Listen, He's Talking

Did you ever read an introduction that is more powerful then the actual message? Have you ever enjoyed a forward more then the book?

Well, I have. Perhaps the most powerful verse in the story of the Ten Commandments is the introduction: "and Hashem spoke all these words to say". Beacuse all Jews were present at the giving of the Torah and heard it from Hashem fist hand, the words "to say" can't mean "to say to others" as is their usual meaning. Rather, "to say" means to repeat. When we read a verse in the Torah we are repeating Hashem's words. A Jew, reading a book in her living room in the twenty first century, is experiencing the giving of the Torah; she is repeating the words Hashem is saying at that very moment.

Some times the Torah's massage seems simple and mundane; don't kill, don't steel, don't be jealous. But more powerful then the the commandment is the commander; more powerful then the teaching is the teacher. When I study a verse in Torah here he is, the infinite creator of the world, in all his glory communicating with me.

If I listen carefully I'll hear him.

(Torah Or, Yisro)