One night, four students stayed out late, completely disregarding the test they had the next day. Before school the next the morning, they hatched a brilliant plan to avoid taking the test. They covered themselves with grease and dirt and went to the principal’s office. They told him all about how their car had gotten a flat tire the previous night on their way home from a wedding, and how they had to spend the whole night pushing it home.
The principal listened attentively to their tale of woe, and kindly offered them a retest on the following day. The students gratefully accepted the offer and spent the whole night studying in anticipation of the test.
When they arrived at the principal’s office the next morning, he separated them into four different rooms before handing them their test papers. The test had only two questions:
What is your name? __________ (1 Point)
Which tire popped? __________ (99 Points)
The Power of Truth
Truth is powerful, crucial, and one of the core values in Judaism. Without truth, we lack a higher purpose, a foundation to our existence. When Klal Yisrael hear the ultimate truth at Matan Torah – the Aseret Hadibrot – they embrace their lofty mission in this world.
We are commanded to treat every pasuk and word in the Torah with equal awe and respect, and yet there is a prevailing custom to stand in shul as the Aseret Hadibrot are read, seemingly attributing unique significance to them. The Aseret Hadibrot are carved above the aron in almost every shul, and we view them as the foundation of the Torah. What is it about these words that merit special treatment? In order to understand the centrality and importance of these Ten Commandments, we must delve into their deeper meaning.
First and Second Luchot
One unique feature of the Luchot is that there were two sets given to us. The original was created by Hashem and given to Moshe, whereas the second set was hewn by the hands of Moshe. However, the difference between these two sets is not simply practical; the two sets of Luchot are fundamentally different. As the Beis Halevi explains, the first Luchot were a transcendent, angelic, other-worldly form of Torah. The entirety of Torah She’bichsav and Torah She’baal Peh was contained within these tablets, and all of it was clear and accessible. After the cheit ha’egel, Klal Yisrael lost access to this Torah, and the second set of luchot provided a relatively limited and human form of Torah (Beis Halevi, derush 18). However, the transcendent reality introduced through the giving of the first set of Luchot remains, and it is worth understanding the impact of this set.
Matan Torah vs. Creation of the World
Hashem created the physical world by expressing the infinite oneness of the spiritual world into a physical world of multiplicity. This world of multiplicity masks the underlying oneness of creation, and it takes great effort to discover and reveal this oneness. Avraham Avinu undertook a lonely spiritual journey toward recognizing and living this truth, but it wasn’t until Matan Torah that the entire world recognized it. When Hashem gave us the Torah, He reconnected the physical world of multiplicity back to its transcendent source of oneness. As such, all of Klal Yisrael received nevuah and experienced the infinite truth of reality.
This idea explains a strange pasuk regarding Matan Torah. The pasuk says that when Hashem gave us the Torah, “ro’im es ha’kolos,” we “saw the sounds” (Shemos 20:15). We don’t see sounds, we hear them. What, then, does this mean?
As we have previously discussed, the spiritual concept of seeing is the idea of observing something as it is in a completely static state. When you see a picture, you grasp the entire image instantaneously. There’s no process of constructing or building the picture in your mind; everything is just there, at once, with no effort. The spiritual concept of hearing, however, reflects movement and a progression of understanding. Hearing requires effort; it necessitates the reconstruction of bits of sound into words and meaning.
This world – Olam Hazeh – is a place of movement, a place of hearing. The transcendent spiritual realm, Olam Haba, is a place lacking movement. It is a place of static perfection, a place of seeing. Matan Torah was an Olam Haba experience that occurred in this world. We all became prophets, transcending the physical world of time and space, experiencing the infinite spiritual nature of reality. In such a dimension, there is no hearing or movement, only sight. Therefore, sounds weren’t heard, they were seen.
Anochi vs. Bereishis
The nature of Matan Torah is indicated in the very words used to describe it. The original creation of the physical world is introduced with the word Bereishis, which begins with the letter beis. The Aseret Hadibrot, and by extension Matan Torah, begin with the letter aleph. The Maharal explains that beis, the second letter of the aleph-beis, represents the concept of multiplicity and twoness. Its numerical value is two, connected to the multiplicity of our physical world. Aleph, on the other hand, is the letter of oneness – transcendence and spirituality – reflecting Hashem and the spiritual dimension. Aleph is the very first letter in the aleph-beis and has the numerical value of one. It is a silent letter, reflecting its spiritual, transcendent nature. It also reflects spiritual elevation, as expressed in many words that have the word “aleph” (aleph, lamed, peh) as their root (shoresh). “Le’aleph” means to teach, elevate, or lift to a higher spiritual dimension; “aluph” refers to the highest-ranking military position; and “eleph” is the highest number in the Hebrew decimal system.
The Torah begins with the letter beis, because Parashas Bereishis begins by describing Hashem’s creation of the physical world, the process of Hashem’s oneness becoming expressed into multiplicity. This process is most appropriately encapsulated by the letter beis – the letter of twoness that stems from oneness.
While the creation of the physical world reflects the finite expression of oneness into multiplicity, Matan Torah was exactly the opposite. The experience of Torah being brought into this world was an ascension from twoness to oneness. This was an experience of Hashem Himself – an unparalleled experience of truth, oneness, and the transcendent spiritual dimension of reality. The Aseret Hadibrot therefore begin with an aleph, the letter of oneness and transcendence. (The Aseret Hadibrot begin with the words: “Anochi Hashem.”)
Emanation
Building on the concepts we have just developed, we can now understand the uniqueness of the Aseret Hadibrot in relation to the rest of the Torah. Many assume that the Aseret Hadibrot are simply the ten most important mitzvot in the Torah, which is why they receive special attention. However, there is much deeper significance to these specific ten mitzvot. Rashi explains that the Aseret Hadibrot include the rest of the mitzvot within them (Shemos 24:12). These Ten Commandments are the fundamental root mitzvot, and the other 603 mitzvot emanate from these ten root categories. [Rav Saadia Gaon describes at great length the breakdown of the mitzvot into their respective categories. It’s also fascinating to note that there are 620 letters in the Aseret Hadibrot, reflecting the idea that the 613 mitzvot and the sheva mitzvot B’nei Noach are all contained within these ten root categories.]
Rav Tzadok explains that just as the 613 mitzvot emanate from the Aseret Hadibrot, all of the Aseret Hadibrot, and by extension, all the mitzvot in the Torah, emanate from the first of the Aseret Hadibrot, “Anochi Hashem.”
This first dibrah declares Hashem’s existence and establishes the necessity of our faithfulness to Hashem and his will. Whenever a person performs a mitzvah, they express their adherence to the first of the Aseret Hadibrot by acknowledging Hashem’s existence and their commitment to fulfilling His will.
Rav Tzadok continues by explaining that the second dibrah, the prohibition of avodah zarah, is the root of all mitzvot lo saaseh (negative commandments). When one denies the will of Hashem, transgressing a negative commandment, he distances himself from Hashem, serving himself instead. This is an abstracted form of avodah zarah, as idolatry is the concept of betraying our loyalty and relationship with Hashem. On a deeper level, when one violates a lo saaseh, it is also a violation of the first dibrah, Anochi Hashem, as this root mitzvah contains within it all of avodas Hashem. When one fails to acknowledge Hashem, they squander the opportunity to fulfill the first dibrah of building a loving connection with our Creator.
A Fundamental Problem
However, there is a major problem. If the Luchot are an expression of the oneness of Torah and the root of our connection to Hashem in this world, then why are the dibrot split into two separate groups, the right side and the left side? Why fragment the ultimate expression of oneness into two separate pieces? In our next article, we will delve deeper into this topic in order to build a paradigm through which we can answer this question on a profoundly deep level.
