meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/HaKtav VeHaKabalah/HaKtav VeHaKabalah/English/YU Torah miTzion Beit Midrash.txt"}
text: HaKtav VeHaKabalah
  הכתב והקבלה
  YU Torah miTzion Beit Midrash
  
  
  HaKtav VeHaKabalah
  
  Introduction
  
  
  
  Genesis
  
  
  
  Exodus
  
  
  
  Leviticus
  
  
  
  Numbers
  
  
  
  Deuteronomy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  
  
  Verse 6
  
  
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  According to Ramban these stones were enormous in size, perhaps miraculously formed, to write from Bereishit through “before the eyes of all Israel” [at the end of the Torah] on them. According to Ibn Ezra in the name of Rav Saadia Gaon, they wrote on the stones the overall count of mitzvot and prohibitions, like those recorded in Halachot Gedolot. Others explain that only the previous paragraph (Devarim 26:16-19) was written on them. My son, the insightful Rabbi Shmuel, explained that here the word “kol [all]” is best understood as “klal [general principle]”, which incorporates many specific details. This is akin to “And you shall remember all the mitzvot of G-d,” which the Sages teach refers to the paragraph of Shema, which contains within it an acceptance of all rule of Heaven and a distancing from idol worship. So, too, the first two of the Ten Commandments, “I am” and “You shall not” are referred to as “All of these words” (in Exodus 15:22). And we have already been taught from the words of Rabbi David Kimchi that “kol” is not just a word; rather, it is a term that refers to “the entire general principle.” ... So too here, “all the words of this Torah” means “the general principle of the Torah’s words”... This explains the statement of the Sages (in Tractate Sotah) that  the Torah was written on the stones in seventy languages in order to benefit the nations of the world, to learn it-but the nations of the world aren’t commanded to observe the entire Torah ... Rather it refers to the general Torah, meaning the unity of the Creator, as we have said. More literally, we could explain, as do other commentators, that “all the words of the Torah” means from Bereishit through “before the eyes of all Israel” [at the end of the Torah]. When the Torah states, “And you shall write them on the stones,” it is analogous to the statement, “And you shall write them on the doorposts.” That “writing” doesn’t mean to write the words on the doorpost itself, but rather on a parchment which is then mounted on the doorpost. So too here it means to write the entire Torah, from Bereishit through “before the eyes of all Israel”, on parchment in the form of  a Torah scroll, and then mount it upon the stones. However, the tradition of our Sages [that these words were written on the stones themselves] should be the deciding factor.
  
  Postscript
  
  