Shemos Chapter 20 – Transcript

Transcript: Exodus Chapter 20 – The Aseret HaDibrot and Divine Communication at Sinai

Structure of Chapter 20

Sefer Shemot is chapter 20. This chapter has two main parts. One is the Aseret HaDibrot, a very famous part. And the second one is another statement, another dibur that Hashem says to the people in the same situation, from the mountain or after the mountain or after the Aseret HaDibrot.

As we’ve discussed yesterday, it’s not entirely clear how to read the narrative of all these stories together, right? We had the narrative of Hashem proposing a bris with the people before. Then we had the whole narrative of Mitzvah Tagbalav, how he told them to create the boundaries, the borders around the mountain, and several warnings on it. Part of that story was how there was this great, the lights and sounds that there were in Har Sinai, but there isn’t anything more.

Now, what we have in this chapter is a statement, a very famous statement, and a sort of different style. It’s not in a poetic style like the previous statements that we had. It’s in a very plain, you can say, legal style. Includes these ten things. It doesn’t say the number ten here, of course, if you count. There’s different ways of counting, but something like ten things.

And then there’s the post-statements, the statements after that Aseret HaDibrot, which go back to referring to the kolot and the lapidim, to the sights and the sounds, and the fear that the people had from being around the mountain, and who’s shuddering and their shudders and so on. So that connects directly to it. And then there’s one more statement. And the third statement is where Hashem speaks to Moshe and tells him explicitly to go to the people and tell them a certain mitzvah.

So those are the main parts of this story.

The Narrative Sequence and Direct Divine Speech

It seems like the way most people read it is that somewhere in between Moshe going and warning the people, at some point God spoke these people, and it seems like at least part of it, at least the first, what’s known as the first two Dibrot, or maybe the first statement is directed, the first person direct to the peoples, maybe he spoke it directly to them, as we’ll discuss in a minute. And then the rest of them are spoken to them in third person, spoken about God in third person. It might have been spoken by Moshe, it might have been also spoken by Hashem, who just speaks about himself in third person, as he does sometimes.

And then we go back to the story, and this is like the response. So in other words, one way of understanding this is that there’s the appearance of God descending in Har Sinai, descends with the audio-visual presentation that he does, and then as part of the audio-visual presentation, he also gives words. And the words that he gives are themselves part of the presentation, part of his appearance, and they’re afraid both of that and seemingly also of the words, although it doesn’t say anything about the words.

Later it does say that they ask Moshe not to speak with them, that Hashem shouldn’t speak with them, only Moshe should speak with them, so we can interpret it as something like they saw Hashem speaking and they were afraid of that and asked it shouldn’t happen more, which is how it seems to be presented in Parshat Vaetchanan. And then therefore we have the response which is Hashem speaking to Moshe, explicitly telling him to speak to them and not speaking to them directly.

But that’s only one way of organizing the narrative, there are other ways. And now we’re going to go and talk about each part separately.

The Opening Statement: Anochi Hashem

So the first statement in the part of Aseret HaDibrot is a sort of the narrative statement. You notice the play between Elokim and Hashem all this time. Which is God, the God that’s here speaks all of this. Of course you can’t say Elokim, it makes a lot more sense to say Hashem, so the Elokim, which is like a God which doesn’t have a name speaks, and then he presents himself, he identifies himself by saying who he is, that he is Hashem. So that makes sense.

Alternative Counting of the Dibrot

And what he says like this, now, there’s famously ten Dibrot, there’s famously also different ways of splitting them up. The way I follow, and the way I follow in my Chumash, is the way that the Parsha split them up. It’s different than the way it’s usually counted, but it also very much conforms to the split up of the words themselves.

In other words, if you read the actual text, you see that it has ten beginnings, but they are not the ten that you probably know, which counts Anochi as one and Lo yihyeh lecha as two. There’s some sort of textual basis for doing that, because many of the Dibrot start with a lo, don’t do this, don’t do that. But if you actually read the sentence, you’ll see that Anochi and Lo yihyeh lecha are probably best read as one long thing, it’s a presentation of himself, and therefore don’t do that, and it goes back to Ki Anochi in the end of it.

So it’s one long sentence, and then the rest of them, there’s another nine after that, because if you go to Lo tirtzach, you see it’s two Lo tirtzachs, so we count both separately. This is how the Parshiot separated them, and this is also, I think, how the text himself tells us to separate it. So I’m going to read it in this way.

The First Dibur: Self-Identification and Prohibition of Other Gods

So the first statement is a self-identification. We saw it, we discussed Yisrael himself does this, Pharaoh does this. It’s a normal way of people either even having like a formal visit or any formal deal you say I am such and such and by me being such and such or like I’m the king and by the power of me being the king I command such and such. In the same way when Hashem appears and if you want to read this as a kind of contract, the kind of deal that he’s making, then he say I am such and such and I’ve done such and such and therefore I have the right to ask of you such and such and I will give you such and such if you listen to me and so on.

So it starts by this identification: I am Hashem Elokecha. So it has a proper name. That’s who I am. And what have I done? I have taken you out of Egypt.

So that is, I think many people read this as, therefore you owe me something. I don’t think it necessarily means to me. That just means I’m that one, right? I took you out of Egypt. You don’t know who did that. Now you know who it was. I am that one.

And what it tells you is not to have, do not have other gods in front of me. In front of me, there’s many interpretations of this, but just means something like I am here and don’t go against me. It would be going against me to have other gods.

And it has a long elaboration of what it would mean to have other gods. I don’t think this should be read, and the way I’m reading it, I don’t think this should be read as a separate mitzvah, a separate command. It’s really, what does it mean to have other gods? Do not create Pesel, a statue, a cult, any picture, any image, and it goes through the three levels that we learned about of all kinds of things that have images in the heaven, in the earth, in the water. Don’t have any such images, don’t bow down to them, don’t worship them. That’s exactly what having other gods means. I don’t think there’s two things.

Divine Attributes: Memory and Justice

And it goes back to Ki Anochi. So it started in Anochi and then it’s Ki Anochi, because I am, so like I said who I am and what kind of power, what am I asking of you and what kind of power do I have, what kind of thing am I, what kind of entity am I.

I am Hashem Elokecha who is El kana. I’m an angry god, generally translated as jealous but probably more correct to translate as angry. Angry means something like I care, right? I care about this and I am, I remember. This is a very important attribute of God that’s repeated every time almost. And of course there’s problems with it because maybe it’s not fear but there’s a very important point in this which is when you do something, sin against a man, he forgets after a few months, after a few years, or even if the longest time he dies and his kids forget or he forgets.

The point of God, one of the main points of there being a God is that God doesn’t forget. God can remember your sins up to four generations, and the good things for many generations, for thousands, thousands of generations maybe, or for thousands of people, thousands of descendants, because God has a broader view, right? He sees the whole history and he doesn’t forget.

So in other words, this is the answer to the question sometimes we see. A good person who doesn’t seem to get his reward, or a bad person who doesn’t seem to get his punishment. And the answer is, don’t worry. After a few generations God remembers. And this is a reading of history. This is why it’s important for God to be older, to be beyond history, beyond one generation. He lives on after we die and therefore can remember. And therefore don’t go against him because he will remember. So that’s an important thing.

And that’s the end. And this is the end of the statement in God’s own words, in God’s own voice. And this is why, this is why famously the Chazal say, these are the only two things, they counted it as two things, or not necessarily as two, but it seems like two, and that’s Gemara in Makkot, that were heard from the mouth of God, from God’s voice, because the rest is spoken in third person.

That’s where they got this idea from, and maybe that’s what it means, really. It just means that it’s written in that way. Of course, the fact that it’s written this way doesn’t necessarily mean that means that God didn’t speak to them, and same with the opposite. The fact that it’s written in first person doesn’t mean that they heard directly from God. It’s still being Moshe, and we see a malach can speak in first person, if you say, like the narrator here said, Hashem says, and this is what he says, so there’s a quote, lomer means a quote, and therefore he’s speaking in first person. So the way the text is set up doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as the way the reality is set up, but this is how Chazal read it.

The Second Dibur: Lo Tisa

Now they have the next Dibur, which is of course immediately following this, after you know who God is and how scary, well, I don’t think the word scary, how serious it should be taken, says, Lo tisa, do not carry his name in vain, for falsehood, which probably just basically means don’t swear in his name falsely.

As we see many times, swearing in his name is a very important thing, because this is where God mostly enters into human affairs. We can talk about God doing things, like Elokim and so on, but when we talk about humanity, what does it mean to have a God? What it means to have a God is to be who you swear by, and swear means, I say that something is true, or I promise that something will be true, or I’ll make it true, is as true as real as strong reality as God is true.

Therefore if you swear falsely in God’s name, you’re literally making his name as if it’s, as if it’s vain, as if his name is false.

The Third Dibur: Remembering Shabbat

So remember, we had something like the Yidgal Medesi, and he has “lo yinakeh” – he will not forgive, not clean, so to speak, but it means he will not forgive, he will not forget, because that’s something real, that’s something very important.

Then the third thing is – it’s interesting, this verb “remember,” of course in the second dibur it’s a different verb, but what it seems to mean is that we already know about Shabbos. And of course if we read this book even Shemot we already know about Shabbos because it’s said already by the story of the man. If you read Bereishit then you already know about Shabbos from there. But in any case here you already know it. “Zachor” means remember, and literally doesn’t mean remember in the sense of like not forgetting that there’s such a thing – it means remember to do it, remember to follow it. And it explains what that means.

So there’s like a header and it explains what it means. It means you should work for six days, do everything you need, all your work, and the seventh day would be Shabbos, a rest day for Hashem your God. So again, this is starting from Hashem appearing here. There’s his appearance in human affairs in the sense of swearing, and there’s his appearance in human affairs in the sense of giving him a day, one of the six days.

And it elaborates: don’t do any work – you, your children, your son, your daughter, your slave, your slave girl, your animals, your strangers that live in your cities. And this is all because Hashem made the world in six days, and it repeats again all the levels of the world, or two of them – no, all three levels that we saw. Sorry, all three levels that we saw earlier in the story of creation: the heaven and the earth, the ocean, and all that adds on all these three. Previously we had all of these things that are in them, which are the things that you shouldn’t make an image of. And rested on the seventh day. And that’s why he blessed and sanctified the seventh day. And therefore you should follow, you should have the seventh day of rest.

It doesn’t entirely explain therefore how this connects to you having Shabbos. Something like this is the day that Hashem chose for himself, and therefore respecting Shabbos is respecting Hashem’s day. I think that’s the simplest reading over here, and that’s why it connects to Hashem.

The Fourth Dibur: Honoring Parents

And the fourth thing is “Kabed es avicha v’es imecha.” And this is the last one of the long dibrot, of the ones that have a long elaboration. And why? Because “l’ma’an ya’arichun yamecha al ha’adama asher Hashem Elokecha nosen lach” – that he will make your days long on the earth, on the land that he gives you.

This, of course, is the primary covenant, the primary deal of the Torah, that if you will follow the Torah, you will have a long time on earth. And long time, I think, literally, as you see in many other places, doesn’t mean you will live long, each person will live long. It means that the days of the people living in their land will be long. They won’t be thrown out of there or they won’t be destroyed easily or quickly. There’s a lifetime for states, for nations living on there, just like there’s a lifetime for particular human beings. And they’re saying the countries, the nation’s lifetime in their land will be long.

And this brings us to the most important. Of course, we can understand that it’s not necessarily that each one of these things is only particularly for that. Not like only because of, if you respect your father and your mother, will you be able to live on the land. Of course, living on the land, as it says in many places, is dependent also on not worshipping foreign gods, and also on not swearing falsely, and also on keeping Shabbos. But we can understand, I think, the way these texts work are – and of course there’s a halacha that learned this way – is that you say something in one place and it somehow matches to there. There’s some connection between kibud av va’em and living long on the earth, but it also really goes on all of this.

The Short Dibrot: Self-Evident Moral Laws

And just like it doesn’t only go on someone that swears in his name falsely, in the same way now we have six or let’s say five short ones and one elaboration of the last one. Five short lo’s, very famous, and these are very simple, they don’t need any explanation in some sense. In other words, you can see it very clearly.

The first four need some explanation. Why shouldn’t I worship foreign gods? Because this god took you out of Egypt, because he’s El Kanah. Why shouldn’t you be nishba in Hashem? Because God takes this very seriously. Why should you do Shabbos? Because. Why should you respect your father and mother? Because you will get a reward for it. And so on.

When it says these are things that you understand yourself, I just tell you: don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t say false witness, don’t covet your neighbor’s house. You understand immediately why I’m telling you this. I don’t think this needs explanation. That’s why these are short things. And everyone, all human beings more or less agree that these are bad things. Of course the details of them are complicated and some of them are in perush, there’s a lot of disputes, a lot of details that need to be elaborated, but the basic principle is very obvious. And it’s also part of the appearance of Hashem here.

The Tenth Dibur: Lo Tachmod

Now the last one, and this is in my account the tenth one, is another elaboration of “lo tachmod.” And this needs to be explained a little bit, just like we need to explain what “lo tachmod” itself means, because it seems like something like something in your heart, and what difference doesn’t make what you do in your heart.

So what I think is going on here is that this is really an extra command about the things previously, right? So the main thing, previous things that we said are not to murder and not to – I don’t know how to exactly translate in English – “lo tin’af” to fornicate or something, but it means something like taking someone else’s wife, right, primarily. And not to steal, take his possession. So don’t take anyone – in other words we could say this like this: don’t take his life, his wife, or his stuff, okay? And don’t take his stuff legally by giving false witness in a court. This is all about things that come from someone who’s like who’s over on this.

But if you have too much want, you want something else, someone else’s stuff too much, you end up sometimes murdering him, sometimes stealing his wife, stealing his stuff. So therefore it says – it’s just it’s because these things need – it’s not enough to say don’t steal, we need to sort of get people far away from stealing, we tell them don’t want it.

Of course, I don’t think you’re over on it by just wanting it. You’re over it when you steal, actually. Like, actually, the halacha is more or less with some detail. But it’s another warning, another azharah against the same thing that causes this, and that’s why it’s split into two. There’s “beis re’echa,” which is his possessions, and then it talks about “eshes re’echa,” which is don’t take his wife. In other words, don’t do “lo tin’af.” And all of his other possessions, his slaves, his animals, which is “lo tignov.”

So I think that’s the end. And I think also there’s a nice way of ending. When you finish something, you want to give a nicer elaboration. So you don’t want to finish – you wouldn’t want to finish with the word “tignov,” right? So it finishes with the word “asher l’re’echa,” that sounds nice. So it goes back to telling you, your friend has stuff, your other has stuff. Don’t take his stuff. And there’s an elaboration of something which is somewhat, but also mostly, I think, because of these three things.

So that’s for the Aseret HaDibrot.

The People’s Fear and Moses as Intermediary

Then we have this little text after. It’s a very important text. I’m going to go through it quickly. We’ll talk about it in other appearances of the same idea more. But it says, all the people were seeing the great sounds and sights, and they were afraid, they were shaking, and stood from far. And therefore they asked Moshe, you should speak with us. Let not God speak with us, for we might die.

So in other words, in this context, this is here to show us how scary, how frightening this appearance was. It was very frightening. So frightening that they’re all scanning away and saying, we don’t really want God to speak to us, we’d rather die, right? So this is before we had God needing to plead with the people, please don’t get close, let’s warn you not to get close. Here we see they don’t want to get close. They’re really scared. So that seems to be the point.

And Moshe tells the people, thank you very much, this is the point. Don’t be scared. This is precisely what God wants. He wants something – not clear what this means – “l’ba’avur nasot,” to test you, but what was the test? The test was not to go up to the mountain and you passed the test because he showed you that it’s too scary. Or maybe it means something like to raise you up or to make you great, like a “nes,” this means a flag, something raised up high.

But this is precisely the point. God wants you to fear of him so you will not sin. In other words, remember that this is the God. You don’t always see God, but remember this is how God appears and therefore you take him seriously.

And that’s what they do. They stand from afar and Moshe goes to the arafel, to the fog where God is. So this is repeating how Moshe can go close but the people cannot go close.

The First Message: Proper Worship

And then we have Hashem telling Moshe the first message. In this you already had a message, the first message that he should tell the Yidden. In other words, the first mitzvah.

And it says like this: Hashem tells Moshe, tell the Bnei Yisrael like this: you saw that I spoke to you from the heaven. So this seems to tell us that he had spoken to them, although like we discussed it’s not entirely clear, but you saw he was speaking, you saw me from heaven.

Therefore, and this seems to be a repeat of the Yidgal, so it’s not clear, don’t make with me – but what it means, just like “al panai,” it probably means the same thing. I am here, therefore worship me, and not with gold and silver gods.

How should you worship me? Therefore, there’s a question, how should you worship me? Everyone knows there’s ways to worship God. So this is how you should worship me. You should make a mizbe’ach out of earth. On it, you should sacrifice your olot, your shelamim, your tzon’cha, your bakar, all kinds of sacrifice, all kinds of animals.

In any place, in any place where you will mention my name or I will mention my name, I will come and bless you. In other words, there’s not a particular place and there’s also not a particular architecture. I’m happy. This seems to be God saying, I don’t need gold and silver. I have little simple earthen mizbe’ach that’s happy enough for me. I don’t need a big flat place. Any place you make it, I’ll be happy to come and bless you.

If you want to make a stone mizbe’ach, at least don’t make them gazit. Gazit means cut out stones.

In other words, there’s not a particular place, and there’s also not a particular architecture. I’m happy. This seems to be God saying, I don’t need gold and silver. I have little, simple, earthen mizbeach. It’s happy enough for me. I don’t need a big, flat place. Any place you make it, I’ll be happy to come and bless you.

If you want to make a stone mizbeach, at least don’t make them gazit. Gazit means cut-out stones, stone chiseled very nicely—don’t make that. And it gives a reason, seemingly a reason: because you’ve raised your sword on it, and you’ve desecrated it. It’s not clear what’s the desecration of a stone by cutting it with a sword.

But I think that this goes together very well with zevach chadom. The best thing God wants is to just have earth. If you want to make stones, at least have them be natural stones. Don’t make it too fancy. There’s too much human work of it, and human work reminds me too much of murder, or reminds you too much of a sword, something like that.

And the same thing, the third thing that he says: do not go with ma’alot al mizbechi, with steps. And it gives also a reason, and of course this can be also read literally, because if you go on steps sometimes, at least before the people wear pants—or of course the Kohanim wear pants, precisely for this—but maybe even with pants, it seems to be not seemly, not nice, to show your private parts, your ervah, your lower parts on it, like when you walk on steps.

But I think that more in the context, I mean something like this: don’t build a big mizbeach, you need big steps, like a big pyramid, right? This reminds us of the pyramid of Egypt, a big pyramid with gold steps on, because that’s just a cause for you to show your ervah—like people walking with big steps onto their big, fancy mizbeach that they built. And Hashem seems to think that that’s not really respect of God, it’s more like a person spreading himself. Like this is man-spreading, right? And man-spreading is less than kavod of God.