Lead Tidbit

Torah Popcorn, revisited

Every time Mishpatim or Kedoshim come around, the image of popcorn pops (sorry) to mind.

Here’s how it works. In the Aseret HaDibrot, commandment #6 (for example) consists of a two-word parsha that is part of a single pasuk together with three other commandments (#7, #8, and #9). Those two words are LO TIRTZACH. Hebrew is more compact than English, and the translation of those two words is “You shall not kill”. That’s it for the Aseret HaDibrot in Parshat Yitro (and the version in Va’etchanan, as well).

Picture those two words as being represented by a single kernel of unpopped popcorn. A tiny little thing.

Now let’s heat it up as we start reading this week’s sedra of Mishpatim. MAKEI ISH VAMEIT… One who strikes a man so that he dies, shall surely be put to death. Now we are up to 5 words in the pasuk that need 15 words in English. The kernel has popped and is now much bigger (and tastier) than originally.
But we are not finished. And here the analogy falls apart unless we fantasize that a popped kernel can continue popping and growing and multiplying. It can’t, but if you use your imagination, you’ll see where we go from here.

The next pasuk continues… But for one who had not lain in ambush and G-d has caused it to come to his hand, I shall provide you a place to which he shall flee. More details - important details. That the issue of one taking another’s life cannot be understood from only a two-word command. The Torah in these p’sukim is teaching us the difference between intentional murder and, let’s call it, manslaughter. Or just homicide. We see a hint of IR MIKLAT - not even identified in Mishpatim - which will be presented in much more detail elsewhere in the Torah.

The next pasuk gives us more detail. If a man shall act intentionally against his fellow to kill him with guile, from My Altar (says G-d), shall you take him to die (to be executed).

A few p’sukim later, the Torah tell us more. And the popcorn is increasing to bucket proportions. If men quarrel and one strikes his fellow with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, but falls into bed… If he gets up and goes about outside under his own power, the one who struck is absolved (of a murder charge). Only for his lost time shall he pay, and he shall provide for healing.

This goes on and on throughout the Torah until we have an impressive quantity of Torah popcorn on the one topic of LO TIRTZACH.

Each of the Aseret HaDibrot are similarly “popped” into their own bucket of popcorn.

So let’s run the analogy further (at the risk of running it into the ground). We have not said a word about the Oral Torah yet. About the Talmud and the Codes and the commentaries and the responsa throughout the generations. Perhaps think of them as the seasoning and buttering of the popcorn. It all started from a single kernel. In many cases, volumes can and have been written on mitzvot that have their original expression in the form of a phrase of a few words.
The partial account of Maamad Har Sinai - the receiving of the Torah - in Parshat Yitro is just that - partial. We get a dramatic presentation of the precious kernels upon which the Torah is based - or, if we stick with the analogy, from which the whole Torah is popped.

The episode of Matan Torah continues at the end of this week’s sedra of Mishpatim. Immediately after the awesome events of Revelation at Sinai, the Torah tells us that G-d said to Moshe, Ascend to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I shall give you the Tablets of stone AND the Torah (teaching) AND the body of Mitzva that I have written, to teach them.

We received a lot more from G-d at Sinai than two tablets of stone engraved with the Aseret HaDibrot. That was the chapter headings. That was the package of unpopped kernels. Rashi on this just quoted pasuk says that all 613 mitzot are linked to the words of the Aseret HaDibrot, and that Rav Sadiya HaGaon wrote about the Aseret HaDibrot and the links to all of the Torah’s Mitzvot.

As flippant as the image of Torah pop- corn might appear to be to some TTreaders, do not lose sight of the point we are trying to make.
The Ten Commandments is not the sum total of what G-d revealed to us, gave to us, at Sinai. The whole Written Torah is not the sum total of what G-d gave us at Sinai.

Our Torah, which G-d gave us, consists of the Written Word, the Oral Law, the Tradition, Halacha - a package deal, a precious, multi-layered package deal, that we were “offered” - and which we resoundedly accepted and repeatedly have reconfirmed throughout our history. It is the basis upon which or Nationhood is built. It is our reason for existing. It is that which we must study, cling to, transmit to our children, and live by - forever.

 

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