Rabbi Sarah Wolf

February 20, 2009

“Na’aseh v’nishma: We will do and we will heed”

I made an exciting discovery this week when I was studying the Torah portion, Mishpatim: it turns out that the Israelites who stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah were Reform Jews.  I know, I was surprised too.

Last week, we read about the giving of the Ten Commandments, and this week, we read the mishpatim, laws that are given along with the big ten.  At the end of our parashah, the people famously announce, “Kol asher diber Adonai na’aseh v’nishma.”  “All that God has said we will do and we will obey.”  “Na’aseh v’nishma,” literally “we will do and we will hear.”  Scholars have long noticed the strange order of the two verbs: surely the Israelites meant to say “we will hear the commandments and then do them.”  It would be foolish to agree to perform an act without knowing what it is.  That’s why you’re supposed to read the fine print before you sign a contract.  Yet the rabbis praise the Israelites for making such a commitment, concluding that the Israelites were agreeing to fulfill not only all the laws they had just heard, but all future commandments that God would give.  According to the Talmud, the moment the Israelites utter “na’aseh” before “nishma,” six hundred thousand angels come down from heaven and put two crowns on each Israelite’s head, one for na’aseh and one for nishma.  Not only do the angels come down to earth, but God compares the people of Israel themselves to angels, who are also described as fulfilling before hearing God’s commands.  And most significant, this show of Israel ’s faith merits the salvation of the entire world.  This foolish agreement has cosmic importance.        

The rabbis were clearly taken with Israel ’s demonstration of complete submission to the divine will, but this is hardly a trait valued by many Reform Jews.  One comment I have heard over and over from Jews and non-Jews alike is how much they appreciate that in Reform Judaism, questioning is welcomed and encouraged.  We cherish our autonomy and our ability to choose how to express our Judaism.  “Informed choice,” not “na’aseh v’nishma,” has been the motto of the Reform movement.   

So how could the Israelites have been Reform Jews?  Ironically, it is a Chasidic teaching on our verse that provides a clue.  The commentary known as the Pardes Yosef notes that in last week’s portion, the Israelites say almost the same thing as this week, declaring “yachdav…Kol asher diber Adonai na’aseh” “All that God has said we will do.”  “We will hear,” “nishma,” is left out and another word is added to the verse, “yachdav,” or “together,” as the people are described as making this declaration as a community.  The author goes on to explain that it would be impossible for each Israelite to fulfill all 613 mitzvot because some commandments are only given to the priests, some only to those living in the Land of Israel, and so forth.  Instead, there are two ways that the people Israel can fulfill all the mitzvot, and our two versions of the people’s acceptance of the Law each represent one way.  The first time the people promise to do what God has said “yachdav” teaches us that only can the entire people fulfill the commandments together, and that by accepting the Torah collectively, the Israelites are committing themselves to be responsible for each other, as in the famous dictum “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” “Each Jew is responsible for the other.”  The promise to perform God’s commandments cannot be kept by any one Jew; it can only be kept by the community as a whole.

The second way to fulfill our side of the covenant is represented by “nishma,” which the Pardes Yosef interprets as referring to Torah study.  We might understand this connection in light of our portion, in which the Israelites listen as Moses recites the laws that God has given from a written scroll.  This recitation is a precursor to our public Torah readings in synagogue, which is one way we study Torah.  According to the rabbis of the Talmud, Torah study is another way of performing all of the commandments, for “When one studies the laws of Torah, it is as if he has fulfilled the laws of Torah.”  Since each individual can study Torah, each individual can, in effect, fulfill all 613 mitzvot without needing to slaughter a single goat. 

If we interpret our “nishma” not as “we will obey,” but as “we will study,” then we see how the Israelites may have had a little of the Reform spirit.  Yes, first and foremost “na’aseh,” we will do, but what we do will be based on “nishma,” on the decisions we make based on our study.  We may explore different mitzvot as part of our study of them and decide to take them on as obligations.  We may also study an ancient ritual recorded in the Torah and decide that we are not meant to perform it.  The crucial aspect of our promise is to continue to learn from the law and to allow that learning to influence our actions.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel described Judaism as not a leap of faith but as a “leap of action.”  He was convinced that one should first observe all the mitzvot, or at least all the ones that are possible, and then understanding and meaning would come later.  As he put it, a person is asked to “do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does.”  In other words, performing each mitzvah opens a door to greater insight and more meaningful living.  But this requires action.  How can a person truly comprehend a sacred obligation by looking at it from the outside?  How can we understand the meaning of the dietary laws without abiding by them?  How can we comprehend the purpose of Shabbat without keeping Shabbat?  While we may not agree with Heschel’s commitment to all of Jewish law, we can learn from his “leap of action” and try a few leaps of our own.  We might take on the challenge of keeping kosher for a particular amount of time as a way to study the dietary laws, or try observing the laws of Shabbat in order to explore how we might keep the Sabbath.  And in the spirit of Reform Judaism, we can be flexible in the ways that we fulfill these mitzvot, drawing on the traditional halakhah, the Jewish law regarding these commandments, but also thinking creatively about how to perform them meaningfully.  In these ways, we link the doing and the studying, the na’aseh and the nishma, together.

When the Israelites stand at Mount Sinai and accept the terms of the covenant being offered, they are not giving away their freedom of choice; in fact, they are affirming it.  “We will learn by doing,” they say, “so that we can make informed decisions about how to live our lives.”  Na’aseh v’nishma.  Maybe now it’s our turn to take a leap.