בס”ד
Parashat Yitro
Parashat Yitro This week’s Torah reading is called Yitro, the name of the father in law of Moshe. The main event is the Giving of the Torah. What can we learn out of the wording of G-d’s introduction to this fundamental event in history? Based on Likutei Sichot vol. 1, p. 148.
This week’s Torah reading is called Yitro, which is the name of the father-in-law of Moses. The main event in this parasha is the giving of the Torah. The entire Jewish people stood at the base of Mount Sinai, watching and hearing G-d speak to Moshe, and Moshe speaking to the Jewish people. Our sages teach that not only the Jewish people present at that time, but also the souls of all future generations—until the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our days—were standing there at the giving of the Torah.
If we look at the words that G-d Himself introduced before giving the Ten Commandments, we see that although the commandments were given specifically to the Jewish people, the Rambam (Maimonides) mentions that during the giving of the Torah, G-d also gave Moshe laws meant to be shared with all the nations of the world. This means that even though the Ten Commandments were not given to non-Jews, the message of Judaism was transmitted at that moment to the Jewish people, who were then responsible for sharing it with the non-Jews. Thus, non-Jews also have a connection to the event of the giving of the Torah and the messages we can learn from it.
The Meaning of Lemor – Projecting G-dliness into the World
Now, returning to the introduction that G-d gave before the Ten Commandments, the Torah states:
“And G-d spoke all these words, saying” (Lemor).
This phrase appears many times in the Torah. In most cases, it means that G-d spoke to Moses, who then had to relay the message to the Jewish people. There was an order of priorities in how Moshe conveyed the message and to whom he spoke first, as explained by our sages in the Talmud.
However, in this particular case, since the event occurred in front of the entire nation—and all the souls throughout the generations were present—what does Lemor (“to say”) mean here? If everyone was hearing directly from G-d, why would Moshe need to repeat anything?
The Maggid of Mezritch, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov, explained something fascinating. Just as words allow a person to project their thoughts into someone else’s mind through speech, similarly, when G-d spoke these words—the Ten Commandments—He did so in order to project something. But what was being projected?
If we look at the beginning of the Torah, we see that creation itself happened through ten utterances—ten Divine statements such as “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” etc. There were ten moments in which G-d spoke and the world was created. We also find ten commandments.
The Maggid of Mezritch explains that we must take the Ten Commandments and project them into the ten utterances of creation. In other words, our approach to the world should be: Why am I here? What is my purpose? The answer is to reveal G-dliness—to project the Ten Commandments, the Torah, and divine holiness—into every aspect of the world.
And not only into the external world, but also within ourselves. Our sages teach that just as the world is a great creation with G-d as its soul, so too, man is a microcosm—a small world with his soul being the Divine essence within him. Just as we are meant to bring G-dliness into the external world, we must also bring it into every part of our own inner world.
This is the meaning of the seemingly unnecessary word Lemor in the verse. G-d gives us laws and commandments, but our task is to project them into the world—to live by them in our material existence.
The Ultimate Revelation – The Days of Mashiach
And this is also what will happen speedily in our days with the coming of Mashiach, as the prophets teach: “And all flesh shall see together that the mouth of G-d has spoken.” Even our physical eyes will perceive the presence of G-d. May this happen speedily in our days!
Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber
The above is a representation of the spoken text converted to written text.
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