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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Mishpatim
Exodus 21:1-24:18
by Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel
- "And they saw the God of Israel... They had a vision of the
Divine and they ate and drank" (Exodus 24:10, 11).
Towards the conclusion of the portion of Mishpatim, immediately
following God's establishment of His covenant with Israel, we
find a mystical vision of God which gives rise to a fascinating
difference of opinion between Targum Onkelos (second century CE)
and Rashi (1040-1105). The numinous character of the story
deserves a careful reading.
"Moses then went up, along
with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of Israel's elders. They saw
the God of Israel, and under His feet was the likeness of
sapphire brickwork, like the essence of the heavens in purity.
And [God] did not send forth His hand against these great men of
the Israelites. They had a vision of the Divine and they ate and
drankג€ (Exodus 24:9-11).
The Targum sees this incident
in a very positive light. Having experienced the Revelation at
the foot of the mountain, the leaders went up to the top and
ג€saw, had a vision ofג€ the Divine. "They suffered no damage"
from this mystical experience, even though, in the Talmudic
recording of a much later "journey into the Pardes," Elisha ben
Abuya, Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma were seriously maimed by the
experience, and only Rabbi Akiva emerged "whole." "These [great
men] saw the glory of God, and they rejoiced in their sacrifices
which had been willingly accepted as if they themselves had
eaten and drunk from them" (Targum ad loc).
Rashi takes
the story much more literally; he is far more critical of the
leader's actions. He maintains that when the Bible reports that
God did not "send forth His hand" against these leaders, the
Bible is hinting that they were worthy of punishment. He cites
the Midrash Tanhuma that they gazed upon God "with a vulgar and
materialistic heart, eating and drinking in the Divine Presence"
(Rashi, ad loc).
I believe that Rashi is put off by the
words"and they saw, and they had a vision" - verbs of
seeing
rather than of hearing. In previous commentaries, I have
contrasted "seeing" - which is merely external
- with "hearing,"
from the word shema, which means to internalize, to take into
one's being (me'a is intestine) and to become internally
transformed.
This is precisely how our sages understood
the central maxim of our faith: "Shema Yisrael, the Lord our
God, the Lord is One." Despite the legitimacy of interpretations
of "your ears must hear what you express with your mouth" (you
yourself must hear every word of the three paragraphs which you
are reciting; you dare not sight read) and "shema " - in any
language which you understand," the normative Halacha derives
from shema that the one who recites it must internally accept
upon himself the yoke of the Kingship of heaven (B.T. Brachot
13a). And it is this third interpretation which would translate
shema as "internalize."
The tragedy of the Israelites is
that they experienced the Exodus through a superficial "seeing"
rather than a more internal "hearing." Just before the
Revelation, God chides them: "You have seen what I have done to
Egypt, how I carried you on eagle's wings; but now if you will
internalize, yes internalize [shamo'a, tishme'u] My voice and
guard My covenant, only then will you be to Me a treasure..."
(Exodus 19:4-6).
But the Israelites were not yet at the
level of internalizing. They only "see" the sounds of the
Revelation (ibid 20:15), and God re-states His problem at the
end of the portion of Yitro:"You have [merely] seen that I
spoke to you from the heavens" (ibid 20:19). Indeed, it is only
when, toward the end of our portion of Mishpatim, the Israelites
declare "na'aseh v'nishma," we will perform [the commandments]
and internalize [them], that God enters into the covenant with
Israel.
And then, at the climax of the covenant, our
aristocratic leaders regress into "seeing" - a superficial
encounter which enables them to crassly eat and drink in the
presence of the Divine. God even attempts to teach them with a
vision of sapphire (sapir), from the verb 'to tell,' [lesaper],
to communicate a narrative. The story of the Exodus from Egypt,
and the Ten Commandments of morality is to be told and heard
from generation to generation in order to inform and etch within
the very DNA of the nation the twin ideals of freedom and
morality.
But, alas, to no avail. This "seeing" of the
aristocrats leads in a straight line to the worship of the
Golden Calf, which turns a spiritual and soul-transforming ideal
into a paltry and limited "image."
We must wait for the
portion of Ki Tisa (Ex. 30:11 - 34:35) to understand how God will
teach the Israelites how to internalize.
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