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During the Har Sinai revelation, God spoke to the nation only the Ten Commandments. He could, for example, give a very different speech, for example, include theology, as He did with Job (38.1):

"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Speak if you have understanding.
Do you know who fixed its dimensions
Or who measured it with a line?
Onto what were its bases sunk? ... Have you ever commanded the day to break,
Assigned the dawn its place,
So that it seizes the corners of the earth And shakes the wicked out of it? ... Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth? If you know of these—tell Me."

maybe discuss cosmology, or repeat the words He said to Moses (Ex 19.3):

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me.
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, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Another option that comes to mind is the blessings, as in Lev 26.3, I bet Israel would love to hear those promises from God's mouth:

"If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and your vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land. [Your army] shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword."

But God chose to dedicate this once-in-history event to relaying the Ten Commandments that, weirdly enough, have no particular importance in Judaism.

Hence my question: why did God's revelation on Har Sinai only include commandments (given that "I'm YHWH thy God" is the first one)?

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  • Before we discuss the more specific question of why only the 10, should we first find out why the Sinai revelation involved commandments at all?
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Aug 28 at 8:56
  • @RabbiKaii Exactly, this is why I phrased it as "only spoke the commandments" instead of "only ten".
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 28 at 12:59
  • I didn't mean that. The way you've worded it, it sounds like you are expecting commandments, but aren't sure why it's only commandments. Shouldn't we establish why commandments at all?
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Aug 28 at 13:14
  • You're familiar with the Sifri on this? The nation only heard the first commandment (or possibly only the first word) directly and were resurrected immediately. (BTW, that's the paradigm for resurrection and the removal of Tumah being part of the final redemption by Moshiach.) That is the meaning behind the language of the opening to the Lecha Dodi prayer said every erev Shabbat.
    – Yaacov Deane
    Commented Aug 28 at 13:34
  • @YaacovDeane I have no clue what you're talking about. Even if we assume resurrection, why does everything had to be frightening?
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 28 at 19:00

2 Answers 2

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The Torah is a contract which Jewish people made with Hashem. We have 2 verses in Vayikra: 25:42 and 25:55: For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants: they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt — I, your God Hashem. According to the p'shat: Hashem took us out of the Egyptian bondage and made us His servants. (Rashi says that His acquisition contract is older, i.e. has priority over anything else). A master or a king open the contract with the list of rules. We are not really "partners".

(Of course one can sweeten it with meaning of true freedom as service of G-d). Sefer Iyov is not a contract, it is a long answer to a question. In fact Hashem did not speak in commandments with anybody in sefer Bereshis.

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  • Right, the Torah is a vassal contract - "if you keep it, you can live here, if not, you're out". Why does it have to be the whole revelation? There are 603 additional commands left out, so there's no rush listing those 10. And, again, He could come up with a nicer opening, summing up the creation, the choice of the patriarchs, etc, as He asked Moses to relay to the people just several verses earlier.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 28 at 6:39
  • Some say that all other 603 are derived from the first 10. The commandments still remain commandments. Wouldn't you be asking about the other ones? Before coming to the Mt. Sinai, Jewish people had preparation, when seeing punishment of Egyptians and their gods and 49 days of travel to recall about the patriarchs (which the slave parents already taught to their children in Egypt).
    – Y DJ
    Commented Aug 28 at 15:40
  • Were you born frum? Because I wasn't, so I don't take the Torah for granted. And I can think of a thousand ways to "make it a better story". Same here, I think there could be a very different experience if God were more intimate and personal.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 28 at 18:50
  • No, I wasn't. Based on Shabbos 88a, if we were at Sinai, it would have been for us beyond our dreams, but the contract would have been signed.
    – Y DJ
    Commented Aug 28 at 19:01
  • If you mean "good dreams". "beyond our dreams," doesn't follow from the text. if you mean "nightmares beyond our dreams" like "God overturned the mountain above the Jews like a tub, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial." you might be right.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 28 at 19:22
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Think about how Hashem rescued us from Egypt, with this whole build up to this great meeting and worship on a mountain. One can imagine how exciting that must have been for Benei Yisrael, and what was going through their mind - the awesome creator of the whole universe, who performs all these wonders on our behalf, and revealed Himself at the splitting of the sea, and has shown His great love for us and desire to be our God and us His people, has done all this for this great meeting! What is He going to say? Was He going to teach them the secrets of Torah and life? Show them the heavens? Take them to Gan Eden?

Turns out, He wanted tell us to be nice to our mother, as well as a list of other dos and don'ts, and that's it? On the face of it, this needs an answer.

The Torah's Mitzvot are not simply a list of dos and don'ts. The revelation at Sinai wasn't a revelation of law. It was a revelation of Hashem. Hashem was telling us that not murdering, being nice to our mother etc. are not just good rules for a society, and Shabbat is not just Hashem's wise idea for us to help us keep families together.

No, the Torah and Mitzvot are Hashem's revelation to us. The whole Torah is informing us about Him - things we wouldn't know unless He told us. He hates murder, absolutely. He needs us to be nice to our mothers - that's an absolute value for Him. It's His Shabbat that He is sharing with us, and inviting us to.

This is why Har Sinai is likened to a wedding between us and Him - He is telling us about Him; what is essential to Him, which we need to know if we are to be wed to Him, to worship Him and to be in this relationship with Him. Just like a marriage, we need to get to know each other. He knows us, but we didn't know Him. The Torah, therefore, is His love note to us, His revelation to us, and the Mitzvot He gives us will enable us to connect to Him and be truly wed, because the Mitzvot are His essential will.

This is based on many Chassidic concepts, including that the Mitzvot are "nogeah b'Atzmus"; Na'aseh v'Nishma and connecting to Hashem as the Baal HaRatzon; and is explained exquisitly by Rabbi Manis Friedman in several shiurim, which I will link here soon.

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  • Thank you, I truly appreciate your effort. It’s a nice Drosho you can say in a shul. First, the Mitzvos in the Torah are a small minority of the text. It was Philo who presented the Torah as the "Mosaic law", rendering the stories somewhat superficial. Here's a test for your hypothesis: imagine the epiphany limited to "I'm YHWH your god" and the rest of the commandments being given by Moses in a regular way (say, in the following Parshas Mishpotim). Would you raise your eyebrows?
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 29 at 12:21
  • I'm confused, do you say "you will do my dishes, you will not cheat on me" to your wife under the Chuppah? The idea of the divine marriage is just another reason NOT to recite commandments, especially interpersonal. Would you mention "don't steal" to your wife?
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 29 at 12:24
  • @AlBerko Thank you very much. a) I didn't say the stories are superficial (even somewhat) b) I think your hypothetical is more dealing with the question of "why these specific mitzvot and not others", which I have not dealt with here and c) I raise my eyebrows a lot when learning Torah for all sorts of reasons :) d) for your second comment: there is a concept of vows at weddings in other faiths. We don't do that at Jewish weddings for [reasons] but that doesn't mean it's difficult to understand the concept of vows at a wedding. There are more angles to approach that with too - it's a great Q
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Aug 29 at 12:24
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    I'm not getting into our disagreements on this topic here, nor do we need to. In this case, the text does not explain, and we need to rely on the tradition, exegesis and genius of our Tzaddikim, as well as analyse what they say to determine if it fits with the text. I of course wouldn't write an answer I don't feel matches these criterea. We could discuss further if you like and explore the sources (which I will get round to adding at some point) and logic. If this answer feels like mere apologetics to you, that's fine by me. It's a public facing answer that hopefully someone will relate to
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Aug 29 at 13:00
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    @AlBerko I'm sure many. As per my answer, the "secret" here is that being nice to our mother, and not murdering etc. are important to Him, not just good ideas. This is the message He wanted to convey by giving us commandments rather than anything else. I am sorry I haven't brought sources yet. I will get round to adding them. I just got excited to write the answer :)
    – Rabbi Kaii
    Commented Aug 29 at 17:38

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