Shabbos Parashas Vaeschanan - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Vaeschanan - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor shall you subtract from

it, to observe the commandments of Hashem, your G-d, that I command you. [Devarim 4:2]

Later, we will read [Devarim 13:1], "The entire word that I command you, that shall you

observe to do, you shall not add to it and you shall not subtract from it.​" Although there

are slight differences from which we might learn lessons, in effect this is a repetition.

What is so important here that the Torah is willing to spend the resources to make sure

we get it? What is the "word" referenced here that we cannot add to nor subtract from?

A simple and obvious answer comes from the verse immediately before ours, "And now,

Israel, hearken to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you to do them, that you

may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the G-d of your fathers, gives

you." Although the Torah here does something unusual, and gives us a reason for a

command, this explanation does not make overly clear what statutes and ordinances

are involved.

Rashi gives us, "For instance, five passages into the tefillin, five kinds in the lulav, five

fringes. And similarly, 'nor shall you subtract'." Sifrei adds tzitzis. Since Rashi is stating this

as "for instance", he is teaching us a rule. What is that rule? We must say that the "word"

that Moshe is telling us not to add to or subtract from has something to do with explicit

commands, since his examples are of things the Torah clearly specified. But does this

mean that we may add or subtract in other types of commandments?

The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah 29b expands on our verse in the context of Succos. It

tells us that we may not sleep in the succah on the eighth night, nor only for six. We would

easily understand this if we thought that the eighth night was somehow tied to the

command, but would we have thought to prohibit ourselves from doing so even if we

just felt like camping outside? There is certainly nothing wrong with sleeping outdoors the

rest of the year, so why would we be prohibited on that one night?

Ramban says that in this case, we have a fence around the Torah, an enactment to make

sure we do not actually trespass. But we typically find such enactments to be rabbinic. This

one is in a verse.

Rav Hirsch defines this "word" as "every command which G-d gave us." Thus any change

of any kind to the Torah involves overwriting the will of G-d, placing ourselves in a position

where we believe that we are, chas v'shalom, somehow better than G-d! One cannot believe

in an all-powerful G-d, and at the same time be willing to make changes to His commands

merely because we in our simplicity think we know better.

It is not too hard to accept the idea of doing less than what the Torah commands. But we

might ask, why can I not do more? The Maggid of Dubno answers, "that if one feels that he

has the right to add to the Torah and mitzvos then he will also justify himself when he does

less than he is required." He replies to those who say that making mitzvos easier to tolerate

will draw in more Jews to performance, by saying, "We are not to do less than we are

commanded in the mistaken belief that this will lead to an increase in Torah observance."