Welcome to KOE's project, dt@koe. Thank you to Alan Gersch for contributing this week's dvar torah. If you are interested in participating in this project through writing or receiving divrei torah, please contact Jason Herman at dt@koe.org. Shabbat shalom.

In parshat Yitro we come to the climactic goal of the Exodus, the Revelation at Sinai. G-d reveals Himself to the entire nation in an event unique in human history. When He does this, He speaks the Ten Commandments to all of B’nei Yisrael in a way that altered the human condition forever after and left the Israelites so fearful that they requested that G-d speak to them only through Moshe afterwards.

What can follow a show like that? How about a few random halachot about making an altar? What? One might think that in our Parsha, the Ten Commandments would be the best place to end the Parsha, with such a great climactic scene. However, the maftir aliyah comes afterwards, which contains only a few verses. Why not just “leave it” for next week’s parsha?

These few verses basically contain the following mitzvot: 1. A reiteration of the prohibition of making gold and/or silver gods; “Lo ta’asun Iti, Elohei kesef v’elohei zahav lo ta’asu lachem.” - “Do not make with Me; gods of silver or gods of gold do not make for yourselves.” 2. The requirement of making an earthen altar OR making it out of stones which were not cut using metal, “ki charbechah heinaftah alecha ut’chalelehah” - “because you have lifted up your sword upon it and profaned it.” 3. The prohibition of walking up stairs to the altar, so as not to “reveal your nakedness upon it.”

Why are these mitzvot located in such a prominent place right after the Revelation? Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht z”tl, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kerem B’Yavneh, explained these laws as being “more than meets the eye” (I think based on the Sfas Emes…) There is a well-known midrash (based on Deuteronomy 33:2; found in the Sifri and in masechet Avodah Zarah) about how G-d offered the Torah to other nations before coming to Sinai to give it to the Israelites. Each, in turn, asked what was written in the Torah and rejected it. He first offered it to the sons of Esav. When asked, He told them it says “Don’t murder.” They said “Our, and our forefather’s, very essence is killing, as it says ‘and you shall live by your sword.‘” (Genesis 27:39) He next approached Ammon and Moav. They were told, upon inquiring, that the Torah contains the prohibition against adultery (and other sexual immorality.) They also politely declined the Torah, since their whole nation’s existence is from incest (Lot and his daughters). Then G-d offered the Torah to the Ishmaelites, who when they asked were told that the Torah says “Don’t steal.” They said, “No thanks; it’s our father’s and our nature to be robbers as it says ‘He will be a wild man; his hand ! will be against every man…’” (Genesis 16:12; I was always very impressed by their textual skills…) So it went with other nations until G-d offered the Torah to Israel and they said “na’aseh v’nishmah” – “we will do and [then] we will listen.”

Rav Goldvicht asked: what does the midrash mean they refused the commandments prohibiting murder, sexual immorality and stealing? These are among the Sheva Miztvot B’nei Noach! (The seven laws binding on all people, even non-Jews.) How could they refuse them, they were already responsible to keep them since the time of Noah?! He explains that there’s a difference between those mitvot b’nei Noach and the corresponding ones in our Torah. To gentiles “murder,” as in “Don’t murder,” means literally killing somebody. “Don’t steal” means taking someone else’s property away, and so forth. But our Torah prohibitions are far more inclusive than those literal Noachide laws. For us, “Don’t murder” includes much more, such as embarrassing someone in public. As the rabbis say “Hamalbin pnei chaveiro b’rabim k’ilu shofech damim.” - “One who embarrasses his fellow in public is like he spilled blood.” Similarly, the prohibition of sexual immorality includes tzniut, and the like. “Don’t steal”! includes not just taking property but also “g’neivat da’at”, deception, “gezel sheinah” – “stealing someone’s sleep”, etc. The Torah is much more demanding of proper moral behavior from us than the Noachide Laws are of non-Jews. It was these laws requiring a far greater level of attention to ethical behavior in the minutiae of life that those nations rejected and we accepted.

Bearing this in mind, we can understand why these mitzvot follow the Decalogue. They represent this idea of the greater requirements of these laws than their simplest literally understood meaning. Chazal explain “Do not make with Me” to refer to the cherubs on the Ark. Only in the precise instance and manner commanded by G-d is making such an image allowed. If one wanted to make them out of silver (instead of the required gold) or make three (instead of two) or make them to keep a pair at home (instead of in the Holy of Holies) that would be a violation of this law and like idolatry. The “gods of silver and gold” also refer not merely to actual idolatry. The rabbis understood this to refer to corrupt judges (the word “elohim” means judges as well as “G-d” or “gods”.). “Rav Ashi said ‘a judge [“eloha”] who comes for silver, a judges who comes for gold.’” (Sanhedrin 7b) “Rav Mana denigrated those judges appointed for money and Rav Ami cited, regarding them, the verse “gods of si! lver and gods of gold do not make for yourselves.” (Yerushalmi, Bikurim 3:1) The lifting up and striking of any metal cutting implement in the construction of the altar would profane it. As found in the Mechilta, “Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says ‘the altar was created to lengthen people’s lives [by atoning for their sins] and metal to shorten them; it is not fitting that one should lift the shortener on the lengthener.’” Thus cutting stones for the altar, whose purpose is life itself, with metal tools, which could be used for killing, is likened to killing. Lastly, walking up stairs to the altar would necessitate taking larger steps, which chazal considered a sign of haughtiness. That expression would be the opposite of tzniut, modesty, which would be a violation of the greater meaning of “lo tigaleh ervatchah alav” – “do not reveal your nakedness upon it.”

With this understanding, it is clear why these laws follow the Revelation at Sinai. They represent the expanded degree of ethical behavior that is required of us since we accepted the Torah. They follow the brief statements of the Decalogue with examples of the further details that are included in the expanded requirements of these commandments. Thus they represent the stringent new standards of moral behavior that we Israelites, in contrast to our cousins among the nations, accepted upon ourselves at Sinai.

Shabbat Shalom.