Daily Chumash Shabbos, Mishpatim: Details of Matan Torah

Shevi’i

• No women will have a miscarriage or be infertile in your land. I will fill the number of your days.
• I will send fear before you, and send the wasp, to drive out all your enemies in the land of Canaan. I will not destroy them all in one year, lest the land become desolate and filled with wild animals, rather I will expel them little by little.
• I will give you borders from the reed sea until the Mediterranean.
• Do not make a peace treaty with those nations, lest they remain in your land and bring you to sin, to serve their gods.

1. Details of Matan Torah:

• Hashem told Moshe that he, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and the seventy elders of Israel are to prostrate themselves from a distance. Moshe alone is to ascend to G-d, and not anyone else.
• Naaseh Venishma: Moshe told all the words of G-d to the nation and they said “We shall do.”
• Building an altar, bringing sacrifices and sprinkling blood: Moshe awoke in the morning and built an altar under the mountain and twelve monuments, corresponding to the 12 tribes. The youth were sent to offer sacrifices on the altar for G-d. Moshe took half the blood and placed it in a bowl, and the other half he threw onto the altar. Moshe then took the Torah and read it to the congregation, and they replied “Everything that Hashem has asked we will do and listen.” Moshe then took the blood and sprinkled it on the nation, as part of the covenant.
• Ascending the mountain and looking at Hashem: Moshe, Aaron and the seventy leaders ascended the mountain and they saw Hashem, and that under His feet was a sapphire brick, like the purity of the sky. Hashem did not take vengeance against these nobles [even though] they gazed at G-d and ate and drank.
• Moshe ascends to receive the Luchos: Hashem told Moshe to ascend the mountain and receive the stone Luchos with the commandments written on them. Moshe rose together with Yehoshua, and Moshe ascended the mountain of G-d. He instructed the leaders to remain put until they return, and that in the interim Aaron and Chur would act as the leaders to deal with any issues that occur. Moshe ascended the mountain and it was covered by a cloud. Moshe remained in the cloud for six days and on the seventh day Hashem called him from within the cloud. Hashem appeared like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain, before the Jewish people. Moshe remained there for 40 days and 40 nights.