Shabbat Parashat Yitro - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Yitro - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Moshe came and summoned the elders of the people and placed before them

  all these words that God had commanded him. [Shemot 19:7]

  And all the people answered together and said, everything that God has

  spoken we shall do. Moshe brought back the words of the people to God.

  [Shemot 19:8]

According to our verses, Moshe called together the elders, spoke to them, then

all the people answered. Was Moshe speaking to all the people that they should

respond? Did the elders ever answer?

Ramban gives two answers. The first is that the elders represented all the people

so any response they would give was made on behalf of the entire nation. Ramban's

second answer refers ahead to verse 24:3 when Moshe actually does say over all

this directly to the people, and they all reply as one. With this, Ramban indicates

that the Torah is summarizing like events and leaving out various details, and the

sequence is slightly out of order.

Or HaChayim understands that Moshe knew the people would be easier to convince

if he first got the elders on board. Like Ramban, this means the Torah left out some

details, but unlike Ramban he does not need to proceed to 24:3, rather the sequence

was that Moshe spoke to the elders, the elders spoke to the people, the people replied.

Malbim reads into our verses an entirely different meaning. Moshe knew that the

people would accept what he relayed from God. However, the erev rav, the mixed

multitude of non-Jews who came out of Egypt with the Jews, were another story.

They did not like the arrangements dividing the congregation by tribe and levels,

which did not include them, but they wanted the same spiritual greatness and

prophecy promised to the Jews, and equality in all things physical or spiritual.

They considered themselves equal to the elite of Israel, meaning they should

have direct access to God without requiring Moshe as an intermediary. As equals

thus to Moshe, they warranted the Torah being given directly to them by God.

According to Malbim, this explains "the entire people answered together", that

this excluded the erev rav. It also explains the end of our second verse, "Moshe

brought back the words of the people to God" that Moshe did not bring to God the

words of the non-Jews.

Onkelos looks at a slighty different aspect of these verses. Instead of "he placed

before them all these words", Onkelos writes "he arranged before them all these

words". This seems to imply that Moshe reworded what God had said in order to

teach to his audience. Following him, Ibn Ezra says "transmitted orally", Saadiah

Gaon translates "taught them", and Mechilta says "enlightened their eyes". While

none of those three have the same level of implication, they all follow with the

idea of teaching, which has to be performed at the various levels of the students.

We could then understand that Moshe taught the elders and also taught all the

people at their different levels, and that all, including the elders, responded

together to Moshe.