Shabbat VaEtchanan: Law or Lore
The reading from the Torah this week is remarkable in that it combines the two most important texts in the Torah.
First is the Ten Commandments, which appear in the Second Book of the Torah, Shemot, known as Exodus, where Moshe received the Torah on Sinai. Here in the last book of Devarim, known as Deuteronomy, the 10 commandments are repeated. And almost immediately afterwards follows the first paragraph of the Shemah which we recite every day and throughout our lives.
The whole of the book of Devarim consists of a farewell speech by Moshe going back over the history of the 40 years in the wilderness and reiterating the fundamental laws and principles that were both given on Sinai and expanded on throughout the Torah. But there are minor differences between the two texts of the ten commandments. In Shemot, the Torah says Zachor, Remember the Shabbat to keep it holy. In Devarim, it says Shamor, Keep the Shabbat. In Shemot, the reason for the Shabbat is that Hashem created the world. But in Devarim, it says we should keep it because we were slaves in Egypt.
People often ask why the two texts are different. Couldn’t Moshe agree on one version? Either Remember or Keep the Shabbat? And why two reasons for the Shabbat instead of one? There is a difference between an academic approach and a traditional one. I am dealing with tradition here.
Human language is limited. We can only use one word at a time and sometimes concepts are more complex. They need several words to give the full picture. It is one thing to remember something or someone, but it’s a different thing to do something about it. But since you can’t say two words at the same time, we have two to add layers and additional dimensions and they are complementary, you need both. And keeping the Shabbat for a spiritual reason is not the same as doing it for a physical reason, to relax and take it easy. Creation is the spiritual reason, and freedom from slavery is the physical one.
The same logic applies to why when Moshe goes over the Torah, he adds a new variation that clarifies the message of the Torah.
Here in Devarim, he puts the first paragraph of the Shema close to the 10 Commandments. He could have put it somewhere else. He connects the two because as he gets to the end of the book, he wants to talk about both the legal issue of the Commandments and the moral and spiritual issues of how we relate to Hashem. We need both to get a full picture of the richness of Jewish life and how we should behave as human beings. As Jews and as citizens of the universe.
We sometimes object to there being too many rules and laws and sometimes we forget the spirit of the law. Sometimes we get so carried away with our own lives we tend to forget our moral and religious obligation both to God and to other human beings. So just as with the ten commandments one version compliments the other, so by Moshe putting down the 10 commandments as the core of the legal practical Jewish way of life, he makes sure that the spiritual concept of the Shemah, which includes our being the people of Israel with responsibility for each other, we also have a commitment to behave in a way that the Torah requires of us morally and spiritually. It’s not always easy to be a good person. It can take a lot of our energy and determination. But that’s the challenge of life, to do our best and accept we are all different. As a famous Hassidic master said: “When we get to heaven, we will not be asked why we weren’t Moshe. We will be asked why we weren’t ourselves!
