Chumash In Depth - Exodus 19:13

(1) אם בהמה אם איש לא יחיה, “whether animal or beast he shall not live.” The word בהמה in our verse does not refer to four-legged animals; it refers to the wicked people who are deemed no better than animals. The Torah tells the Jewish people that regardless of whether the person touching the mountain is an otherwise righteous person or whether he is a wicked person he will not survive touching even the edge (beyond what was fenced off) of the mountain.

When Solomon in Kohelet 3,21 wrote: מי יודע רוח בני האדם העולה היא למעלה ורוח הבהמה היורדת היא למטה לארץ, “who knows the spirit of man which ascends on high or the spirit of the animal which descends downwards, to earth,” he did not refer to actual animals. He referred to the soul of the sinner which descends just as the “soul” (abstract life-force) of an animal perishes with the body it inhabits, to the soul of the righteous which ascends when the body it had inhabited dies. Solomon’s question (rhetorical if you will) was “while both people are alive on this earth, the sinner and the righteous, how can we know what is in store for a certain person? Do we humans know who is a צדיק and who is a רשע, i.e. a בהמה?” Solomon teaches that while we are in this world מקרה אחד לכל לצדיק ולרשע כמות זה כן מות זה, “while on earth both the righteous and the wicked appear to share the same fate, i.e. death of the body.” (Kohelet 3,19-20). Verse 21 refers to verse 20 preceding it where death for every creature made of dust is described, thus placing different people on the same level. However, this changes the moment these differing personalities no longer have a body.

The same is true in our verse. In this life it makes no difference whether a person is wicked or righteous, לא יחיה, he will not live forever. The very fact that the comparison between the wicked and the just is limited to לא יחיה, neither of them escaping physical death, is what makes it plain that as soon as death of the body has occurred the fate of the righteous and that of the wicked will become radically different from one another.

Whereas the words לא יחיה apply to the wicked both in this world and in the next, the same words when applied to the righteous refer only to his life on earth, not to his life after the death of his body. Proof is found in the fact that Nadav and Avihu who died for transgressing the commandment not to touch the mountain were nevertheless accorded life in the hereafter. This is why we read about their death on Yom Kippur.

(2) במשך היובל, “during the long blast of the shofar.” The plain meaning of the verse is that when a long blast of the shofar would be heard this would signal the departure of the Shechinah from Mount Sinai. At that time the rule restricting the Israelites from touching or ascending the mountain would be relaxed. The word היובל is a reference to the ram’s horn, according to Rashi the horn of the ram Avraham had sacrificed instead of Yitzchak. What Rashi meant was that although that ram had been burned up as an עולה, a burnt-offering which is completely burned up including its horns, G’d had resurrected it to its original condition.

In Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 31 we read the view of Rabbi Chanina ben Dotha who held that the ram in question had been created at dusk of the sixth day of creation (Avot 5,6) and that none of its parts went to waste. The ash of the flesh was used in constructing the golden altar inside the Sanctuary. The tendons became the ten strings of David’s harp. The skin became the belt used by the prophet Elijah to gird his loins. He bases this on Kings II 1,8: ”a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.” “That is Elijah the Tishbite, he said.” The right horn of that ram served as the horn which will announce his coming in the future as we know from Isaiah 27,13 ”and in that day a great ram’s horn will be sounded and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem on the holy mount.” The left horn was the one used at the revelation of Mount Sinai in our verse. Thus far Rabbi Chanina ben Dotha.

Our sages in the beginning of the first chapter of Masechet Yom Tov use this verse to prove that anything which had been forbidden by a court comprised of a certain number of judges cannot be permitted again by another court unless it comprises a greater number of judges than the previous court (Megillah 2). This is also what is meant in Beitzah 5: “seeing the Torah had already written that ‘also sheep and cattle shall not graze facing the mountain’ (34,3), why was it necessary to write that when a long blast would be sounded on the ram’s horn this would signal the “all clear?” The Torah wrote the verse only to teach us that unless specifically permitted by a competent authority even a temporary prohibition unless it had a specific time limit to start with needs to be specifically permitted again.”

(3) A Kabbalistic approach: The words במשוך היובל, “at the long blast of the horn,” are actually an allusion to פחד יצחק, the attribute which distinguished Yitzchak, especially when he was bound on the altar ready to give his life for G’d. This attribute also known as גבורה was attained by the entire Jewish nation at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai. They did not reach the level of verbalizing anything. They heard a (sound) voice [at that point], that was all. This is what ויחרד כל העם, “all the people trembled in awe (without verbalizing any response)” is all about, just as we read in connection with Yitzchak ויחרד יצחק חרדה גדולה that “Yitzchak was seized by great trembling,” when he found out that the person he had given the blessing to was Yaakov (Genesis 27,33). I have already dealt with this subject in Genesis 22,13 on the words והנה איל אחר נאחז בסך בקרניו.

(1) וירא והנה איל, “and he saw, and here there was a ram, etc.” This ram was one of the ten things which were created on the original sixth day of creation at dusk (according to Avot 5,6).

Allegorically speaking, this ram represents Israel which receives its spiritual input via שחר which protects it generation after generation due to the merit accumulated by Avraham as a result of his having bound his son. [The word describes something which precedes the light of the morning. G’d preceded everything in this world. Israel receives its spiritual and material input from such pre-historic sources. Ed.]

Another allegorical interpretation: After Israel has become “enmeshed” in sins and as a result has been exiled amongst the “thicket,” the kingdoms of Babylon, Medes, Greece and Rome, they will ultimately experience redemption. This will be heralded by the blowing of the ram’s horn as we mention in our daily עמידה prayer in the paragraph commencing with the words תקע בשופר גדול לחרותנו, “blow the great horn to announce our freedom.” This prayer is based on Zechariah 9,14 who assured us that G’d Himself will blow this Shofar.

(4) Our sages (in Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer at the end of chapter 31) believe that we are dealing here with an allusion to the Shofar that G’d was going to blow during the revelation at Mount Sinai (19,16). It is written of that Shofar that its sound was very strong (Exodus 19,16) and that it was the Shofar of the ram found during the binding of Yitzchak. We are commanded to blow the Shofar on New Year’s Day.

(5) When the sages described this Shofar which was blown on the occasion of the revelation as “the Shofar of Yitzchak,” they referred to the virtue of Yitzchak, to his outstanding characteristic. They did not mean to imply that the horn used on that occasion (some 360 years after the binding of Yitzchak) was physically the same horn as the one belonging to the ram which Avraham slaughtered. In fact, this would have been impossible as the rules of the burnt-offering include that the entire animal be burned (except its skin and hair). The horns and hooves are included in the parts which need to be burned.

Our sages alluded to the attributes of גבורה, power, we heard from G’d’s mouth directly when He addressed the entire assembly of the Jewish people and told them the first two of the Ten Commandments, i.e. “I am the Lord, etc.,” and “you must not have any other gods, etc.” G’d revealed this attribute at that time and it is called by our sages פחד יצחק, (compare Genesis 31,53).

This attribute of G’d to which Yitzchak more than any other of our patriarchs related, is what we call upon in times of distress when we say עננו פחד יצחק, “answer us ‘attribute’ which Yitzchak related to with utmost reverence.” This is the voice of the soul which was audible at the time when the Torah was given and we allude to this voice when we blow the Shofar on New Year’s Day, the anniversary of the creation (completion) of the universe.

You should understand that the day on which the Torah was given was the first day G’d’s kingdom had been accepted as such by the Jewish people, seeing that there cannot be a king without an army. [The Jewish people in their capacity as G’d’s people, are considered G’d’s “army.”]