Parshat Yitro: Seeing the Big Picture

(1) God spoke all these words, saying: (2) I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: (3) You shall have no other gods besides Me. (4) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the LORD your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, (6) but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments. (7) You shall not swear falsely by the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not clear one who swears falsely by His name. (8) Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. (12) Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that the LORD your God is assigning to you. (13) You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (14) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house: you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s. (15) All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance. (16) “You speak to us,” they said to Moses, “and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.” (17) Moses answered the people, “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.” (18) So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was. (19) The LORD said to Moses: Thus shall you say to the Israelites: You yourselves saw that I spoke to you from the very heavens: (20) With Me, therefore, you shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods of gold. (21) 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. (22) 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. (23) Do not ascend My altar by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it.

However, bread, which is essential, they asked for appropriately. Therefore, it was given to them appropriately, in the morning, when there was time to prepare it. The Gemara comments: From here, the Torah teaches etiquette, that it is proper to eat meat only at night, as Moses said to the children of Israel: “This shall be, when the Lord will give you in the evening meat to eat” (Exodus 16:8). The Gemara asks: But didn’t Abaye say that someone who has a meal should eat it only in the day? The Gemara answers: We mean to say: Like day. It is not necessary to eat the food in the daytime, as long as one can see what he eats. Rabbi Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: At the beginning, the Jewish people were like chickens pecking at the garbage; any time there was food they grabbed it and ate it, until Moses came and set specific times to eat, as the verse implies. He set mealtimes for them in the morning and in the evening. It was stated with regard to the quail: “While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people” (Numbers 11:33), which means that they died immediately. However, it also states: “You shall not eat it for only one day…but for an entire month until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you” (Numbers 11:19–20). How can these texts be reconciled? The average people died immediately, but the wicked continued to suffer in pain for a month and then died. The verse states: “And they spread them [vayishteḥu] out for themselves round about the camp” (Numbers 11:32). Reish Lakish said: Do not read it as vayishteḥu. Rather, read it as vayishḥatu. This teaches that the enemies of the Jewish people, a euphemism for the Jewish people themselves, were liable to receive the punishment of slaughter due to their demand. The verse states: “Spread out [shato’aḥ]” (Numbers 11:32). A tanna taught in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa: Do not read it as shato’aḥ but as shaḥot. This teaches that other food fell for the Jewish people along with the manna. The food was something that requires ritual slaughtering [sheḥita], referring to birds. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: And do you learn this from here? Do we need to alter the word for this purpose? Isn’t it already stated explicitly: “And he rained meat upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas” (Psalms 78:27)? And it was taught in a related baraita: Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: The verse states: “Then you shall slaughter of your herd and of your flock which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you” (Deuteronomy 12:21). This teaches that Moses was commanded in the laws of ritual slaughter to cut the gullet and the windpipe in the neck. And with a bird one must cut through the majority of one pipe, and with an animal one must cut through the majority of both pipes. Moses was commanded these laws along with the other details of slaughtering. According to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the word shatoaḥ does not teach us about ritual slaughter. Rather, what is the meaning when the verse states: Shatoaḥ? It teaches that the manna fell in layers [mashtiḥin] in a straight row. With regard to the manna, it is written “bread” (Exodus 16:4), and it is written “oil” (Numbers 11:8), and it is written “honey” (Exodus 16:31). How can we reconcile these verses? Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: For the youth it was like bread, for the elderly it was like oil, and for the children it was like honey. Each received what was appropriate. The Gemara comments further: The word quail is written shlav, with the letter shin, but we read it as slav, with the letter samekh. What does this teach us? Rabbi Ḥanina said: The righteous eat it in peace [shalva], based on the written form of the word; whereas the wicked eat it, and it seems to them like thorns [silvin], based on the way the word is read. Furthermore, with regard to the quail: Rav Ḥanan bar Rava said: There are four types of quail and these are they: Sikhli, and kivli, and pasyoni, and slav. The best tasting of all is the sikhli. The worst of all is the slav. The Gemara relates how tasty even the quail was that the Jews ate in the desert: It was as small as a sparrow, and they would place it in the oven to roast, and it expanded until it filled the entire oven. They would place it upon thirteen loaves of bread, and even the last loaf on the bottom could be eaten only when mixed with other food, due to all the fat it had absorbed from the quail. It is told that Rav Yehuda found quail among his barrels of wine, and Rav Ḥisda found quail among logs of wood in his storeroom. Every day Rava’s sharecropper brought him a quail that he found in his fields. One day, he did not bring him one because he failed to find any. Rava said to himself: What is this, why is today different? He went up to the roof to think about it. He heard a child say the verse: “When I heard, my innards trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble where I stand; that I should wait for the day of trouble when he comes up against the people that he invades” (Habakkuk 3:16). Rava said: Learn from this that Rav Ḥisda has died. I am therefore not worthy to receive the quail anymore, since it is on account of the teacher that the student eats. When Rav Ḥisda was alive, Rava received the quail due to Rav Ḥisda’s merit; now that he had died, Rava was not worthy to receive the quail. § Furthermore, with regard to the manna it is written: “And when the layer of dew lifted, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14), indicating that the dew covered the manna. And it is written: “And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it” (Numbers 11:9), meaning that the manna fell on top of the dew. How can these verses be reconciled? Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: There was dew above and dew below, with the manna in between, and the manna appeared as if it were placed in a box [kufsa] of dew. The verse describes the manna as “a fine flaky [meḥuspas] substance” (Exodus 16:14). Reish Lakish said: Meḥuspas means it was a substance that dissolved [maḥ] on the palm [pas] of the hand. Since it was so fine, it dissolved upon contact. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It was a substance that was absorbed in all 248 limbs, the numerical equivalent of the word meḥuspas. The Gemara expresses surprise at this: If one calculates the value of the letters in the word meḥuspas, it is more, totaling 254. Rabbi Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Meḥuspas is written in the Torah without the letter vav. Therefore, the total is exactly 248. The Sages taught: The Torah states: “And He caused manna to rain upon them for food, and He gave them of the grain of heaven. Man did eat the bread of the mighty [abirim]” (Psalms 78:24–25). “Bread of the mighty” is bread that the ministering angels eat; this is the statement of Rabbi Akiva. When these words were said before Rabbi Yishmael, he said to them to go and tell Akiva: Akiva you have erred. Do the ministering angels eat bread? It is already stated about Moses, when he ascended on high: “Bread I did not eat and water I did not drink” (Deuteronomy 9:9). If even a man who ascends on high does not need to eat, certainly the ministering angels do not need to eat. Rather, how do I establish the meaning of the word abirim? It can be explained as bread that was absorbed into all 248 limbs [eivarim], so that there was no waste. The Gemara asks: But if so, how do I establish the verses: “And you shall have a spade among your weapons, and it shall be that when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig with it, and shall turn back and cover your excrement” (Deuteronomy 23:14) and “You shall have a place also outside the camp where you can relieve yourself ” (Deuteronomy 23:13). From here we learn that there was waste in their bowels, as they had to leave the camp to relieve themselves. The Gemara explains: This waste was not a byproduct of the manna; it was from food items that the gentile merchants sold them. Rabbi Elazar ben Perata disagrees and says: The manna caused even items that the gentile merchants sold them to be completely digested, so that even other food that they ate produced no waste. But then how do I establish the verse: “And you shall have a spade among your weapons”? After they sinned, the manna was not as effective. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: I initially said that they would be like ministering angels who do not produce waste; now I will trouble them to walk three parasangs to leave the camp in order to relieve themselves. How do we know that the Israelite camp was three parasangs? As it is written: “And they camped by the Jordan from Beth-Jeshimoth to Abel-shittim” (Numbers 33:49), and Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: I saw that site and it was three parasangs in length. And a baraita taught: When the Jews relieved themselves in the desert, they did not relieve themselves ahead of themselves, i.e., in the direction of their travel, nor to the side of the camp, but behind the camp, in a place that they had already traveled. Consequently, those near the front of the camp had to walk a distance of three parasangs from their homes to leave the camp. Furthermore, with regard to the manna, the verse states Israel’s complaint: “But now our soul is dry, there is nothing at all; we have nothing beside this manna to look to” (Numbers 11:6). They said: This manna will eventually swell in our stomachs and kill us; is there anyone born of a woman who ingests food but does not expel waste? This supports the Gemara’s claim that the manna did not create waste. When these words were said before Rabbi Yishmael, he said to them: Do not read it as abirim. Rather, read it as eivarim, limbs. The manna was something that was absorbed by 248 limbs. But, how do I establish “And you shall have a spade among your weapons”? From the food items that came to them from overseas lands. Rabbi Yishmael disagrees with Rabbi Elazar ben Perata with regard to the effect the manna had on the digestion of other foods. Alternatively, “Man [ish] did eat the bread of the mighty” (Psalms 78:25);

Another explanation for zeh hadavar: “Take with you words. . .”(d’varim, Ho 14:3). This is what is meant by what is written: “I wash my palms with cleanliness and circle your altar, Yahh, to voice thanks aloud and to tell of all your miracles.” (Ps 26:6f) One might also offer bulls and rams, but exegesis says to voice thanks aloud. Accordingly, Jews say, “Ribon HaOlam (“master of the universe”), leaders sin and bring and bring a korban (“offering”) and it atones for them. The mashiach sins and brings a korban and it atones for him. We, we have no korban.” He said to them: “And if all the congregation of Yisrael stray–and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the community–and they are guilty of doing one of the negative commandments of Yahh, then, if the sin guilt for which they sinned becomes known, the community shall offer a bull of the herd as a sin offering.”(Lev 4:13f) They say to him, “We are poor and we have not what to bring for korbanot.” He says to them, “Words, I request, as it is said, ‘Take with you words and return to Yahh’ and I annul all your misdeeds.” These words are none other than divrey Torah, as it is said, “These are the d’varim that Moshe spoke to all Yisrael.(Dt 1:1) They said to him, “We do not know.” He said to them, “Weep and pray before me and I accept it. Your ancestors, when they were enslaved in Mitsrayim, it wasn’t for prayer that I redeemed them, as it is said, ‘The B’neiYisrael groaned from the work and cried out.’(Ex 2:23)In the days of Y’hoshua it wasn’t for prayer that I made miracles for them, as it is said, ‘Y’hoshua tore his garment and fell on his face before the ark of Yahh till evening.’(Jos 7:6) So what did I say to him? ‘Hold out the spear which is in your hand towards The Ai, for I give it into your hand.’(Jos 8:18) In the days of the Judges, with weeping I heard their outcry, as it is said, ‘It happened, when the B’neiYisrael cried out to Yahh on account of Midyan.’(Ju 6:7) In the days of Sh’muel it was not in prayer that I heard them, as it is said, ‘Sh’muel cried out to Yahh on behalf of Yisrael and Yahh responded to him.’(Sam 7:9) And similarly the men of Y’rushalayim, even though they had angered me, because they wept before me I had mercy on them, as it is said, ‘For thus said Yahh, “Sing out joy to Ya’akov. . .”(Jer 31:7) Oh, I request from you not sacrifices and not korbanot but words, as it is said, ‘Take with you words. . .’ This is why David said, ‘I wash my hands with cleanliness’ not intending to make an offering but to voice thanks aloud, for I am thankful to you for divrey Torah.

Then the Lord said unto Moses: “Behold, I will cause to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law, or not” (Exod. 16:4). R. Simeon the son of Gamliel said: Observe how dearly the Holy One, blessed be He, loved Israel that he altered, for their sake, the natural order of things. The Holy One, blessed be He, made the heavenly spheres become like the lower spheres, and the lower spheres to become like the upper spheres, for their sake. Previously, bread came from the earth and water descended from heaven, but now He caused bread to descend from the heavens and water to come out of the earth, as it is said: Behold, I will cause to rain bread for you, and when the layer of dew was gone up (Exod. 16:14).

so one interrupts for havdala? People eating a meal on Shabbat until after nightfall must interrupt their meal to recite havdala. The Gemara inquires: What is the meaning of the phrase: One interrupts? Is it not referring to removing the table? The Gemara answers: No, it is referring to spreading a cloth, which is sufficient for havdala as well. The Gemara relates: Rabba bar Rav Huna happened to come to the house of the Exilarch. His hosts were reclining for a meal, and the attendants brought a table before him so he could eat as well. Since Shabbat had already started, he spread a cloth over the food and recited kiddush. That was also taught in a baraita: And the Sages agree that one may bring the table only if he has already recited kiddush; and if one brought out the table before kiddush, he should spread a cloth over the food and recite kiddush. It was taught in one baraita: Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei, who disagree over whether it is permitted to eat from minḥa time on Shabbat eve and whether one must interrupt his meal, agree that one may not begin a meal from this time. And it was taught in the other baraita that they agree that one may begin a meal. The Gemara explains: Granted, that which was taught in the first baraita, that Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei agree that one may not begin a meal, you will find that this is correct with regard to the eve of Passover, as even Rabbi Yosei concedes that one may not start a meal on Passover eve ab initio. However, with regard to the other baraita, which taught that Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei agree that one may begin, when does this halakha apply? If we say it is referring to the eve of Shabbat, this cannot be the case, as it was taught that Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei indeed disagree over whether one may start a meal at that time. The Gemara answers: It is not difficult: Here, the baraita in which Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei agree that it is permitted to start a new meal, is referring to before nine hours of the day have passed, as everyone agrees that it is permitted to commence a meal at this time. Conversely, there, the baraita in which they disagree over whether it is permitted to start a new meal, is referring to later in the day, after nine hours. The Gemara continues to discuss the halakhot of kiddush: With regard to those people who recited kiddush in the synagogue, as was customarily done at the conclusion of the prayer service on Shabbat night, Rav said: They have not fulfilled their obligation to recite a blessing over wine. That is, the blessing over the wine in the synagogue does not enable them to drink wine at home without an additional blessing. However, they have fulfilled their obligation of reciting kiddush. And Shmuel said: