As we complete Parashat Yitro, following the exalted and uplifting experience at Har Sinai, when Bnei Yisrael received the Torah, Moshe says to the nation: “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of God may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray." Moshe hastens the people. Says the Mekhilta: “To make known the wisdom of Moses - how he would stand and appease the thousands and tens of thousands," quoting Shlomo, “Wisdom is more of a stronghold to someone wise than ten magnates" (Kohelet, 7:19).
“For God has come only in order to test you" - says Rashi, “in order to exalt you in the world (Mekhilta) - that you may obtain a great name amongst the nations because He has revealed Himself to you in His Glory." This is the first purpose of this test. The second is, “Through the fact that you see that He is feared and dreaded you will know that there is none beside Him and you will therefore fear Him and not sin," that is disgrace. It is a good merit for a person to be modest, because the value of modesty causes one to fear sin.
Ramban (Nachmanides) disagrees with Rashi and maintains that the phrase “to test you" does not mean to elevate you in order to praise you, but rather refers to an actual test. In other words, Hashem comes to accustom you to have faith in Him. For after He overtly revealed the Divine Presence to you, your faith in Him entered your hearts so that you would cleave to Him, and from then on your souls would never part from Him. Likewise, “so that His fear shall be upon your faces" - so that you will see that He alone is God in heaven and on earth, you will fear Him with great awe. Alternatively, it means that the fear of this great fire will be upon your faces, so that you will not sin out of fear of Him.
Ramban adds and cites the words of Rambam (Maimonides) in Moreh Nevochim [The Guide for the Perplexed], that the purpose of all that the people saw at the giving of the Torah was to enable Israel to withstand future trials that Hashem would place before them. For example, if a false prophet were to arise at some time in the future and attempt to contradict what one had heard at Har Sinai, they would never stray from the path of truth, for they have already experienced the truth with their own eyes. Thus, Ramban continues, He has removed all doubt from your hearts, and from now on it will be evident whether you truly love Him and desire Him and His commandments. This is the meaning of the “test."
Perhaps there is no contradiction between the two interpretations, and one actually complements the other, for it is obvious that Hashem elevated Israel to praise them at Har Sinai, and at the same time that experience prepared them to withstand future trials of their faith with which the Creator of the World would test them.
In any event, immediately after Moshe speaks to the people, “Moses approached the thick cloud where God was." Rashi, citing the Mekhilta, explains that Moshe entered beyond three partitions: darkness, cloud, and thick fog - darkness on the outside, a cloud within, and thick darkness in the inner sanctum. The Meshech Chochmah explains that these correspond to three barriers: the sensory, the perceptual, and the imaginative. Moshe’s prophecy was through an “aspaklaria me’irah" [a clear lens] (Yevamot 49b), meaning without the need for using any kind of imagination.
The author of Merkavat HaMishneh explains that Moshe entered a place into which even the ministering angels had no permission to enter, corresponding to the site of the Holy of Holies. As the Torah had not been given to the angels, they brought Moshe into the inner place, so that he might understand the secrets of the Torah. The Baal HaTurim, citing Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, claims that although Moshe, as a leader, knew how to strengthen the people, because of his great humility he did not approach the thick darkness of his own accord. Rather, the angels Micha’el and Gavriel took Moshe by both hands and brought him before the Divine Presence against his will. When Moshe entered this innermost place, Hashem conveyed to him the most fundamental message that he would bring to the people of Israel: “GOD said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens; With Me, therefore, you shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods of gold."
“Thus shall you say to the Israelites" - similar to the Birkat Kohanim [priestly blessing], where it says, “Thus shall you bless the people of Israel" (Bamidbar, 6:23): say it to them exactly as stated, without any modification. Such is the service of Hashem - there is none besides it, and it may not be amended.
At first glance this sounds puzzling: how does the fact that Hashem spoke from heaven constitute a sufficient reason and explanation for the prohibition of idolatry? Moreover, this prohibition is now being repeated after it has already just been stated in the second of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image." Furthermore, this was one of the two commandments which were spoken directly by Hashem. Why, then, is this commandment specifically repeated here? And what does this message add to the revelation of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, an unparalleled event in which Israel merited to participate - an exalted event that never was and never will be again? And if that was not enough, immediately afterwards Hashem continues speaking to Moshe and commands him to build an altar.
“Make for Me an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you." Initially it is difficult to understand the connection between the prohibition of idolatry and the commandment to build an altar. Moreover, the altar is one of the vessels of the Tabernacle, and its place would seemingly be in Parashat Terumah, which details the Tabernacle and its vessels. Why, then, is the commandment to build the altar inserted here, together with instructions about its ramp and the technical details of its layout and ascent? “And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them." Hashem concludes this section with the requirement of modesty for one who ascends the ramp to the altar: “Do not ascend My altar by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it."
It seems that we must consider these questions from the perspective of the exalted state in which the Israelites found themselves at these moments of revelation at Har Sinai. During these moments they attained an exceptionally high level of spiritual perception, surpassing even that reached at the splitting of Yam Suf [the Red Sea], where, as we read last Shabbat, “even a maidservant at the sea saw what the prophet Yechezkel son of Buzi did not see." Hashem Himself testifies to this glorious state: “You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens." Rashi explains that there is a difference between what a person sees and what others merely tell him - between sight and hearing - for when something is only heard, one’s heart may still waver in belief. Moreover, the Scripture testifies that “All the people witnessed the thunder," a high level at which the senses of sight and hearing merged into one.
At the moment the commandments were given, each and every man and woman sensed the revelation of the Divine Presence, seeing how the words emanating from the mouth of the Almighty were engraved upon the Tablets (Mekhilta).
After the splitting of Yam Suf, the people reached a high level of faith, as it is written: “They had faith in GOD and in Moses-God’s servant." But now, an entire nation rose from the level of faith to the level of knowledge, for they were witnesses to the foundational event of the Israelite nation. From that point onward, says Rabbi Pinchas Wolf, our thought and knowledge, our language and even our imagination, are the result of tradition. The first commandment, “I am the Lord," and “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image," were spoken directly by Hashem; therefore, from that high level of seeing Hashem speak from heaven, it is clear that there is no place for making gods of silver or gods of gold. “With Me, therefore, you shall not make" - there is no place for duality, and no place to turn any of My servants into a deity, as in Christianity.
This passage serves as an “executive summary" of the Ten Commandments, which themselves are an abstract of all 613 commandments. This is Ramban’s explanation: Moshe was commanded to tell them, after you have seen with your own eyes that I spoke with you from heaven, and that I am the Master of heaven and earth, do not associate Me with gods of silver or gods of gold, for with Me you have no need for any other helper. In the Ten Commandments, the Torah warned against the belief in an idol or image; and here repeatedly warns against making them, “You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars" (Vayikra, 26:1).
Here, the altar of earth appears, because of the faith-based need to connect heaven and earth. An altar of earth serves to connect the physical to the spiritual, the earthly to the transcendent. This is the reason that it stands upon the ground itself, not upon supporting pillars or any other base. Rashi notes that during the Israelites’ journeys in the wilderness, they would fill its hollow with earth. “For I am the Master of heaven and earth," in the words of Ramban. Rashi addresses this union of heaven and earth by noting the apparent contradiction: one verse says, “From the heavens I spoke with you" (Shemot, 20:18), while another says, “GOD came down upon Mount Sinai" (Shemot, 19:20). The third verse resolves the conflict: “From the heavens you could hear the divine voice to discipline you; on earth you could see the great divine fire" (Devarim, 4:36).
So we say: “His glory is in heaven, but His fire and His might are on earth." The heavenly Jerusalem corresponds to the earthly Jerusalem. Man’s role is to invoke the Name of the Holy One, thus sanctifying the earthly realm: “In every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you." This way the people of Israel fulfill the very purpose of their existence on earth: “The people I formed for Myself; that they might declare My praise" (Yeshayahu, 43:21). This connection is achieved through an altar of stones. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that the purpose of the altar is not destruction. Rather, its purpose is the preservation of life. Therefore, the Jewish altar is not sanctified by the sword, an instrument of killing and violence, but by the rule of justice and kindness. This is why the section of Mishpatim (civil laws) immediately follows the section of the altar - to teach us that the Sanhedrin should be placed beside the altar (Rashi, Shemot, 21:1). This proximity is not merely spatial, but even more so, conceptual.
As the Talmud states (Shabbat, 10a): “Any judge who judges a true judgment truthfully, even if he sits in judgment only one hour, the verse ascribes to him as if he became a partner to the Holy One, Blessed be He, in the act of Creation," through which Hashem created and joined heaven and earth. Therefore, when the altar is nullified, the Sanhedrin is nullified; when man’s connection from below to his God who is above is severed, the connection from above to below is also severed, and capital cases are no longer judged (as explained by my teacher Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli, of blessed memory, in Siach Shaul, p. 251). The Meshech Chochmah cites the Talmud Yerushalmi (Bikkurim 3:3), which links “gods of silver" to corrupt judges, stating that a judge appointed through money is not accorded honor, and his cloak is like a donkey’s saddle. He added that such a judge is so corrupt that his garment does not even constitute a barrier for ritual immersion, unless stained on both sides - he has no honor whatsoever.
Thus, an altar of stones, and not of iron, symbolizes the difference between power and judicial ruling based on force, and life based on Jewish law and righteousness, which connect earth to heaven, the physical to the spiritual, grounded in the knowledge that “I spoke to you from the very heavens" (Shemot, 20:19). Ramban explains that the sword represents the power of Esav, who lives by the sword. Esav is despised by the Holy One, as it is written: “and I have rejected Esau. I have made his hills a desolation, his territory a home for beasts of the desert" (Malachi 1:3) and therefore, the sword is kept far from the altar. Rabbeinu Bachya writes that this explanation is the most correct of all.
This path of serving Hashem requires, and can only be realized through, modesty and humility. Therefore, on the one hand, “And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them" (Shemot, 20:22) while on the other hand, “Do not ascend My altar by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it" (Shemot, 21:23). The Kli Yakar explains that Hashem wished to demonstrate matters of humility through this altar, whereas the sword represents arrogance, as in the verse, “your Sword triumphant" (Devarim, 33:29). Thus, lifting the sword profanes the altar and “Do not ascend My altar by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it" (Shemot, 20:23)
Ascending by steps implies one’s rising from one level to the next and such an ascent can be complemented by a sense of arrogance and haughtiness. It is not fitting for such an ascent to be marked by crudeness in a place where “True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit" (Tehillim, 51:19). As the Malbim explains, the primary sacrifice that Hashem desires is a “contrite spirit" - that a person breaks his inner spirit, which is the ability that raises images upon the heart, so that he no longer creates corrupt imaginings, but only images of wisdom and fear of God. This, God accepts as a sacrifice.
Regarding the altar of earth, Rabbi Eliezer says that it refers to the copper altar, for the altar removes harsh decrees, sustains the world through the merit of the offerings, endears Israel to their Father in heaven, and atones for their sins (Ketubot, 10b).
We thus learn that immediately after giving the Torah, the Creator of the world conveys the essence of divine service to the people of Israel through His faithful servant; the internalization of knowing God, transmitted through Jewish tradition since the revelation at Har Sinai. Through this tradition, we merit to observe Your laws, fulfill Your will, and serve You with a whole heart, in modesty and humility learned from the altar of the earth.
May it be Hashem’s will that we soon merit the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash, with the Kodesh Hakodashim, joining heaven and earth together.
The author is the chairman of the Tzifha International real estate company.