people refers to experiences that will occur throughout an individual’s lifetime, and on a global level throughout all of history. Therefore, it should be more appropriate to stretch out the Commandments.[8]
In other words, why did physical creation require a process of time elapsed, while the spiritual re-creation of the Ten Commandments require a collapse of time.
The Contrast of Vitality
As noted above, the effect of these two sets of sayings were different. The statement by G-d of נעשה אדם actually created man and brought him forth to life. It animated an otherwise unimportant clod of earth and breathed life into it – the kind of life that is greater than all the rest of creation. On the other hand, when it came to the Ten Commandments, the exact opposite occurred. When G-d spoke to the people, the Midrash tells us that ‘their souls flew out of their bodies’. The speech of G-d didn’t sustain them, it killed them. How then can the statement of אנכי ה’ אלקיך be a parallel to נעשה אדם.
Foundational Principles
בשעה שעלה משה למרום – When Moshe argued with the Angels
The Midrash relates, that when Moshe ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, there was an argument between Moshe and the angels:
Ministering Angels: What is a born-from-a-woman doing amongst us?
Moshe: I came to receive the Torah.
Ministering Angels: You have this precious treasure hidden, and you want to give it to flesh and blood? תנה הודך על השמים – place your glory in heaven.[xvi]
The angels put forth a claim that the Torah, the manifestation of the aspect of Divine Wisdom, belongs in the spiritual realms. G-d accepted they had standing to present their case and told Moshe to issue his response.
Moshe’s responded with three counterpoints[xvii]:
- Experience; Did you descend to Egypt? Why should you get the Torah.
- Capacity; Do you engage in labor that requires rest on Shabbos? Or for that matter, any of the activities about which the Torah commands.
- Nature; Do you have an evil inclination that requires Mitzvos to counter that nature, e.g. jealousy, desires, etc.
These arguments were accepted by the Ministering Angels, and they conceded Moshe’s (and by proxy, the Jewish people’s) claim to the Torah.
This exchange is perplexing. The angels are beings of pure intellect and spirit. When they asked for the Torah, they were obviously not requesting the physical scroll or the commandment to put on leather Tefillin. They desired the spiritual essence of the Torah—the Divine Wisdom as it exists in the supernal worlds.
If so, Moshe’s argument seems irrelevant. Why would pointing out that angels don’t have an “Evil Inclination” or “nine-to-five job” matter to beings who wanted the spiritual version of the Torah? Moshe seemingly answered a claim they didn’t make.
Moshe’s successful counterclaim though was based on the purpose of the Torah. Prior to Matan Torah, the world functioned. There were righteous individuals, for example, Noaĉ, Shem, and Avraham, who performed morally good deeds and followed the “precepts of their hearts.” However, these actions, while good, did not render the world holy. They were human acts of morality that refined the person and those they interacted with but did not infuse the physical world with Divinity. Tefillin used by Yaakov could be thrown into the trough when he was done with them; they retained no sanctity.
The giving of the Torah was intended to change that status quo. The goal was world transformation. The Torah was given so that a mundane object (animal hide) could become a holy object (Tefillin). It was given so that a physical act (eating) could become a Divine service (Sacrifices / Kashrus). Its entire function is to elevate the physical reality into a dwelling place for G-d.
This is why Moshe’s counterargument was accepted. He argued that the primary definition of Torah is not “Wisdom” but “Lessons” – תורה מלשון הוראה. Torah is there to impart itself into the world and change it. If the Torah were to remain in the spiritual realms, and not this world, its ultimate purpose would not be realized.
Moshe defined three areas where the giving-of-the-Torah transformation occurs:
- History (Time): Transforming the chaotic series of human events (including for example the slavery in Egypt) into a Divine narrative of redemption and transformation.
- Action (World): Transforming mundane material into objects infused with holiness. Where even the mundane workweek, regardless of what honest labor is being performed, can be transformed into a component of the Shabbos cycle. And even the skin of a dead cow, when made into Tefillin, becomes an object of holiness on which one can swear in G-d’s name.
- Nature (Soul): Transforming the base human animal (the Evil Inclination / the Animal Soul) into a disciplined servant of G-d.
The angels can possess the wisdom of the Torah and can understand the Torah on greater levels than most humans, but they cannot perform even the ‘smallest’ Mitzva. Which is why, when Jews study Torah, angels listen.[xviii]
Answer
A New Creation
This basis provides us with the understanding necessary to answer the questions above.
The Ten Commandments were said specifically to reflect[9] the Ten Utterances, because the giving of the Torah was in effect the ‘second act’ of creation:
- At first, Creation was accomplished by the Ten Utterances, which creates a natural world, defined by boundaries, time and separation.
- This new Second (Transformed) Creation was accomplished by the Ten Commandments, which creates a holy world, defined by the ability to merge divinity with the mundane. That which is beyond nature, within nature.
The Fusion of Time
This explains why G-d spoke all Ten Commandments simultaneously. When G-d created the physical world, he took a week to do so, because the defining feature of nature is ‘process’ and ‘time’. By taking the week to speak the Utterances, he defined the Utterances as being subject to time.
However, at Sinai, G-d chose to infuse that natural world with a supernatural capacity. He embeds “Divinity” (which is above time) into “Nature” (which is time-bound). To do so, he compressed the entire Torah into a single, simultaneous blast. This forced the entire Torah into a single moment, a moment which does not end, but is stretched throughout the universe and throughout time. The same incomprehensible blast continues to be spoken in this moment, and in every moment when Torah is studied and Commandments are used to infuse the world with holiness.
Incidentally, this concept of simultaneous speech is not just preserved in the Ten Commandments by G-d as something that is ‘over our heads’. It is also somewhat effectuated by the Jewish people in our performance of the Mitzva of Shabbos. Unique among the Ten Commandments, is e Mitzvah of Shabbos: שמור וזכור בדבור אחד – both aspects of the dual Commandment giving us the Mitzva of Shabbos was perceived simultaneously. And a Jew’s actions in this world reflects that simultaneity – we conduct ourselves in a manner of ששת ימים תעבוד, but the actuality is that these workdays are only preparations for Shabbos. Shabbos, the seventh day, is only observed as a Mitzva because we work six days a week beforehand. Otherwise, there would be no rest on Shabbos.[10]
The Necessity of Death
This also resolves the paradox of why the people died each time G-d spoke. With each commandment, G-d was not just teaching them; He was recreating them. He was transforming them from Egyptian slaves (wholly mundane) into Divinely infused beings (wholly holy).
As the Divine energy flooded their bodies, their mundane existence – their “natural” life force held in common with all of humanity – was overwhelmed and ceased to exist. They “died” because a finite vessel cannot survive a sudden infusion of infinity.
In fact, this transformation was so profound that it rewired their physical senses; they were able to see sound and hear light. In the natural world, physical things are seen and deemed real, while the spiritual world is only something we hear about. During the giving of the Torah, this natural state became inverted. We saw (perceived as real) the spiritual realm (that which is normally heard), and we heard about (perceived in an abstract fashion) the physical world (that which is normally seen).
But this presented a problem: If their souls remained in that state of elevation, disconnected with the mundane, they would become like Moshe, an איש האלקים – a man of G-d,[xix] whose face glowed like the sun to the point where he needed to wear a veil so as to not blind people,[xx] and who did not need food or drink for forty (40) days. They would become physical angels.
The Problem with Angels: As Moshe established in his response to the angels, an angelic being cannot fulfill the purpose of the Torah. If the Jews became angelic like Moshe, they would be too holy to interact with the world.
Therefore, their “death” and subsequent revival, followed by requesting that Moshe serve as an intermediary, was the only way for them to fulfill their purpose. They experienced the type of perception that only Moshe had previously experienced but were then revived to a level where they could remain [mostly] human.
Thus, the Ten Commandments “created” the Jewish People: A unique species that is biologically human (Ten Utterances) but spiritually Divine (Ten Commandments), capable of walking the bridge between heaven and earth and bringing G-d into this world.
Contextual Summary
The Prototype of Transformation
This brings us back to Yisro, and the three components necessary to introduce[11] the giving of the Torah, because he is the living embodiment of this entire process.
Initially, Yisro was the high(est) priest of idolatry.[12] He was an advisor to Pharaoh. He represented the ‘lower waters,’ the furthest thing from holiness – that we are commanded to be specifically separated against.
- Yisro changed his nature.
When Yisro converted, he didn’t just abandon his past; he elevated it. He used his intimate knowledge of paganism (“Now I know G-d is greater than all gods“) to praise Hashem with a depth that even Moshe and the entirety of the Jewish people hadn’t articulated – ברוך השם.
This is why Yisro was the first to say ברוך השם. Until Yisro, the Jews saw G-d as being above nature (Ten Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea). They praised G-d for being that exalted – כי גאה גאה. Yisro, however, saw G-d acting from within the natural world. He marveled at how “in the very matter they conspired”, G-d utilized nature itself to bring about justice. He understood that the goal isn’t to escape the world like Angels, but to ברוך – bring the holiness of G-d down into the thickness of the human drama and trauma the people had experienced.
- Yisro changed history[13].
And finally, Yisro was not content with his personal transformation, nor even with his participation in Jewish history[14], he sought to make a change in the most mundane of the mundane – creating a legal system to deal with monetary disputes etc.
- Yisro changed the mundane physical world.
AND THEREFORE…
When G-d prefaced his statement of the Ten Commandments, he used the term לאמר – to repeat to others, and to relay the message.
This term is normally reserved for the commands issued to Moshe who was to relay these commands to the people in the form of Mitzvos and Torah.
Here though, the Commandments are not being said to Moshe, but to the entirety of the Jewish people, reverberating throughout time and unending. We are being told to bring these statements by G-d and use them to create a world where divinity is recognized and welcome. Where G-d feels at home.
The goosebumps you feel as G-d speaks to you are not meant to scare you, but to empower you. To feel physically G-d’s presence as you change yourself, the world around you and all of history. We are the Simultaneous people, the divinely chosen, living in the mundane world.
ברוך השם you were chosen!
[1] For the ease of the English reader, the עשרת הדברות are translated here as Ten Commandments because that is how they have become popularized. However, a correct translation of the phrase is Ten Sayings.
Perhaps, because the Jewish people are ‘prophets the sons of prophets’, even when speaking in foreign languages, we tend to convey hidden meaning. As our sages taught, all of the Mitzvos are included in the Ten Commandments, and perhaps that is why we call them commandments in English.
[2] This is derived from the multiple offerings listed in the Torah [Shemos 18:12], specifically, עולה וזבחים. A Noaĉide is only supposed to offer the Burnt Offerings. Since there were two types of offerings brought, commentaries explain that he converted.
[3] Interestingly, the common presumption is that this did not occur when G-d recited all Ten Commandments simultaneously. Presumably because this was so far beyond human comprehension that it ‘went over their heads’.
[4] Especially because later prophecies, even those given to the evil Bill’am, did not cause them to die, even though Bill’am notes that in order to receive prophecy he had to fall on the ground, because he was uncircumcised – still, he didn’t die.
[5] A better translation for this is ‘Toast’, which is a remembrance performed over a cup of wine or other drinks, which is why this is the source of the Mitzva to recite Kiddush.
[6] This is commonly understood to prohibit kidnapping, which is why I feel it more appropriately aligns with נעשה אדם בצלמנו, because, by stealing a human, one reduces them from a person to an object – effectively removing the image of G-d from them.
[7] Especially considering Rashi’s commentary on [Devarim 5:19] ולא יסף – that G-d’s recital of the Ten Commandments has not ended but continue to this day, just like the Tanya explains about the Ten Utterances. Perhaps, that is why there is a common saying that ‘Matan Torah will not happen again’ – because it is still ongoing.
[8] And indeed, that is actually what occurred with the Jewish people. The majority of the six hundred and thirteen (613) Mitzvos were not given all at once. Rather, over their forty (40) years’ time in the wilderness, the Mitzvos were gradually added until upon entering the land of Israel, all of them had been commanded.
[9] Like a face looking into a still pond, the face is reflected back to the viewer. See commentaries on Mishley 27:19 כמים הפנים לפנים
[10] Not to mention there wouldn’t be any cholent either.
[11] Even according to the opinion that Yisro arrived chronologically after the giving of the Torah, the Torah still feels it necessary to include these events as a literary introduction to the giving of the Torah.
[12] Rashi notes that he was proficient and had served every single form of idolatry available to him. This is why he is also named פוטיאל [Shemos 6:25] because he would fatten calves for idolatry.
[13] And Yisro himself was part of that change in history – it was his advice, given to counter Bill’am’s advice, that saved Moshe from being killed as an infant, when Moshe took the Pharaoh’s crown and placed it on his own head.
[14] And later, when the Jews were proceeding to the land of Israel, Yisro went even further. He went back to his homeland to influence the people there to monotheism.
[i] Shemos 18:11
[ii] Shemos 20:1
[iii] Shemos 20:16
[iv] Shemos 18:1 – see commentaries explaining מה שמוע שמע
[v] Shemos 18:10
[vi] Gem. Sanhedrin 94a
[vii] Shemos 18:19
[viii] Gem. Shabbos 88b
[ix] Shemos 20:16
[x] As indicative in Moshe’s response Shemos 20:17, and as reiterated later in Devarim 5:25
[xi] Vayikra 18:5, See Gem. Yoma 85b and other places.
[xii] Tehillim 148:5
[xiii] Beraishis 1:26
[xiv] Bamidbar 7:86
[xv] Some commentaries have 8 and 9 in reverse order.
[xvi] Tehillim 8:2
[xvii] Paraphrased. See the Midrash for the full text.
[xviii] See commentaries on Shir HaShirim 8:13 חברים מקשיבים לקולך where the חברים are defined as the angels.
[xix] Devarim 33:1
[xx] Shemos 34:29-35