torah: rabbi david etengoff

Kedoshim T’hihyu: You Shall be Holy

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Rabbi Chiya, in Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 24:5, teaches us that our parasha was taught to the entire nation (b’hakhal) “since the majority of the Torah’s fundamental principles may be found therein.” In contrast, Rabbi Levi suggests a different reason why Kedoshim was stated b’hakhal, “Because the Aseret Hadibrot (the ten utterances) are contained therein.”

He proves his contention by quoting verses in our parasha that correspond to the Aseret Hadibrot as found in Sefer Shemot, Parashat Yitro, chapter 20. One telling example (20:2) will suffice: Shemot contains the mitzvah of believing in the existence of Hashem — “Anochi Hashem Elokecha” (“I am the L-rd your G-d”). Our parasha has the very similar phrase (19:2) of “Ani Hashem Elokechem” (“I am the L-rd your G-d”). The midrash presents this parallelism on a commandment-by-commandment basis. While there are substantive grammatical and hence, exegetical differences between these two formulations, there is little doubt that this is a recapitulation of the Decalogue. 

The repetition of these commandments in our parasha led the famous Spanish Bible commentator, Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yehuda Abravanel (1437-1508), known as the Abarbanel, to ask: “What induced the Blessed One to command Moshe to speak to the entire assemblage of the Jewish people and motivate them (vayazhiram) regarding the Aseret Hadibrot? They had already heard them at Mount Sinai and they were written on the Tablets of the Law. Moreover, they already knew them. [Therefore,] what was the purpose of their repetition?”

His two-part answer is fascinating: “It is proper that the Holy One commanded Moshe to gather the entire assemblage of the Jewish people together, motivate them regarding all of these commandments, and remind them of the ten utterances and the essence of the commandments, since all of this was preparation for the enactment of the covenant [into which they entered] as found at the end of this sefer, in Parashat Bechukotai.”

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