Parshat Yitro: The Experience of Kabbalat HaTorah

The essence of Judaism, the thing that makes us different, is Torah. The main event of this week’s parsha is the historic event of Hashem giving the Torah to the Jews at Har Sinai. This, perhaps, is the most important event of all time, as it signifies the purpose of the life of a Jew. Yet, if we look deeper, we will find there are multiple times and multiple ways that the Jews accept the Torah.

Let’s take a look.

The first, most famous mechanism of kabalat haTorah is נעשה ונשמע, we will do and then we will learn. In this week’s parsha the pasuk says,

,ויענו כל העם יחדו, ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה (יט:ח).  

meaning the entire Jewish people answered in unison that all Hashem tells us to do, we will do. This is reiterated again in Parshat Mishpatim (24:7) where the Torah says

ויאמרו כל אשר דבר ה׳ נעשה ונשמע

This means the Jews accepted the Torah; they accepted to do every mitzvah regardless of their level of understanding. They accepted that following in Hashem’s ways and doing mitzvoth should never be dependent on what we understand. We do it because Hashem said so. Once that is established, we are encouraged to spend our entire lifetime learning the reasons behind each mitzvah, but never should that impact our performance of them.

Nearly twenty pesukim later in the Parsha, we see a very different picture of what kabalat HaTorah means. The pasuk says, (19:17) that Moshe went out to the people… ויציצבו בתחתית ההר, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Rashi quotes the Talmud in Shabbat (88)

א''ר אבדימי בר חמא בר חסא, מלמד שכפה הקב''ה עליהם הר כגיגית, ואמר להם, אם אתם מקבלים התורה מוטב, ואם לאו שם תהא קבורתכם, the Torah is teaching us that Hashem lifted up the mountain above the heads of the Jews and said to them, if you accept the Torah it will be good for you, but if not, this will be the place you are buried.

What is going on here? First of all, is Hashem forcing the Torah upon us? Did we not just accepted it willingly? Also, don’t we have free will? Didn’t we already accept the Torah? Than why the need to accept it again?

I take from this that there must be something for us to learn, something to be added with these two acceptances of the Torah; one willingly and one by force.

On the one hand, נעשה ונמשע is an amazing level to be on. It is stating that we are so committed to Hashem that we will not let our intellect get in the way. We accept the Torah purely because we believe in Hashem. So what is the downside to this? Why the need for the mountain being lifted above our heads?

I share a few possibilities here:

1. The Baalei Hatosfot say the Jews said נעשה ונשמע before Matan Torah. But perhaps when the Jews would experience the awesomeness of Matan Torah, they would be scared and change their minds. So Hashem had to put a certain element of fear into us.
2. Maharal explains that Hashem felt we had to understand that without the Torah, שם תהא קבורתכם – there is no life without the Torah. With just נעשה ונשמע we run the risk of seeing Torah as some nice added element to life, but not something we cannot live without. That is why כפה עליהם, He had to sprinkle in some fear.
3. Rav Soloveitchik  explains the Jews  were prepared to accept the Torah in that generation, but there would be many challenges in future generations that might rock the belief and commitment of future Jews. This is why Hashem had to force us to accept it. That’s why it says ואם לאו, if you do not accept the Torah at some point, שם תהא קבורתכם over there in that generation will be your kevura.

Despite all of this, as an educator I know research tells us that forcing people into doing something is not an effective way to effectuate long term change in behaviour. If I scare you to do something, it might work in the short term, but it will not have a long term effect. We do not have to go further than this topic of Matan Torah to see this reality. Only forty days after this episode, the Jews committed one of the worst sins of all time, with the worshipping of the Golden Calf. How could they? Forty days after receiving the Torah from Hashem himself? Yes, the kabalat haTorah here was incomplete; not perfectly effective.

Perhaps this is why we find another place in Tanach where the Jews accept the Torah again. At the very end of Megillat Esther, the pasuk says קיימו וקבלו, Chazal explain this to mean they re-accepted the Torah. But why? We already had accepted the Torah at Sinai? Twice? It must be that after the story of Purim, the Jews finally completed the incomplete acceptance of Torah from Sinai we just described. Why did this happen after the story of Purim? You will have to wait two months until Purim and then we will revisit this most important topic. Stay tuned...

Shabbat Shalom!