לזכות ידיד נפשי הרב ר' חיים לאופר שליט"א לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו!!!
לזכות רפואת הרב חיים יצחק יחיאל בן אסתר בתוך שח"י!!!
Pirkei Avos begins:
"משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים וזקנים לנביאים".
"Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and passed it on it to Yehoshua and Yehoshua to the elders".
Why does it say that Moshe received the Torah from Sinai instead of "Moshe received the Torah from Hashem"? Sinai didn't give Moshe the Torah - Hashem did! [The Maharal and others discuss this].
First we have to understand that "מסרה ליהושע" does not mean that Moshe gave to Yehoshua everything he received but rather that he gave to Yehoshua the "צורת הקבלה" - the form in which he received the Torah.
Within the framework of receiving the Torah there is also מעמד הר סיני - which is part and parcel of the Torah. The form in which Torah was given is a condition in its learning [see later].
The Ramban [ספר המצות שכחת הלאוין ב] explains the mitzva of remembering מעמד הר סיני:
The Ramban says that we must remember מעמד הר סיני so that no false prophet comes around afterwards and denies it. This is difficult to comprehend. If the whole idea of remembering מעמד הר סיני is so that we can prevent a false prophet from denying the veracity of the Torah, then it is not about remembering the event per se but rather about something else - preventing false prophets from denying it. But the pasuk seems to be saying that there is an inherent mitzva to remember the actual מעמד?
It MUST be then that what the Ramban means is that the Torah must be passed on in such a way that makes it impossible to deny. That is what the pasuk means when it says [Devarim 4-9/10]
"השמר לך ושמור נפשך מאד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך יום אשר עמדת לפני י"י אלהיך בחורב".
"But beware and watch yourself very well, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw, and lest these things depart from your heart, all the days of your life, and you shall make them known to your children and to your children's children, the day you stood before the Lord your God at Chorev."
Besides merely giving over the Torah, it must be given over as it was received at Sinai, as we listened to the words from the mouth of Hashem, in a way that can't be denied.
"Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and passed it on to Yehoshua" means that not only did Moshe give over the Torah itself, but also gave over the FORM on which is was given! That is the passing over of "יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' א-להיך בחורב" - "the day in which you stood before Hashem at Chorev".
The Mishna doesn't say that "Moshe received the Torah from Hashem" because it is focused on the nature of transmitting the Torah and actually learning from Hashem [as Moshe did] is something that cannot be transmitted. Moshe Rabbeinu learned Torah from Hashem and that means that as far as he is concerned the Torah is always in a state that it came from the source - in a completely different form than it was when it was passed on.
We see that there us a special form in which the Torah must be transmitted, namely, as it was given over to us at Sinai. This is expressed in a halacha:
והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך וכתיב בתריה יום אשר עמדת לפני ה׳ אלהיך בחורב מה להלן באימה וביראה וברתת ובזיע אף כאן באימה וביראה וברתת ובזיע
As it was taught in a braisa: It is written: “And you shall impart them to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9), and it is written thereafter: “The day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb” (Deuteronomy 4:10). Just as below, the Revelation at Sinai was in reverence, fear, quaking, and trembling, so too here, in every generation, Torah must be studied with a sense of reverence, fear, quaking, and trembling.
The Torah must be learned and taught as it was given.
[זה השער]
