The Pshat Heard 'Round the World

Is Mt. Sinai under construction in this week’s parashah? One could be forgiven for thinking so, since Hashem’s intructions to Moshe regarding preparation for His revelation to Am Yisrael include the erection of a fence around the mountain! You say you don’t remember any fence? Take a look at the verses leading up to the the Ten Commandments: “Hashem said to Moshe, ‘Go down, (give testimony and thereby) warn the people, lest they destructively break through to Hashem to see, and many fall (i.e., die) from amongst them. Even the priests, who draw close to Hashem, must sanctify themselves, lest Hashem break out amongst them.” Moshe said to Hashem, the people are not ABLE to ascend the mountain, for You warned us saying, ‘Set up a boundary around the mountain and sanctify it .” The people aren’t able to ascend, there’s a boundary there, set up precisely to avoid rash, impulsive spiritual overload. Clearly, this boundary can’t be made merely of stern warnings t...

The great climax of of all human history (certainly as described by Moshe in Devarim – 4:22-23), the giving of the Torah to Am Yisrael at Mt. Sinai, is preceded in this week’s parashah, by a strange passage whose protagonist, Yitro, gives his name to this critically central parashah. I say preceded, because the story of Yitro’s arrival at the Israelite encampment is told in chapter 18, while the preparations for Matan Torah begin in chapter 19. But as to whether Yitro actually comes before Matan Torah or after is the subject of a great debate between the titans of Torah interpretation, beginning  in the Gemara (Zevahim 116a), continuing with Rashi and carrying on through Ibn Ezra and Ramban. A straightforward reading of the text support Ibn Ezra in his claim that Yitro came after Matan Torah. He then explains why the story is related “out of order”: in order to contrast the radically different reactions of the nations to the emergence of Am Yisrael as bearers of, and def...

Chapter 19 of Shemot begins as follows: In the third month from the Exodus of B'nai Israel from the Land of Egypt, on that day – they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. They traveled from Refidim and they came to the Wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness. The question is asked: why does it need to state twice that they came to Sinai, and, further, how can they leave Refidim if they've already come to Sinai? The answer: The midrash tells us that Bnei Yisrael experience a "weakening of hands" ( rifyon yadaim , almost identical in sound to the place name Refidim), or despair (Hebrew: ye'ush ) of the most severe sort right before they were to proceed to Mt. Sinai. They knew that the whole purpose of their exodus from Egypt was to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai, but they felt completely unprepared and inadequate to stand there before the Eternal. This generation, termed Dor Deah - a Generation of Knowledge had an almost visceral ...