The Big Change: The Giving of Torah

The Big Change[1]

           

            Probably the hardest part of parenting is time.  I don’t mean the lack of time generated by a child, but I mean the passing of time.  Before, time passed as a function of learning, both in school and yeshiva.  Semesters and different subjects marked that a stage had ended and a new one had begun.  Generally, time would be noticed monthly or bi-monthly at most.  Now, time hurries at a torrid pace.  Each week brings new stages of growth- a smile, a hand grab, a turning over- and therefore, new time periods.  It becomes quite hard to keep up and leaves my imagination hurtling forward to the time that she will be off at school and onwards.  Parenting at this stage is love, patience, and more love, but what will parenting look like in the future, when cuteness give way to chutzpah in some form? Surely, parenting in the same way that I parent now would be absurd, and in fact, a cruelty.  At that stage, real love will be to not fulfill all lacks at a moments notice, but to give her the space to learn to fulfill her own lacks.  This idea parallels the paradigm shift that took place in the relationship between G-d and the world at Mount Sinai in this weeks parsha. 

            In Ethics of our fathers 5:1, it says that the world was created with ten general sayings, ten תורמאמ, or ‘maimoros’ from the language of ‘omer’ or ‘say’.  And at Mount Sinai we did not receive the ‘Ten Commandements’, rather the ‘ten statements’ or the ten תורביד (statements) or dibros, from the language of ‘speak’.  In English the difference between a saying and a statement is not pronounced, but in Hebrew these represent two distinct ways that G-d relates to the world.  A ‘dibur’ is clearly enunciated and directed speech.  It is meant to lead a person somewhere.   An ‘amira’ is soft and does not lead to a specific place, rather suggests.[2]  What changed from before Sinai to after Sinai?

            Basically, G-d created the world with a general morality, a ‘saying’.   One could observe that there was a general logic and order to the world, and infer how to act, which is why the existence of a Hammurabi Code should be expected before the Ten Commandments (even though not really commandments as explained above will refer to them as they are commonly referred).  However, there was little obligation, and despite many immoral years, the world stayed afloat (after the flood that is).  In other words, we were essentially babies, and despite the fact that humans did not technically have merit to exist, for 26 generations, the world continued.  That is G-d, the all loving parent, who had little expectation and related to the world with a complete love.  

            Then, by Mount Sinai, the Israelites had finally become a people, and through the slavery and redemption from Egypt, had grown up so to speak.  The Ten plagues were the transition from the Ten sayings of creation to the Ten statements at Mt. Sinai. They introduced a higher level of justice to the world, and a people ready to grow on their own merits.  We could now handle a ‘statement’, a system based on obligations that leads and directs us.  And the way G-d related to us had now become conditional on our own personal responsibility, and how we handled our obligations.  We now needed to earn our keep.  But again, that is the higher level of love.  That is the love that gives space for the other to grow and develop. 

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[1] Based on  Pachad Yitzak Maimar 47 Pesach

[2] Gur Aryeh 19:3