Sanctifying the People for Torah Like Pure Oil

"And Moses went down from the mountain to the people" (Exodus 19:14). This teaches that he did not go into his house and turn to other matters. And how do we know that whenever he was delivering a mission he would deliver it only in the morning? Scripture says, "And he carved two tablets of stone like the first ones, and Moses rose early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai" (Exodus 34:4). This is the rule for everything he was commanded. Why then does Scripture say "as the LORD commanded him" (there)? Rather, this is a governing principle: whenever Moses was delivering a mission, he delivered it only in the morning. "And he sanctified the people." He separated them from women, because the Torah is called holy, as it says, "and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10). Therefore a person must sanctify himself for it, so that it may cleave to him. And is this not an argument from the lesser to the greater? If for bread and water, without which the body cannot exist, Moses our teacher sanctified himself for forty days until the Torah was given to him, how much more must a person purify himself for it from all bodily defilement. And so it says, "the fear of the LORD is pure" (Psalms 19:10). When is it pure? When a person purifies himself from defilements. Therefore the Torah was likened to oil, to tell you: just as with oil a person can mix in deceit with every other liquid except oil, so too with words of Torah a person cannot mix in deceit. And how do we know the words of Torah were likened to oil? As it says, "therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows" (Psalms 45:8). Another interpretation: "his wife" is pure when a person purifies himself from making use of her. He should not say, "Since I am a sage, people are obligated to serve me, people are obligated to support me." Hillel used to say, "And one who makes use of the crown shall perish." Thus everyone who takes worldly benefit from words of Torah has removed his portion from the world. And if Belshazzar, who made use of the vessels of the Temple, was uprooted from the world, then one who makes use of the vessel by which the world was created, how much more so. Another interpretation: When is it pure? When a person purifies himself from arrogance. Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehudah says: Why do disciples of the wise die young? Not because they commit adultery and not because they rob, but because they are arrogant in themselves. Another interpretation: "the fear of the LORD is pure." When is it pure? When a person purifies himself from the love of silver and gold. For so the prophet says, "If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you" (1 Kings 13:8). And so Elisha says, "As the LORD lives, before whom I have stood, I will take nothing" (2 Kings 5:16). And so Daniel says, "Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another" (Daniel 5:17). Said Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Halafta: Once I was walking on the road, and a man met me and greeted me. He said to me, "Where do you come from?" I said to him, "I come from a great city of sages and scribes." He said to me, "Is it your wish to settle with me, and I will give you a livelihood and silver and gold?" I said to him, "Even if you give me all the money in the world, I will not settle." He said to me, "And you will not accept it upon yourself?" I said to him, "Behold, all the spirits and souls you see in the world all return to dust, and nothing stands by a person at the hour of his death except words of Torah alone. And Jerusalem too was destroyed only because of transgression of the Torah, as it says, 'For the transgression of Jacob is all this' (Micah 1:5)." He said to me, "Blessed is the Omnipresent who set it in your hearts to occupy yourselves with words of Torah, and to trust, and to abandon all the vanities of the world." I said to him, "May it be His will that our envy not rise into the heart of others, and the envy of others not rise into our heart." And I parted from him. Another interpretation: When is it pure? When a person purifies himself from transgressions. Thus, because words of Torah require purity and holiness, it says, "and he sanctified the people." "And they washed their garments." From this I know only the washing of their clothing. How do we know they also required immersion? It is a logical inference: if at a time when they did not require the washing of garments they nonetheless required immersion, here, where they were required to wash their garments, all the more so that they should require immersion.