In preparation for the parsha of matan Torah
in Yisro.
The Rambam takes almost 2,000 Hebrew words to discuss the 13
Yesodos of our Religion. Only two of those words are
"emes," and only one instance is applied to the Torah
as the last of a list of attributes: Vehakol Toras Hashem
temimoh, tehoroh, ukedoshoh, emes — it is all the
Torah of Hashem that is perfect, pure, holy and true.
A good part of the Torah has nothing to do with the category
of truth and falsehood. The mitzvos and the instructions for
fulfilling them, for example, are not true-or-false —
at least in the way those terms are usually applied nowadays.
It is certainly temimoh, tehoroh, ukedoshoh that we
must keep Shabbos, and it is true that we must keep Shabbos,
but the Commandment, "Remember the Shabbos," is an imperative
statement that is not related to truth and falsehood in a
simple, conventional sense.
In our parshas Beshalach there is the Shiras
Hayam which is an inspiring creation, but how true is
it?
"They went down to the depths like a stone." "Send Your wrath
and consume them like straw." "They plunged like lead in the
mighty waters." Seeing these on our own, we would probably
have interpreted them as figures of speech, poetic flights
expressing the same core fact that Hashem drowned the Mitzrim
in three varied, elegant ways.
But Chazal tell us that these are not just arbitrary similes.
They were chosen deliberately to express an important truth.
The different metaphors describing what Hashem did to the
Mitzrim actually refer to different classes of Mitzrim. The
truly evil ones were punished by being tossed around like
straw. The average Mitzri went down like a stone. The
deserving ones (kesheirim) went down swiftly, like the
heaviest lead.
We learn that even in the chaos and turmoil that must have
ensued when, as the Torah describes so calmly, "the waters
returned and covered the chariots and footsoldiers and the
entire army of Pharaoh," Hashem saw to it that each met
exactly the fate that was appropriate to his previous deeds.
Each of these figures of speech is not a general expression
that applies to all of the Mitzrim, but a specific
description of the fate that met a specific class.
We do not know if this analogy is just meant in a qualitative
way, that there is a slow class, a moderate class and a fast-
sinking class, or perhaps there is actually some quantitative
correspondence, that is, perhaps if we measure how fast a
stone sinks and how fast lead sinks, we would know exactly
how fast those two classes of Mitzrim sank. But in any case,
the main point is not how fast they sank, but to tell us that
the individual death of the Mitzrim was not up to random
forces of nature, but was a Divine moral response to their
deeds.
The Torah is not a collection of true facts about the world
or about the history of our people, but rather a collection
of messages from Hashem to us.
In parshas Bo there is a passage that illustrates
this. Right after Moshe Rabbenu tells Pharaoh about the
upcoming Makkas Bechoros, there is a posuk
which — while it is undoubtedly true — seems to
have no purpose in this particular place. It summarizes the
actions of Moshe and Aharon, saying, "And Moshe and Aharon
performed all these wonders before Pharaoh . . ." (11:10),
and then continues with the chapter about Rosh Chodesh:
And Hashem said to Moshe and Aharon in the land of
Mitzrayim as follows.
Rashi notes that the first posuk is redundant and he
says that it was repeated here only to introduce the
following parsha. As he subsequently notes, "Since
Aharon worked hard to perform the wonders as did Moshe, he
was honored by being included together with Moshe in the
statement of the first group of mitzvos.
The lesson here is obviously one of hakoras hatov. The
Torah repeats a fact that is thoroughly familiar to anyone
who has been following what has been said up until now,
namely, that both Moshe and Aharon were involved in
performing all of Hashem's wonders. But this fact, which is
clearly not important in itself, has a very important point
and that is to give us a lesson in hakoras hatov: that
Aharon deserves special recognition in the Torah for his
efforts.
What is important to us about the Torah is not that it is
true — which it most certainly is — but that it
comes from Hashem, each and every word and sentence. As a
message from Hashem, it is all temimoh, tehoroh,
ukedoshoh, emes. Every word — from the most
esoteric laws of tumah to the seemingly simple lists
of descendants — comes from Hashem to us and carries
"wonders and wisdom for one who understands them and the
ultimate wisdom is not accessible but is longer than the land
and wider than the sea, and one has only to go in the
footsteps of Dovid Hamelech who prayed, `Reveal it to my eyes
that I may see wonders in Your Torah.' "
Our task is to seek these wonders and this wisdom that are
embedded in the Torah by Hashem. Of course it is true —
at least those sentences than can be true. But what we should
seek with all our abilities is the deep and broad wisdom.
