A Thought on Parshas Yisro

"...Va'yidaber Elokim es kol ha'dvarim ha'eleh le'emor...." "...and the Lord spoke all of these words to be said..." (20:1) At the peak of Sinai, the words of the Torah were spoken by HaShem so that all of the Jewish nation could hear them. The opening line here, our verse, introduces the Torah as it was given to us at Sinai. At first glance, one might wonder why this introduction is needed... The Gan offers us a little anecdote. He says that he heard from the Master and Rabbi Avshorer the son of Rabbi Aharon of Vitry that there is a midrashic thought that anyone who answers "Amen ye'hae Shmae rabba me'vorach" with all his might is considered as if he became a partner in HaShem's creation of the universe. He is also regarded as having heard the Ten Commandments straight from HaShem at Sinai." (Amen ye'hae Shmae rabba me'vorach l'olam l'almae ul'maya translates as May His Great Name be eternally blessed). Rabbi Avshorer then mused: if one looks at that phrase, which is the response which we say to Kaddish during davening, we find 7 words and 28 letters. If we look at the first verse of Bereishis - where HaShem creates the universe - we also find 7 words and 28 letters. If we then look at our own verse above, it too has 7 words and 28 letters. This, he suggests, may be how the midrash knew to make this drasha: since we find identical numbers of letters and words in the Genesis and the Decalogue verses, then reciting the Kaddish response with fervor conjures up both of those sacred moments in history. A person's earnest declaration of HaShem's greatness and sovereignty during the Kaddish captures an echo of those epochal events, in the conceptual and quantitative aspects of its words. By calling out our conviction that HaShem's power and greatness are infinite and endless, we hint at His miracles of creation, and we hint at His manifest might of crashing through the firmament in making the Divine word tangible and accessible in the form of our holy Torah. The Gan then cautions that this idea would require that we in fact limit the "ye'hae Shmae" to 28 letters. In most versions of the Kaddish, there are 29 letters. He advocates our deleting a "vav" from the clause "u'l'almae ul'maya" (and forever and ever). He opines that we should instead say "l'almei ul'maya" - forever and ever. Some sources cite the "Shliach Tzibur of Troyes" as having used this nusach. Other Rishonim bring that practice as well. This week's thought from the Gan is not so much a commentary on a verse's meaning, but rather an insight into a deeper layer of latent meaning with which to embrace our own grasp of how we can appreciate a part of our daily davening. Good Shabbos. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/