ואלה המשפטים. פירש"י כל מקום שנאמר אלה פסל את הראשונים וגו' משמע מתוך פירושו שאלו כתב כאן אלה משמע שהיה פוסל הראשונים והייתי אומר שלא נאמרו בסיני. ותימה שהרי כתיב למעלה וירד ה' על הר סיני לכך נ"ל פסל מלשון פסל לך כמעשה הנפסל ונפרד מחבירו וה"פ אילו היה כתוב אלה הייתי אומר שהאחרונות חלוקים ונפרדים מן הראשונים והייתי אומר שהאחרונים לא נאמרו בסיני לכך נאמר ואלה מוסיף על ענין ראשון ואת הוא כמו מן כמו כצאתי את העיר. וכן אלה דברי הברית דסוף פרשת כי תבא נפרד וחלוק מחבירו שהראשוני' דברי תוכחה וקללה והאחרוני' ברכה. תחלת ספר משנה תורה דכתיב אלה הדברים לא שייך שם לומר פסל אלה מפני שהוא תחלת הספר כתיב. אלה תולדות השמים והארץ דבראשית פסל הראשונים תהו ובהו: ואלה המשפטים, “and these are the ordinances, etc.;” Rashi has pointed out that whenever a paragraph in the Torah commences with the word אלה, this signifies that it is not a continuation of something that had been written previously. However, when the paragraph begins with the word: ואלה, “and these, etc., it signals some kind of continuation. From Rashi’s words it would appear that the laws promulgated from here on in did not originate at Sinai as when the Torah wrote in Exodus 19,20 that Hashem descended to Mount Sinai, the whole point was that He did so in order to give the people the whole Torah.In order to solve this apparent contradiction, we need to view the word: פסל used by Rashi to signify a break with what preceded it, is to be understood as in Exodus 34,1 where G–d told Moses to hew himself two Tablets to replace the ones he had shattered after coming down from the Mountain for the first time. The act of “hewing” means to separate what you carve out from a greater quantity of the same base material, i.e. rock. In other words, what we are going to read from here on in are laws that, though of the same origin as the Ten Commandments, had been separated somewhat in time from when and how they were presented to the people. What Rashi meant to tell us was that if this paragraph had commenced with the word אלה, I would have thought that what followed was not of Sinaitic origin at all. In order not to mislead the reader, the Torah added the prefix ו to make clear that what follows was also of Sinaitic origin, i.e. G–d taught Moses all the Torah while he was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. The letter ו here has the same meaning as the word את in Exodus 9,29, where Moses said: כצאתי את העיר, “when I go out from the city.” We find a similar construction in Deuteronomy 28,69: אלה דברי הברית, “these are the words of the covenant, ”where the admonitions have been separated from the blessings. The blessings in that paragraph had been preceded by curses. We find something similar in Deuteronomy 1,1: אלה הדברים אשר דבר משה, “these are the words which Moses had spoken, etc.” where we cannot understand this as something unconnected to what preceded it, but the letter ו is omitted as we are dealing with a different Book of the Torah, one that had not been dictated to Moses, but which G–d had approved after the event as deserving to be part of the written Torah. In Genesis 2,4 the words אלה תולדות השמים והארץ, “these are the generations of heaven and earth are separated from the prehistoric period when the Torah had described the tohu vavohu which had preceded the creation of light.
לפניהם. פרש"י ולא לפני עכו"ם וגו' ואפילו דנין אותו כדין ישראל ומשל הוא לשני חולים שנכנס הרופא לבקרם אמר לאחד האכילהו והשקהו מה שירצה וזה תשמרו ממאכל פלוני אמרו לו אדרבה זה מסוכן מזה מהו אמר להם היא הנותנת לפי שידעתי שהוא חולה למות אמרתי אל תמנעו ממנו כלום כי בין יאכל בין לא יאכל ימות אבל לזה שעומד לחיים אמרתי אל יאכל דבר פלוני פן יכבד עליו חליו כן בחקות הגוים כתיב ונתתי להם חוקים לא טובים ומשפטים לא יחיו בהם אבל בישראל כתיב ושמרתם את חקתי אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם וגו' והיינו טעמא נמי דאסר לנו שרצים ולא לאומו' זש"ה מגיד דבריו ליעקב חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל וגו' לא עשה כן לכל גוי וגו'. ומעשה באונקלוס הגר בן אחותו של אדרינוס קיסר שבקש להתגייר והיה מתיירא מדודו. אמר לו אני מבקש לעשות סחורה אמר לו שמא חסר אתה כסף וזהב הרי אוצרותי לפניך אמר לו מבקש אני לצאת לחוץ ולהתחכם להכיר הבריות תן עצה באיזו פרקמטיא אמר לו אותה שתראה שנפלה עסוק שסופה להתעלות ואתה משתכר הלך לארץ ישראל ובקש מהחכמים ללמוד תורה קודם שימול אמרו לו אין דברי תורה מתקיימין אלא בנימול הלך ומל ולמד תורה הרבה ומצאוהו ר' אליעזר ור' יהושע וראו פניו משונות אמרו זה לזה אונקלוס למד תורה מיד שבא אצלם התחיל לשאול שאלות הרבה. הלך אצל אדרינוס דודו אמר לו למה פניך משונות אמר לו שלמדתי תורה ולא עוד אלא שמלתי אמר לו ומי יעץ לך כך. אמר לו אתה שאמרת לי עסוק בפרקמטיא הנפולה שסופה להתעלות וחזרתי על כל אומה ואומה ולא מצאתי אומה שפלה כישראל וסופן להתעלות כמו שאמר ישעיה כה אמר ה' גואל ישראל וקדושו לבזה נפש למתעב גוי לעבד מושלים מלכים יראו וקמו הכה אותו על לחייו וחזר ואמר לו למה עשית כן אמר לו שביקשתי ללמוד תורה אמר לו היה לך ללמוד תורה ולא למול אמר לו אין יכולת ללמוד בלא מילה שנא' מגיד דבריו ליעקב חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל למי שהוא מהול כיעקב (נולד מהול) וכתיב לא עשה כן לכל גוי ומשפטים ב"ל ידעום ב"ל אין יכולין ללמוד תורה שמתחלת בב' ומסיימת בלמ"ד לעיני כל ישראל: לפניהם, “before them.” Rashi sees in this word an exclusion of gentiles, to whom all these ordinances will not apply, even if they would adopt our system of civil law. [Presumably, he felt that otherwise that word is superfluous, as it is obvious that the laws would be addressed to the |sraelites. Ed.] Jews are not allowed to submit their litigation to a gentile court even if the rules of that court are like those of ours. Our author uses a parable to illustrate the point. Imagine that two sick persons go to a physician to have themselves examined. The physician tells one of them to eat, heartily and healthily, whereas he tells the second one to abstain from some of the very foods he had encouraged the first person to eat from heartily. The reason is that not every food is good for everyone. What is good for one patient may be very dangerous for the next patient. When the physician advised the first patient to eat heartily, the reason was that that patient was diagnosed as fatally ill, so that he might as well enjoy the time left for him on earth. The same advice to the second patient would prove very dangerous for him. The same reasoning applies to Jews and gentiles. We read in Ezekiel 20,25 concerning the gentiles that G–d had given them laws and statutes that they could not live by, whereas the laws He gave to the Israelites were designed to be for their benefit. [This verse is extremely difficult, and the reader is advised to read the commentary by Rabbi M.Eisemann in the Art Scroll edition of the Book of Ezekiel. Ed.] Rashi assumes that when the Israelites fail to observe G–d’s laws, they will eventually attribute their hardships to G–d’s laws having been harmful. We are taught in the Torah that the opposite is true. Compare Leviticus 18.5. This is also the reason why we are forbidden to eat all kinds of creeping creatures, as they are injurious to one’s health. These same creatures, if eaten by gentiles, are not harmful to them. This is also the meaning of Psalms 147,19: מגיד דבריו ליעקב, חוקיו ,” ,משפטיו לישראל. לא עשה כן לכל גוי, “He issus His commands to Yaakov, His statutes and rules to Israel; He did not do so for any other nation;” The following is a true story involving the convert Onkelos, a nephew of the Roman Emperor Hadrianus, who when wishing to convert was afraid of the wrath of his uncle the Emperor. He told his uncle that he wished to engage in business, whereupon his uncle asked him if he was short of capital, in which case he was willing to help him out. He told his uncle that he wished to travel and find out which merchandise was both in demand and easy to obtain. His uncle told him to seek out a field which was presently in a recession so that he could invest at low prices and profit when market conditions would improve. As a result, he went to the land of Israel, at that time in a deep depression commercially, and studied Torah from the scholars prior to undergoing circumcision for becoming a convert. He was told that the words of Torah would only reside within him permanently if he circumcised himself first. He followed this advice, circumcised himself and studied a great deal of Torah. When Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua saw him, they noticed that his facial features had undergone a great change. They concluded that this was not Onkelos who had studied the Torah. When he began to ask the scholars questions, they told him that this was the result. When he returned to his uncle the Emperor, the latter asked him what had brought about the change in his facial features. He told him that he had studied the Torah and had himself circumcised. Upon being asked who had advised him to do this, he said: “you have.” He explained that his uncle had told him to acquire merchandise which was in a depression and patiently wait until this merchandise would appreciate in value. He had visited many nations and not found a single one which was in such a state of depression as the Jewish nation, so that he became convinced that their fortunes would improve drastically. He quoted the prophet Isaiah 49,7 who had predicted this already more than five hundred years earlier. The Emperor slapped his face and asked him once more what had prompted him to convert to Judaism. He told him that actually, he had gone to study the Torah, but had been told that the condition for being taught Torah was that he had to be circumcised, just as Yaakov. He quoted Psalms 147,20 where it has been spelled out by the use of the word בל, that only the people of Israel had been endowed with Torah knowledge that could be retained. (Tanchuma, Mishpatim section 5)