Illustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
The first of the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת (Aseret Ha-Dibrot, Ten Commandments) opens with:
אָנֹכִי ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ…
I am God your Lord…
This is called “first person,” using “I” statements—like when you’re talking about yourself. In the second dibbur, God also speaks in the first person (20:3-6).
But starting with the third dibbur, there’s a shift to “third person” (the way we speak when talking about someone else, using “he,” “she,” or “they” statements):
לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא
Do not take the name of God your Lord in vain…
Why is there a difference between the first two dibrot and the last eight?
R. Hamnuna noticed this shift (Makkot 23b-24a) and suggested that only the first two dibrot were said directly from God to the people, which is why God speaks in first person there. But God taught the other dibrot to Moshe, and Moshe then taught them to the people. Since it’s Moshe talking about God in those dibrot, that’s why they talk about God in the third person.
R. Hamnuna thinks this explains the meaning of a pasuk later in the Torah, when Moshe was remembering what happened at Har Sinai. Moshe says:
אָנֹכִי עֹמֵד בֵּין ה' וּבֵינֵיכֶם בָּעֵת הַהִוא לְהַגִּיד לָכֶם אֶת דְּבַר ה' כִּי יְרֵאתֶם מִפְּנֵי הָאֵשׁ…
I stood between God and you at the time, to tell you the word of God, because you were afraid of the fire!
According to this, Moshe told Benei Yisrael the word of God because they were afraid. Look it up! Read Shemot 20:15-18 to see what this is talking about.
- What might have been scary about the Har Sinai experience for Benei Yisrael? Would you have been scared? Why or why not?
- What’s gained and what’s lost by hearing the dibrot directly from God? What’s gained and what’s lost by hearing them from Moshe instead?
- What does it say about God and us that Benei Yisrael couldn’t handle God’s speech directly and that we needed Moshe to repeat most of the Aseret Ha-Dibrot himself?
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