Parshat Yitro5 min read

Sinai Came in the Month of the Twins and the Tablets Faced Each Other

Wicked Esau could still walk in and learn, God said, and pointed at the calendar. That was the whole answer the nations were given.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Complaint the Nations Had Ready
  2. The Name of a Judge Came Down on the Mountain
  3. Ten Words in One Breath
  4. The King's Face on Every Coin
  5. What Faced What Across the Stones
Sinai Came in the Month of the Twins and the Tablets Faced Each Other Click for full size

The Complaint the Nations Had Ready

The nations of the world had their answer ready long before Sinai ever smoked. Had He given it to us, we would have kept it.

God did not argue with them. He pointed at a calendar.

Look at which month I gave the Torah in. The third one, and its sign in the sky is the Twins. If wicked Esau ever comes to turn back and join, let him come and learn Torah. A month with two in it keeps a place open for the second one.

The Name of a Judge Came Down on the Mountain

When the verse reports who spoke, it uses Elohim, and that is the name of a judge, one who exacts payment for a wrong and is reliable about handing out a reward.

Not a force. Not a weather event on a summit. Someone who keeps accounts in both directions came down on that rock.

Ten Words in One Breath

He said all ten of them at once, in a single utterance, which no mouth of flesh and blood has ever managed. Say I am the LORD your God and you shall have no other gods before Me in one breath, both of them whole, both of them hearable at the same instant. Nobody can.

Then He went back and said them again one at a time, each word standing by itself, so that the people at the foot of the mountain could take them apart and hold them.

Only these ten came that way. The rest of the commandments arrived the ordinary way, one after another, the way anything is taught.

The people answered out of the smoke after each one, and the sages could not agree on what they said. Rabbi Ishmael said they answered yes to the ones that told them to do and no to the ones that told them not to. Rabbi Akiva said they answered yes to both, taking even the prohibitions as something to reach for rather than something to keep away from.

The King's Face on Every Coin

Five words were cut into one tablet and five into the other, and the two tablets mirrored each other, right against left, so that every command had a partner staring back at it.

I am the LORD your God stood opposite You shall not murder.

A king comes into a province. The people set up his portraits along the roads, carve his likeness, strike coins with his face on them, and for a while every hand in the province is holding him. Time passes. They turn the portraits to the wall. They break the statues. They file the faces off the coins, and by evening the king is a smaller man in his own country.

Whoever spills blood is charged with that afternoon's work, because a human being was made in the image of God, and the stamp on the metal is His.

What Faced What Across the Stones

You shall have no other gods stood opposite You shall not commit adultery, because a man who serves idols is written down as one who has committed adultery against the Place, and the prophets said it in exactly those words when they called Israel the woman who strays.

You shall not take the Name in vain stood opposite You shall not steal, because the thief comes to the false oath sooner or later. Stealing and murdering and adultery and swearing falsely, said Jeremiah, and he put them in that order for a reason.

Remember the Sabbath stood opposite You shall not bear false witness, because a man who keeps the seventh day is testifying that the world was made in six days and rested on the seventh, and a man who profanes it is testifying that it was not. You are My witnesses, says the LORD.

Honor your father and your mother stood opposite You shall not covet, because the man who covets ends up raising a son who curses his own father and pays honor to a man who is not his father at all.

Then the sages fell out over the layout itself and never settled it. Five here and five there, said one side. Ten on this stone and ten on that one, said the other, the whole law written out twice, once on each slab, because the words were spoken to the entire assembly and not half to one crowd and half to another.

Yalkut ShimoniSinaiTorahTen CommandmentsCommandmentsRevelationMidrash
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 271:3Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

"In the third month" (Exodus 19:1). Why in the third month? Because it is Gemini, the Twins, so that the nations of the world should have no opening to say, "If He had given us the Torah, we would have fulfilled it." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: see in what month I gave the Torah, under the sign of Twins, so that if wicked Esau comes to convert and repent, he may come and study Torah.

Rabbi Yudan son of Rabbi Simon opened: "Many daughters have done valiantly" (Proverbs 31:29). The first human was commanded six commandments; Noah was commanded concerning a limb from a living animal; Abraham concerning circumcision; Isaac was initiated on the eighth day; Jacob concerning the sinew of the thigh; Judah concerning the levirate woman. "But you have risen above them all" (Proverbs 31:29): you at Sinai received six hundred thirteen commandments, two hundred forty-eight positive commandments corresponding to the limbs of a person, each limb saying to a person, "Perform this commandment through me," and three hundred sixty-five negative commandments corresponding to the days of the solar year, each day saying to a person, "I beg you, do not commit this transgression through me." "Grace is false, and beauty is vain" (Proverbs 31:30): false was the grace of Noah, "Noah found grace" (Genesis 6:8); vain was the beauty of the first human, for the heel of the first human dimmed the orb of the sun, all the more so the form of his face. Above them all, "a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised" (Proverbs 31:30): this is Moses. "Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates" (Proverbs 31:31). Rabbi Yose ben Zimra said: why does Scripture compare the prophets to women? Just as this woman is not ashamed to demand the needs of her house from her husband, so the prophets are not ashamed to demand Israel's needs from before the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: My children, read this section every year, and I will account it to you as though you are standing before Mount Sinai and receiving the Torah. As it is said, "on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai" (Exodus 19:1). When? In the third month.

Rabbi Yudan opened: "He delivered me from my strong enemy" (Psalms 18:17), this is Pharaoh, as it is said, "the enemy said" (Exodus 15:9). "And from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me" (Psalms 18:17), these are the Egyptians. "They confronted me in the day of my calamity" (Psalms 18:18), according to one opinion this is Pharaoh, and according to another opinion this is Amalek. Above them all, "the LORD was my support" (Psalms 18:18). "He brought me out into a broad place" (Psalms 18:19), for He gave me the Torah, which is "broader than the sea" (Job 11:9). "He rescued me, because He delighted in me" (Psalms 18:19). Rabbi Yochanan said: His resolve rose up to give me the Torah. When? In the third month. Rabbi Yitzchak opened: "Sustain me with raisin cakes" (Song of Songs 2:5), with two fires: the fire of Moriah and the fire of the bush. Another interpretation: with the fire of Abraham and the fire of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Full source
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 285:4Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

"And God [Elohim] spoke" (Exodus 20:1): "Elohim" means none other than a Judge who exacts punishment and is faithful to pay reward. "All the words": this teaches that the Omnipresent spoke the Ten Commandments in a single utterance, something impossible for flesh and blood to do, as it says, "all the words." And why does Scripture then say, "I am" and "You shall have no"? It teaches that the Omnipresent spoke the Ten Commandments in a single utterance and then went back and specified each utterance on its own.

I might think that even all the commandments in the Torah were spoken in a single utterance; therefore Scripture says "these." These words were spoken in a single utterance, while the rest of the commandments in the Torah were spoken each one on its own.

"Saying" [lemor]: this teaches that they would answer of yes, yes, and of no, no. These are the words of Rabbi Ishmael. Rabbi Akiva says: of yes, yes, and of no, yes.

Full source
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 299:1Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

Translation of the source text.Torat Emet (Yalkut Shimoni) · CC-BY-NC

Our Rabbis taught: "We testify concerning so-and-so that he is liable to forty lashes," and they were found to be scheming witnesses, they receive eighty lashes: by reason of "You shall not bear false witness" and by reason of "You shall do to him as he schemed to do." These are the words of Rabbi Meir. But the Sages say: They receive only forty. And the Rabbis, this "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," what do they expound from it? A warning to scheming witnesses. And Rabbi Meir, from where does he derive the warning to scheming witnesses? He derives it (Deuteronomy 19:20) from "And those who remain shall hear and fear." And the Rabbis, they need that for the proclamation. And Rabbi Meir, the proclamation is derived from "they shall hear and fear." How were the Ten Commandments given? Five on one tablet and five on the other tablet. It is written, "I am the Lord your God," and corresponding to it, "You shall not murder." Scripture tells you that whoever sheds blood, Scripture reckons it to him as though he diminished the likeness (of God). A parable of a king of flesh and blood who entered a province, and they set up images for him and made statues of him and minted coins; after a time they overturned the images, broke his statues, and invalidated his coins, and so diminished the likeness of the king. So too whoever sheds blood, Scripture reckons it to him as though he diminished the likeness, as it is said (Genesis 9:6), "Whoever sheds the blood of man," and so forth, and it is written (ibid.), "for in the image of God He made man." It is written, "You shall have no other gods," and corresponding to it, "You shall not commit adultery." Scripture tells you that whoever worships idols, Scripture reckons it to him as though he committed adultery, forsaking the Omnipresent, as it is said (Ezekiel 16:32), "the adulterous wife," and so forth, (Hosea 3:1) "And the Lord said to me, Go again, love a woman," and so forth. It is written (verse 7), "You shall not take (the Name in vain)," and corresponding to it is written, "You shall not steal." Scripture tells you that whoever steals will in the end come to swear a false oath, as it is said, "Stealing, murdering, and committing adultery, and swearing falsely," and it says (Hosea 4:2), "Swearing falsely and lying and murdering." It is written, "Remember the Sabbath day," and corresponding to it, "You shall not bear false witness." Scripture tells you that whoever desecrates the Sabbath testifies before the Holy One, blessed be He, that He did not create His world in six days and did not rest on the seventh day; and whoever keeps the Sabbath testifies before the Omnipresent that He created His world in six days and rested on the seventh, as it is said (Isaiah 43:12), "You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and I am God." It is written (verse 12), "Honor your father," and corresponding to it is written, "You shall not covet." Scripture tells you that whoever covets will in the end beget a son who curses his father and honors one who is not his father. Therefore the Ten Commandments were given five on this tablet and five on that tablet. (And the Sages say: ten on this tablet and ten on that tablet,) as it is said, "These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly," and so forth, and it says (Song of Songs 4:5), "Your two breasts are like two fawns," and it says (ibid. 5:14), "His hands are rods of gold," and so forth. One verse says, "You shall not covet," and another verse says (Deuteronomy 5:18), "You shall not desire." How can these two verses be reconciled? This is a warning to one who pursues after the adulterer.

Full source