אנכי עומד בין ה' וביניכם בעת ההיא, “I was standing between Hashem and between you at that time;” Nachmanides explains this statement as a reference to Moses having ascended the Mountain in order to listen to G’d’s words, words he relayed to the people until the day when Hashem addressed the people personally. (Verse 6) The period covered by Moses began on the first day of Sivan as we read in Exodus Moses had been instructed to relay G’d’s words to the people commencing with the line כה תאמר לבית יעקב, “Thus you shall say to the House of Yaakov” in verse 3 of that chapter. G’d’s instructions continued until He said לך רד ועלית, in Ibn Ezra says that the passage we are reading here was said by Moses after the revelation at Mount Sinai, and that the meaning of the words is that after G’d had spoken to you “face to face,” and you had been unable to endure this and remain alive at the same time, G’d decided to use me as your interpreter as you yourselves had requested. Therefore, from then on I have been standing between you and between Hashem. Nachmanides does not accept this interpretation but prefers the interpretation of our sages, referring to his interpretation on Exodus 20,7 that the Israelites actually only heard and understood the first two of the Ten Commandments from G’d’s own mouth, and that they did not understand the other Commandments though their ears heard them. They had been under far too great an emotional impact. From the third Commandment onwards, Moses was already the interpreter. At any rate, at the time of the revelation, from the point of view of physical proximity, Moses had been asked by G’d to position himself so that he would be closer to the source of these words which appeared to issue forth from the Mountain, than the people who had remained at the foot of the Mountain.

לאמור, “to relay by word of mouth.” Rashi says that this refers to repeating the revelation at Mount Sinai, the words G’d had spoken to the people at that time. Nachmanides writes that there is no need for this commentary at all, but that the fact that at the time the people had been so terrified by the accompanying thunder and lightning that they were unable to even properly understand G’d’s words. This had made it necessary that Moses repeat to them what G’d had said on that occasion. Moses was now going to verbalise what the people had remembered only in their minds, i.e their unspoken desire to have him be the go between Hashem and themselves. Nachmanides continues that the part of the Torah known to us all as משנה תורה, “review of the Torah,” commences now with the restatement of the Ten Commandments. Moses did not introduce any changes into the first two of these Commandments, the ones that the people themselves had heard directly from the mouth of G’d. Moses also did not edit in the sense of “expand on” the third Commandment. He began explaining when he substituted the word שמור instead of זכור at the beginning of the fourth Commandment, that of Sabbath observance. He explained that aspect of the Sabbath legislation to them now, their already being familiar with the aspect known as זכור. He informed them that the שמור aspect had been revealed at the same time as the זכור aspect. He added the words:

כאשר צוך ה' אלוקיך, “as the Lord your G’d has commanded you “ Rashi understands these words to refer to the part of the Sabbath legislation given to the people at Marah, prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai, where they had also been taught about the red heifer and various items of civil law. Here he added:

ושורך וחמורך, “as well as your oxen and your donkeys;” Moses explained that not only the immediate working of the soil that produces our livelihood is forbidden on the Sabbath, but that those who work the soil, the farmer’s agents, -if you will,- who help him produce a crop, must also rest on the Sabbath. In this context he added further

למען ינוח עבדך ואמתך כמוך, “in order that your servant, and your servant-maid rest just like you.” A reason for all this is:

וזכרת כי עבד היית, “so that you will remember that you yourself used to be a servant;” Moses explains that just as G’d when He took you out of Egypt relieved you of the need to work seven days a week, you in turn, are to give your workers a day of rest, the same day as yours. In light of this, the true meaning of the phrase, beginning with the word למען in our verse, is that when you allow your servant to rest on the Sabbath you will be reminded that you yourself did not have this privilege until Hashem took you out of Egypt. This is what prompted G’d to

צוך ה' אלוקיך לעשות את יום השבת, “the Lord your G’d commanded you to “make” the Sabbath day.” Ibn Ezra comments that the word תעשה means that G’d commanded that the day of rest had to be on the Sabbath, i.e the anniversary of the seventh day of creation. [It would not do to pick any day of the week to commemorate that we enjoy a day of rest because the Lord took us out of Egypt.] As to the fact that we commemorate this aspect by reciting the kiddush, Maimonides writes that in the first version of the Ten Commandments the Torah speaks of the special honour accorded to that day. The aspect of commemorating the Exodus on the Sabbath does not override the previously revealed aspect of commemorating the seven days of creation, on the last of which the Lord rested. This is why Moses refers to the previously revealed legislation of the Sabbath in which commemorating the seventh day of creation had been given as the primary reason. To sum up: there are two major reasons for the Sabbath rest. 1) To strengthen our faith in the Creator of the universe, who made constructive rest part of nature by demonstrating His own abstention from creative activity on that day. 2) The Lord’s special love for us, [not so for the other nations who labour under the curse to have to work for a living unceasingly, the legacy of Adam having ignored the command not to eat from the tree of knowledge. Ed.] Nachmanides does not seem too impressed by Maimonides’ approach, as he cannot see how resting on the Sabbath is conceptually related to the Exodus from Egypt any more than any of the other commandments that represent symbols of our history, especially the Exodus. On the other hand, he does agree that Sabbath observance most certainly is conceptually related to the whole work of creation performed by the Creator during the six days preceding the history of mankind. Nachmanides therefore would have Moses not add another dimension to the rationale of Sabbath observance, but to restate the aspect of G’d the invisible Creator having rested on the original Sabbath, to His people who more than any other people had experienced how He manifested Himself visually in their lives making this an additional point to reflect upon on every Sabbath when they would observe constructive rest. All the miracles performed by G’d in Egypt were, in a manner of speaking, a re-enactment of what our sages call חדוש העולם, a replay of the creative process, seeing that G’d proved Himself time and again to be able to make “nature” do His bidding when He wanted and where He wanted. Whereas the first time around there had been no witnesses who could report to us on what they had experienced, in Egypt there had been millions of such witnesses. [I have rephrased this slightly. Ed.]

כאשר צוך ה' אלוקיך, “as the Lord your G’d had commanded you.” You heard it from Hashem, directly; and Moses adds immediately:

ולמען ייטב לך, “and so that it will be for your benefit.” The construction here is similar to Psalms 85,13: “The Lord also bestows His bounty, and our land yields its produce.” [Basically, without G’d’s input the land would not yield its produce, but the latter is visible evidence, the former is just as real but invisible to man. Ed.] He continued to explain the ninth Commandment

לא תענה ברעך עד שוא, “Do not testify falsely against your fellow;” The version in Parshat Yitro used the term שקר untrue, false, whereas Moses here appears to expand the prohibition to someone who testifies to something irrelevant, something vain, something which is not enforceable by a court of law, for instance. Frivolous testimony, which may only serve to undermine one of the parties’ good reputation is prohibited by the Torah, also, one of the reasons being that the testimony employs directly or implicitly the name of the Lord. Moses continues with his elaboration, on the tenth Commandment,

ולא תחמוד , “and you shall not covet, etc.” In Parshat Yitro the commandment employs only the verb תמד, whereas here Moses added an additional phrase commencing with the verb אוה, to desire (in the reflexive mode). From the wording in Yitro we would have thought that only when steps are taken to translate one’s burning desire into practice does one transgress this prohibition. If Moses had not added the dimension of merely “desiring” a field, or an ox, we might have thought, that only when one engages in translating one’s desire into practice is this prohibited, but that “daydreaming” about it is not objectionable. Hence, he restated part of the original version to make the point we just mentioned.

שדהו, “his field,” here Moses introduces a possession, other than chattels, i.e. real estate, something that is sold with אחריות, with certain guarantees by the vendor to reimburse the purchaser if his title will be challenged. Adding this dimension to the list of matters one must not covet closes the circle, i.e. all possessions that are subject to being sold and bought must not be coveted, even if one is willing to pay more than the market price for it in order to satisfy one’s craving for certain possessions. [I have slightly amended the wording in the interest of readers not thoroughly familiar with Jewish civil law. Ed.]

ולא יסף, “which did not abate.” According to Onkelos the meaning of the expression ולא יסף is the same as ולא פסק, “it did not stop, was not interrupted.” [Such as someone catching his breath. Ed.]; neither did it weaken as it continued. The constancy of the voice showed that it was not a human voice. Nachmanides writes that the Torah had written in Exodus 19,19 that the sound of the shofar blast kept increasing in volume, and the sages explain that the reason for this was to enable the listeners to adjust to the increasingly overpowering volume. We therefore must distinguish between the sounds the people heard from the shofar, and the voice they heard from Hashem. G’d’s voice when He uttered the Ten Commandments, remained steady, even, did not rise or fall. It is fair to assume that Onkelos, who holds that the voice did not cease, bases himself on Jeremiah 48,33 ונאספה שמחה וגיל, where the same root means that “the joy over the harvest will be gone,” so that with the prefix לא the meaning would be that the joy would be continuous, never ending. [Our author quotes a couple of examples where the root יסף is also used in the manner in which Onkelos understands it in our verse. I suppose the concept that a voice is interminable is so unusual, that our author tried to justify Onkelos. Ed.]

ואת תדבר אלינו, “and you will speak to us.” Rashi, explaining the feminine pronoun את when being applied to Moses, an outstanding example of manhood, sees Moses as reflecting that the people with their many demands, complaints, etc., had weakened his stature so that he felt no stronger than a woman. What upset him most about his people was, that instead of being desirous to come ever closer to Hashem, demonstrating their love for Him, they tried to distance themselves, relating to Him from feelings of fear and fright. If so, Moses expressed concern that G’d might react negatively to the people’s conduct. This is not compatible with the fact that G’d had told Moses that what the people had done was out of a feeling of profound reverence, “fear of the Lord” for Him, meaning that it was something positive. He therefore continues that the true interpretation is in accordance with what he himself had written, i.e the people not realizing that they would be hearing only the Ten Commandments, thought that G’d would reveal the entire Torah in the same manner, at once. Thinking about that, they became very much afraid that they would not be able to endure such a revelation for such a length of time. At any rate, G’d was pleased with their reaction and revealed only the Ten Commandments at that time. You should realize that the people’s request included not only that the supernatural nature of the revelation be cut short on that occasion, but they meant that at no time in the future would they want to be exposed to such overwhelming experiences as they had just experienced. They meant to include in that request even the generations after them, something that the Talmud (Pesachim 50) calls: לאו כל שעתא מתרחש ניסא, “miracles do not happen all the time;” we derive the meaning of what the people had in mind from verse 21 in our chapter: “this day we have seen that man can survive being addressed by G’d directly.” The word הזה, “this,” is restrictive, meaning only on this day was there such demonstration. It will not occur again. The people as an exchange for foregoing such revelations in the future, undertook to have complete faith in G’d’s prophets, thus making such revelations unnecessary. G’d’s (Moses’) response was יקים לך (Deut. 18,15) ...כמוני יקים לך נביא מקרבך, “He will make arise for you a prophet just like me, etc.” They were to follow the instructions of such prophets, just as they followed Moses’ instructions after the latter had enquired for guidance by G’d.

מי יתן והיה לבבם זה להם ליראה אותי ולשמר את כל מצותי, “Who can assure that their hearts should remain theirs to fear Me and observe all My commandments!” The reason there is some doubt about this is that G’d has granted us free will and although “everything is within the power of heaven,” the exception is the ability of man, the creature, to choose his path in life.

ושמרתם לעשות כאשר צוה ה' אלוקיכם אתכם, “You shall be careful to act in accordance with what the Lord your G’d commanded you;” Nachmanides writes that this verse is a warning to meticulously observe the Ten Commandments, commandments which G’d personally gave to them at the Revelation.