Aseret HaDibrot - What Did Bnei Yisrael Hear at Mount Sinai and Understanding Ta'am Elyon?

Rabbi Simlai taught: There were 613 mitzvot stated to Moses in the Torah, consisting of 365 prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot corresponding to the number of a person’s limbs. Rav Hamnuna said: What is the verse that alludes to this? It is written: “Moses commanded to us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 34:4). The word Torah, in terms of its numerical value [gimatriyya], is 611, the number of mitzvot that were received and taught by Moses our teacher. In addition, there are two mitzvot: “I am the Lord your God” and: “You shall have no other gods” (Exodus 20:2, 3), the first two of the Ten Commandments, that we heard from the mouth of the Almighty, for a total of 613.

(2) את כל הדברים האלה ALL THESE WORDS — This statement (that God spoke all these words) tells us that the Holy One, blessed be He, said all these words in one utterance, something that is impossible for a human being to do, to speak in this manner. Now if this is so, why does Scripture again say the first two Commandments, אנכי and לא יהיה לך? Because He repeated and expressly uttered each of the dibrot individually (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:1:1).

1040, France: (2) משה ידבר MOSES SPOKE — When Moses was speaking and proclaiming the Commandments to Israel — for they heard from the Almighty’s mouth only the Commandments אנכי and לא יהיה לך, whilst the others were promulgated by Moses — then the Holy One, blessed be He, assisted him by giving him strength so that his voice might be powerful and so become audible (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:19:2).

Maharal of Prague, d. 1603: On Rashi - And even though Bnei Yisrael understood nothing, He said all 10 as a single utterance, to convey that the entire Torah is a single entity and a single utterance. For the entire Torah can be extracted from the 10 dibrot (which will be explained in parashat Mishpatim). And since the 10 dibrot were said in a single utterance, the entire Torah is a single utterance. And there is a practical implication from this - if one were to say that the entire Torah is from God except for a particular verse which was originated by Moshe himself, that person would be a heretic with the entire Torah. Because once the entire Torah is a single utterance from God, it can't be one without the other, i.e. it is one matter, and can't section it; If one is a heretic with a part, he is a heretic with the entire Torah. (Sanhedrin 99a)

(1) , את כל הדברים האלה,... according to Rashi, G-d uttered all 10 dibrot as a single utterance, and Israel didn't understand; And that they were repeated (in the text) teaches that He explained them to Bnei Yisrael, each dibur individually so that they would understand. The Israelites found it too overwhelming to have to listen to hear from His "mouth"; as it says "You speak to us and we will listen, let God not speak to us or we will die." (Mechilta). As so our Rabbis taught that the first 2 dibrot were heard from the mouth of God, and Moshe explained thereafter.

And I will explain our Rabbis' tradition about this to you. Of course all of Israel heard all the 10 Dibrot from God's mouth, in accordance with the plain meaning of the verse. However, with the first two Dibrot, they heard God's speech and understood it from Him, just as Moshe understood them. Therefore He spoke with them as a master speaks to his servant, i.e., directly as I have mentioned. From here on, with the rest of the dibrot, they heard the sound of God's speech, but did not understand it. So if was necessary for Moshe to interpret each dibra for them until they understood it from Moshe. And this is how the sages explain the verse, "Moshe would speak and god would respond to hem with a voice." The last 8 dibrot involved the words of God to Moshe which he was, in turn, to tell them. The intention of this was that all of Israel should be as prophets concerning belief in God and the prohibition of idolatry, as I have explained above, because these concepts are the basis for the entire Torah and its commandments...but with the other dibrot they received their explanation from Moshe's mouth as they heard the sound of the words of God. And with the rest of the commandments, they trusted in Moshe entirely.

(R' Yisrael Meir Kagen, d 1933: 3) We read in the Torah from " On the 3rd month" - And the Dibrot are read with ta'am elyon, and check the Biur Halacha where I explained at length.

R' YM Kagan: From the 3rd month - see the Mishna Brurah, and I will explain briefly. Know that the 10 Dibrot have 2 types of melodies. The first creates one sentence out of each dibur, even if it is long or very short. Such that "I am the Lord your God..." and "There should be no other Gods" and "Do not make idols" and "Don't bow to others" are all one verse. Because "I am the Lord your God..." and "Do not have other Gods" were said as a single utterance. And therefore, on Shavuoth it is customary to read in public with the first (Ta'am Elyon), which creates one verse out of each Dibra, as on that day the dibrot were given. And in parashat Yitro and v'Etchanan, it is read with Ta'am Tachton. And there are those that have the custom to read those too in Ta'am Elyon. And only an individual reading for himself uses Ta'am Tachton.

13th Centrury - France? (1) לא תחמוד אשת רעך, “Do not lust after your fellow man’s wife!”...In most of the Ten Commandments we find two cantillation marks per word (as opposed to only one on a word.) When the Torah is read in public we read the second commandment לא יהיה לך as well as the whole commandment commencing with the word: זכור using the major cantillation marks in order that each one of them be understood as a single verse. The 6th-9th commandments are read on that occasion by using the minor cantillation marks, in order to understand them as separate verses. The reason is that although we never find a verse that has only two words, in this instance the Rabbis decided to remind us that we are dealing here with separate commandments. When the Torah is read on an ordinary Sabbath in the month of Sh’vat, however, and the Ten Commandments are read as part of the portion known as Yitro, we read the entire Ten Commandments using the minor cantillation marks as a result of which we make four verses of each one of them. The reason why on Shavuot we read the first and second commandment with the major cantillation marks is to remind us that they were uttered by G-d as a single continuous verse. [The author had explained there that these two Commandments were heard by all of the people from G-d’s mouth without Moses acting as an interpreter. Ed.] [In the second version of the Ten Commandments where the 7th-10th commandments are linked to one another by the prefix letter ו, it is clear that they are to be treated as separate commandments each. Ed.][The author proceeds to spell this out in greater detail. Readers familiar with the significance of each cantillation mark will be able to check this themselves. Ed.]

(1) אנכי ה' אלוקיך, “I am the Lord your G-d;” Rabbi Levi said (old version of Tanchuma Yitro 17) G-d appeared to the Israelites as if a multifaceted portrait visible to a thousand people at the same time. The people each heard His voice in a similar manner [as of course a visual image was out of the question since even if they had seen one that would be proof that it could not be His “face.” Ed.]. In this way every Israelite was able to claim that G-d had spoken to him individually, saying: “I am the Lord your G-d, etc." This is the reason that G-d had not said: אלוקיכם “your G-d (plural mode,)” but אלוקיך, “your G-d, (singular)”. He had addressed all of them in the order in which they stood assembled around the Mountain. This corresponded exactly to G-d’s commandment to Moses in 19,12: והגבלת את העם סביב לאמור, “you are to set bounds to the people around." Do not be surprised - as to each person the manna tasted according to his nature, and if this is so for the manna, all the more so with the 10 dibrot.