Shavuot 5780

(1) On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai. (2) Having journeyed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain, (3) and Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel: (4) ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. (5) Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, (6) but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

כה תאמר לבית יעקב, “So you shall say to the House of Yaakov.” Moses was to address the women. The word כה, coh, means he was to speak to them in Hebrew. The word תאמר, tomar, means he was to speak to them kindly. The reason God told Moses to address the women first was to teach them ethics and general rules of behavior. Furthermore, in order to make the women receptive for further Torah legislation, Moses gave them an overview of the headings and subject matters that the Torah contains. They needed special preparation for all this as their minds function differently from the minds of men, seeing that their daily tasks did not allow them so much free time to think about their spiritual needs as did the minds of the men.Moreover, a good woman is the main reason Torah has a future. The mother encourages her young son to attend a Torah-academy; seeing she is at home throughout the day she is the one who responds to the various needs, both real and imagined, of her children. She protects them against all kinds of dangers. She does all this so that he will cleave to the path of Torah also when he becomes old (Proverbs 22:6)....

ותגיד לבני ישראל, “and explain in detail to the Children of Israel!” According to Rashi, ...the word ותגיד, v'tagid, which is uncharacteristically spelled with the letter י, yod, in the middle as derived from the word גיד, gid, meaning “a tough sinew,” as a hint that some of the commandments will be found to present a real challenge for those willing to observe them....

כה תאמר לבית יעקב..אתם ראיתם, Thus you shalll say to the house of Jacob:…"you have seen, etc."

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...When God was about to give the Torah to the people He intended to make that event one which would bestow the maximum merit on them. He had two options. First, to address them with words of love and fondness. The result of such an address would be to implant in the people so much love that they would accept the Torah and qualify for the maximum amount of reward. The disadvantage accompanying such a method of giving the Torah would be the risk that the people would begin to feel so familiar with God that they would lose their sense of awe; this could become counterproductive.... In other words, our relationship with God may either be based on the master-servant relationship or on the father-son relationship. If it is the former the feeling of awe before God will be present at all times, whereas if it is the latter there is always the danger that the "son" may take the love of the "father" for granted and abuse it on occasion.

God's second alternative was to address the children of Israel in His capacity as a Master speaking to His servants. The advantage of such an approach was that the Israelites would not dare take any of the commandments lightly. On the other hand, such an approach would make it impossible for them to merit the greatest reward possible.

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Keeping all this in mind, God opted for a method which would combine both approaches. When He told Moses כה תאמר, coh tomar, He meant that Moses should use the following approach: תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד, "on the one hand speak to the people in a friendly soft-spoken approach, but תגיד, tagid, employ also words tough as sinews." ....The בית יעקב, house of Jacob, is a reference to the spiritually less mature part of the people, whereas the term בני ישראל, children of Israel, referred to the spiritual elite. Inasmuch as the elite was capable of accepting the Torah and observing it out of a feeling of love for God, they had to be reminded of the master-servant relationship which exists between God and us; the spiritually less mature section of the people, the בית יעקב on the other hand, had to be won over by stressing the father-son relationship which is part of our relationship with God. Every Jew needs to be aware of this dual relationship at all times....

...Another possible way of explaining the difference in meaning between the expression בית יעקב, "house of Jacob" and בני ישראל "children of Israel" is that the former refers to the people presently at Mount Sinai, whereas the latter refers to as yet unborn generations of Jews.