The Era of Har Sinai

Avraham Avinu had reached such a level that the power of evil could no longer lead him away from where pure intellect would hold. Nevertheless, he still had not reached the level of Adam HaRishon before the sin, when he had pure seichel hapashut, when he had no evil in him and nothing to distort his pure intellect. Avraham Avinu did not achieve that madreigah. When Avraham took the knife to shecht Yitzchak, he cried. He was ready to do it, but he cried. The power of Avraham’s intellect was so strong that anything that stood in his way, he was able to beat with his mind— as we saw with the Akeidah. [He didn’t want to do it, but he could make himself do it.] But that which concerns internal nature, such as shedding tears, he still retained; he had not reached the level of absolute intellect like Adam HaRishon had before the sin. [Avraham was able to overcome it completely, but it was there.] This is the level of the greatest people who lived after Avraham Avinu, such as Shem, Ever, and the sons of Yaakov Avinu. [In the many generations that followed, the great people were indeed at the level that they were able to overcome like Avraham Avinu—but they had to overcome.] None of them came to the level of Adam HaRishon before he sinned, when he was pure intellect. The foul-smelling pollution that the serpent put into them did not go away and was not removed until the time of Matan Torah.

However, at Matan Torah, Bnei Yisrael reached such a high level that their “bad smell” ceased completely and they became like Adam HaRishon before the sin. What made them rise to this madreigah was their declaration of “Naaseh v’nishma. We will do and we will hear.” At that time, they decided on their own that they will live how the Ribbono shel Olam wanted them to live, without any accommodations. They will not choose anything other than what the Torah chooses for them. They will have no doubts or questions about whether to accept the Torah or not, to do or not to do. They said, “Naaseh—We will do it.” That means to say: We are ready to do the will of Hashem, like an angel does, without questions. And the essence of “nishma—we will hear” was just to clarify how to do it.

Therefore, at the time Bnei Yisrael said “naaseh v’nishma,” a bas kol (heavenly voice) rang out and said, “Who revealed this secret to my children?” (Shabbos 88). This means to say, Who revealed to them that gigantic roadblock which stands in the way of becoming a complete person—that is, that a person always wants to know before he does? He asks before he does something: Is it necessary, or not? Should I do it, or not? He has a deep suspicion that evil will befall him from it, or maybe he will not be able to continue living this way. Who told Bnei Yisrael that to stand on the madreigah of Adam HaRishon before he sinned, without any influence of nature or desires, without any question of what to accept upon oneself or what not to accept— a pure intellect, prepared to do anything the Ribbono shel Olam wants—in order to remain there, one must root into oneself this yesod: to precede the nishma with the naaseh. Such a person will not ask, “Should I do it or should I not do it?” There is no question about accepting or doing, or partial questions. Rather, he tries only to give himself over to whatever the Torah will choose for him. His mind is focused only on understanding how to do, what to do, but not whether to do. And having done all this, the generation of Matan Torah achieved the uplifted level of Adam HaRishon before the sin. As soon as they said “Naaseh v’nishma,” the poison of death left them altogether and they became immortal.

Do not wonder how they made for themselves a golden calf after they had achieved such a strong and clear recognition and understanding [and had returned to the level of being pure intellect, unaffected by the senses], for it is known that the Erev Rav were among them. If we look into the matter, we will find that there is nothing to wonder about, because the Torah says: “They saw Moshe was late [boshesh]” and Chazal explain that you have to break up the word so that it reads “‘Ba’u shesh—The sixth hour arrived’ and they made a mistake in counting the days” (Shabbos 89). Further, Chazal said about “For this man, Moshe” (Shemos 32:23) that they saw Moshe lying dead on a bier (Shabbos 89). [The word zeh in the pasuk indicates that they were pointing at Moshe.] How can we blame them? What could they have done otherwise once they made such a mistake? And for the calf itself we also cannot blame them, as they made it only as a leader that will “go before us” (Shemos 32:23). There truly was room for error, because they thought Moshe had died, and who knows what happened to him until now?

Indeed, the Ramban writes, “Falsehood has no feet.” (See Shabbos 104, and it is also brought in Rashi on Mishlei 12:19.) What does this mean? Evil really does not have what to hold on to; it is just an illusion, something that grabs your eye, but it is not real. It is referred to as “pocus,” a magic kind of thing, with which to fool people and take their money. Its power is in its speed. [The hand is quicker than the eye.] They move so fast to do this “pocus” that a person cannot look at it as he should. Had he given it a sharp glance, he would have seen the trick and falsehood. It is only its wondrous speed that causes the visual sense to err.

That is exactly how the yetzer hara works. He cannot portray the sin as a good thing [because a sin does not look like a good thing]. The strength of the yetzer hara is in its speed; by the time a person starts to look and think, the deed is already done and the person is still standing there with his thoughts. The wicked do not leave their way even though they know it is bad and bitter. The yetzer hara rushes him, and he is going very slowly in response. That is why he is always being beaten by the yetzer hara.

At the incident of the golden calf, the Satan was unable to show in an incontrovertible way that Moshe was dead and the angels were carrying him, because in actuality it was not true. What he showed them was an illusion that quickly fooled them and made them err. [The speed caused them to make a mistake.] Had they been able to see sharply, they never would have seen what they saw. As proof of this, when Moshe commanded: “Whoever is with Hashem, come to me,” all of Shevet Levi gathered around him [proving they were all righteous]. If everyone thought the illusion [of Moshe being dead] was true, why did Shevet Levi not worry about it as well? They knew that it was just an illusion. Whoever wanted to err, erred. Shevet Levi did not want to err, so they didn’t. Bnei Yisrael were guilty of not looking closely enough, and to this they added the mistake of the six hours. Shevet Levi saw that “Moshe died” was false, so “the sixth hour” also did not push them to make an eigel, because they waited: maybe he will come.

From the maaseh ha’eigel, we ourselves can judge in our lives that the ways of the yetzer hara are illusions. Illusions are effective when you have to rush decisions. We have the choice whether to go that way or not. When we make a mistake, we can learn that we are responsible from the fact that Shevet Levi did not make such a mistake. [This means that it is possible to avoid the mistake if we really wish to, even when the thing is very rapid. Since they avoided sin, we too can avoid it.] We can understand from this that the sin was not so simple, because even after Bnei Yisrael committed the sin of the golden calf, they did not completely descend from the high level they were on. The Ramban explains the pasuk, “And after the golden calf, nobody put his jewelry on” (Shemos 33:4) to mean that their recognition of the sin was so strong, deep, and clear that they chose to give up their immortality in order to be forgiven for the cheit ha’eigel.

When Moshe came down from heaven and the Torah he had accepted was in his hands, he had to teach Klal Yisrael the Laws of Elokim and His Torah. Moshe sat by himself to judge the nation, until Yisro came and asked him, “What are you doing?” Moshe answered back: “The people are going to come to me to ask what the Ribbono shel Olam wants” (Shemos 18:15). The simple explanation is that they came to have dinei Torah. But the words are “lidrosh Elokim”—to seek Elokim. What does that mean? Moshe said: “The dinei Torah that come to me are very different from the cases that go to a regular beis din, where this person says ‘it’s mine’ and that one says ‘it’s mine.’ These people are all coming to seek the word of Hashem. They are not coming to say ‘I want to win the case,’ but, rather, ‘What does the Ribbono shel Olam say? Maybe it’s yours, maybe it’s mine.’” (Chazal say the words imply that these were regular dinei Torah: One person says, “You stole my slave,” and the other says, “I didn’t steal your slave.” The next day, when the manna fell, they could see how many portions fell near each dwelling and they could tell to whom the eved belonged, because a portion of manna fell for the eved also [Yoma 75]. Chazal seem to say that the dinei Torah were monetary dinei Torah. Even though some cases had to do with money, like regular dinei Torah, most of the dinei Torah involved people who wanted to know what Hashem has to say about their case.) Moshe adds, “I have to let them know what Hashem’s laws ]and commands are. [Therefore, I can’t tell them as a group;] I have to tell them individually what path they should follow.”

On this, Yisro answered Moshe: “This is not a good thing that you’re doing. You’re going to just wear yourself out, as well as the nation” (Shemos 18:18). If they were only coming to ask, for example, is this a theft or not a theft, is this considered stealing, then you yourself could handle it all. But you have to tell them the way they should live and the actions they should do, how they should approach things, which path to go on, what they should emphasize, what their derech in life should be, what their avodas hachaim is. To each person, you have to answer according to his nature and tendencies. You have to recognize each individual who comes to you, his spirituality should be clear to you, and what he needs. You cannot do this by yourself. It takes a lot of time and effort to understand each individual’s personal situation. Therefore, you have to choose the elevated people from among them and teach them how they can teach others the derech. “You will make them officers of a thousand, of a hundred, etc...” If you will not teach them how to clarify the derech Hashem for each individual, what will become of them after you die, when you can no longer show them the way to go?

And this is what Moshe did: he picked the best men, taught them, and then they taught others. These others then taught others, and the cycle continued. Each person was both a teacher and a student, influencing his fellow and being influenced by him. This is how Bnei Yisrael did it—the teaching and learning—until the time of the prophets.