Parshas
Yisro
The
Ten Commandments: A Pangrammatic Lipogram
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיְדַבֵּר
אֱלֹקים
אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לֵאמֹר:
אָנֹכִי
ה'
אֱלֹקיךָ
אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם
מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים:
לֹא
יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל
פָּנַי:
לֹא
תַעֲשֶׂה לְּךָ פֶסֶל |
וְכָל
תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם |
מִמַּעַל
וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתַּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר
בַּמַּיִם |
מִתַּחַת
לָאָרֶץ:
לֹא
תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם
כִּי אָנֹכִי ה'
אֱלֹקיךָ
אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל
בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים
לְשׂנְאָי:
וְעֹשֶׂה
חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי
מִצְוֹתָי:
לֹא
תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם ה'
אֱלֹקיךָ
לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה ה'
אֵת
אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא:
זָכוֹר
אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ:
שֵׁשֶׁת
יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָל
מְלַאכְתֶּךָ:
וְיוֹם
הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת |
לַה'
אֱלֹקיךָ
לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה אַתָּה |
וּבִנְךָ
וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ
וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר
בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ:
כִּי
שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה ה'
אֶת
הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם
וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם
הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ ה'
אֶת
יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ:
כַּבֵּד
אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן
יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר
ה'
אֱלֹקיךָ
נֹתֵן לָךְ:
לֹא
תִּרְצָח:
ס
לֹא תִּנְאָף:
ס
לֹא תִּגְנֹב:
ס
לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר:
לֹא
תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶך ס
לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדּוֹ
וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל
אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ
“Hashem
spoke all these words, to say: 'I am Hashem, your G-d who took you
out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. There shall not
be unto you the gods of others before Me. You shall not make for
yourself a graven image or any picture of that which is in the
heavens above or on the earth below or in the water beneath the
earth. You shall not prostrate yourself to them nor worship them, for
I am Hashem, your G-d – a zealous G-d, Who visits the sin of
fathers upon their children, upon the third and upon the fourth
[generations], for thousands for those who hate Me; but Who does
kindness for thousands [of generations], for those who love Me and
observe My commandments. You shall not take the Name of Hashem, your
G-d, in vain, for Hashem will not absolve anyone who takes His Name
in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days shall you
work and do all your work; but the seventh day is Shabbos to Hashem,
your G-d; you shall not do any work – you and your son and your
daughter, your slave and your maidservant and your animal, and your
convert within your gates – fir in six days Hashem made the heavens
and the earth and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh
day. Therefore, Hashem blessed the Shabbos day and sanctified it.
Honor your father and mother, so that your days will be lengthened
upon the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you. You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not
bear false witness against your fellow. You shall not covet your
fellow's house. You shall not covet your fellow’s wife, his
maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your
fellow.”
-Yisro
20:1-14
When
learning about various religions in school, teachers teach their
young students about how Judaism believes that Moses went up on Mount
Sinai to receive from G-d the luchos
(tablets)
with the Aseres Ha'dibros (Ten
Commandments) on them. These students are taught that it is the Ten
Commandments alone we are obligated to keep and the rest of the Torah
is merely a recording of our travels as an early nation and what we
claim to have experienced. There are numerous things wrong with this
message. First, although Moshe did go up to receive the luchos
from
Hashem and was taught the entire Torah by Hashem Himself, every
single member of B'nei Yisroel
heard
Hashem reveal to us and announce that He is the One and Only Hashem.1
Second, Judaism contains a lot more commandments than just the Aseres
Ha'dibros.
We have 613 mitzvos which
further translate into thousands of details and intricacies, minhagim
(customs),
and rabbinic decrees. Third, the purpose of the Torah is not as a
history book, nor as a rulebook.
However,
let us focus on the middle point. Judasism is extremely complicated.
Calling it a religion does not really do it justice, nor does even
terming it a lifestyle. It is broader and more encompassing than all
of these, in one word it is reality. It is the instruction manual
which guides us how to approach becoming a perfect person in this
world. We believe the world has a purpose and each individual has his
or her own reason to be here that must be accomplished on a personal
level, as well as a connection and role to each community, the nation
as a whole, and the world at large. In the hierarchy of the world
there are varying levels of groups of people and each tier has its
own slew of mitzvos. Kohanim,
levi'im,
men,
women, children, goyim
– each group has its own expectations and abilities and the mitzvos
commanded to each group perfectly reflects what is necessary to
maximize its potential. The mitzvos
that
we have as a nation are not limited to the Aseres
Ha'dibros,
however, there is some truth to the claim, for the taryag
mitzvos
are indeed represented by it. As a matter of fact, the Ba'al
Ha'Turim2
points
out that the gematriya
(numerical
value) of the introductory line to the Aseres
Ha'dibros:
“Hashem spoke all these words, saying:” is the same as the
sentence, “Everything contained in the Written and Oral Torah”.
Furthermore, the Rosh3
points
out that the Aseres Ha'dibros
is
comprised of 613 letters and that when the Torah commands that a
Jewish king must have a Torah on him at all times, it refers to the
Aseres Ha'dibros.
Somehow, hidden within the Aseres
Ha'dibros lay
the roots for the entire Torah and its mitzvos.
A
pangrammatic lipogram is when a piece of work contains every letter
in the alphabet except for one. A common example is, “The quick
brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”, which contains every letter in
English alphabet except for “S”. Pangrammatic lipograms are not
necessarily hard to create, it just depends which letter the author
chooses to leave out. Leaving out any high-valued tile in scrabble is
not particularly difficult because most sentences could be created
without letters such as J, Q, X, and Z. However, skipping more common
letters such as S, T, or any vowel, is much harder. In 1939, Ernest
Vincent Wright wrote a novel titled Gadsby, It was advertised
as a story with over 50,000 words without the letter E. Not only did
the author completely omit the letter E, he even omitted acronyms and
abbreviations which if spelled out would contain the letter E. So,
for example the abbreviation, Mr., is not used because spelled out
would be “mister”. There is no doubt that such a work is quite an
accomplishment. Not too many people could boast such a talent.
However, as amazing as it is, it is not significant. It is nothing
more than a feat, a hobby, and a pointless accomplishment for
bragging rights.
Given
what we know about the significance of the Aseres
Ha'dibros,
and how they represent the taryag
mitzvos as
a whole, it only makes sense that it should contain all the letters
of the Hebrew alphabet. However, the fascinating fact is that it does
not! There is one letter missing: the letter tes.
And unlike Gadsby,
the pangrammatic lipogram that the Aseres
Ha'dibros present,
is indeed significant. The Aseres
Ha'dibros represent
a mini version of the whole Torah. How could it be that a single
letter - the letter tes –
is absent
in such a crucial part of the Torah?
Truthfully,
this question is not a new one. The Gemara4
records that Rebbe Chanina ben
Ogil asked Rebbe Chiya bar
Abba: “Why in the first set of luchos
does
it not use the word 'tov'
(good),
whereas in the second set of luchos,
it does use the word tov?”
Rebbe Chiya bar
Abba replied, “You are asking me why
it says 'tov'
in the second luchos,
but you should be asking me if
it has the word tov or
not! Go to Rebbe Tanchum bar
Chanina,
who is usually by Rebbe Yehoshua ben
Levi
who is an expert in aggadah
[and
ask him].” He went to him and the answer he received was that since
the first luchos were
to be broken, Hashem did not want to put the word tov
in
it in order that we should not conclude that when we sinned with the
eigel ha'zahav (golden
calf), that goodness completely deserted K'lal
Yisroel.
When
reading this Gemara,
a number of questions come to mind. First, Rebbe Chanina ben
Ogil seems to be so focused on the fact that it does not say the word
tov.
Why did he not ask our question that at least there should be a tes
in
the Aseres Ha'dibros?
Was this question somehow either included in his own or perhaps dealt
with with the final explanation of the Gemara?
Second,
what did Rebbe Chiya bar
Abba mean when he replied that the real question was whether the
second luchos had
tov or
not? Certainly he knew that the second luchos
contain
an expression of tov,
so why did he send Rebbe Chanina ben
Ogil to go ask? What would they be able to tell them that they could
not figure out for themselves? Just open any chumash
and look to see if there is a lashon
(expression)
of
tov in
the second luchos?
The
Ramban5
writes
that there is no letter
tes in
the first luchos because
the letter tes represents
the word tov
and, as the aforementioned Gemara
established,
Hashem did not want the word tov
in
the first luchos because
since they ended up being smashed He did not want to give Klal
Yisroel the
impression that tov had
permanently left them. The Ramban
explains
further that the reason that the letter tes
represents
tov
more than any other word beginning with tes,
or any other letter that could be used to construct a word related to
goodness or kindness, is because the first time the letter tes
is
used in the Torah is for the word tov;6
that gives it a special significance and intricate relationship
between the letter itself and kindness.
However,
still, how do we understand the conversation taking place in the
Gemara?
The
Malbim7
writes
that the word tov is
really only needed as a reference point. Just like if there would be
no such thing as darkness there would be no expression referring to
light, so too without there being ra
(evil)
in the world, there is no need of an expression of tov;
everything would just be that by definition. The Malbim
continues
that we know the passuk
(verse)8
describes
the luchos as
the script of Hashem etched on the luchos.
The word the Torah uses for etched is “charus”.
The mishna9
comments
that the word charus without
punctuation could also be read as “cheirus”
- which means freedom, for one who involves himself in learning is a
true free man. The Malbim
takes
this a step further that with this dual meaning of reading charus
as
cheirus,
there is a machlokes (dispute)
whether it refers to the fact that had we not sinned with the eigel
ha'zahav, we
would have been free from death or if it would just mean that we
would not have had to become slaves to other kingdoms throughout our
history. So, it comes out that ra
only permanently came to stay in the world after the story of the
eigel and
we had to get the second set of luchos.
.The second set has the letter tes
and the word tov because
at that point when there is an expression of ra
in
the world, the expression of tov
became
necessary.
However,
with this understanding it comes out that when it says tov
in
the luchos it
is not really such a great thing after all because hidden behind the
word tov is
the fact that there is also ra,
which is why the expression of tov
is
necessary. The Malbim
continues
and writes that this actually depends which side of the machlokes
one
takes. If one holds that the first luchos
would
have given the opportunity to have cheirus
from
death, then indeed it comes out that now that B'nei
Yisroel
sinned with the eigel,
the tov
in the second set of luchos is
not really so good after all because it also represents the ra
that
entered the world. However, according to the one who holds that the
first set of luchos without
sin would have just guaranteed our own peace and kingdom as a nation
throughout history, without being under the rule of the goyim,
but that death would have still been part of reality, then really it
could have and should have said tov
in
both sets of luchos equally.
This, the Malbim
writes, was precisely what Rebbe Chiya bar
Abba meant when he told Rebbe Chanina ben
Ogil that the real question is whether it really says tov
in
the second luchos or
not – in other words, of course it says tov;
but when it says tov in
the second set of luchos after
having been absent for the first, perhaps it is really bad because it
represents the new layer of ra
(i.e-
death) brought into the world. On the other hand, perhaps it does not
represent such a dramatic addition of death. He sent him to the
master of aggadah to
figure out how to learn, and the response was that really it does say
tov in
the second pair of luchos
because
the change was not as dramatic as adding the element of death into
the world, but rather something which the first set of luchos
should
have said as well. However, because the first luchos
were
going to be broken, Hashem took out the letter tes
and
the word tov in
order that it should not be broken with the luchos
and
give despair to K'lal Yisroel
that
goodness had been permanently removed.
If
we stop to think about what the Malbim
is
telling us, it is absolutely incredible. He is learning from the
gemara that
really the word tov should
have been in the first set of luchos.
The mini version of the Torah, should have of course contained all
the letters of the aleph-beis
and
should have even contained the full expression of tov.
However, Hashem took it out because he did not want to leave any
room for an erroneous feeling of depression among K'lal
Yisroel that
Hashem smashed tov
and removed it from us. How incredible Hashem is that even during the
time of the worst sin K'lal
Yisroel
did as a nation, He is still so sensitive to our feelings that He
removed in advance from what should have technically been included in
the Torah in order for us not to feel the additional distance and
despair when the luchos would
be broken.
We
could take from here an incredible lesson that we should all know
inherently but often times forget: Hashem has faith in us; that is
why we are still alive! Even when we do fall and do incredibly bad
things, Hashem does not give up on us. He keeps investing in us, so
to speak, and continues to 'root' for us with a confidence that we
could accomplish what we are supposed to. There is always hope for
every single individual in K'lal
Yisroel,
and there is always hope for K'lal
Yisroel
as a nation. Who else believes in such a loving and caring G-d?
“Praiseworthy is the people that Hashem is their G-d!”10
1Shemos
20:15-16
2Shemos
20:1
3Shemos
20:14
4Bava
Kamma 54b-55a
5Kisvei
Ha'Ramban – Ha'Emuna V'Habitachon end
of Perek 19
6See
Beraishis 1:4
7Malbim:
Ha'Torah V'Hamitzva 20:12
8Shemos
32:16
9Avos
6:2 (could vary based on
edition)
10Tehillim
144:15
Photo Credit: http://thecripplegate.com/10-commandments-and-evangelism/
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