|
The Voice of Torah: Yitro |
 |
 |
|
Written by Rabbi Chaim Golberger
|
 With the tragedy in Haiti, many are trying to come to grips with the existence, in a world managed by God, of mass-scale devastation such as is caused by natural disasters. I would suggest that we have an insight into this question in this week’s parsha.
Do not take the name of the Lord in vain (la-shav), for God will not exonerate the one who takes His name in vain. [Shemot 20:7]
The Talmud (Shevuot 39a) tells us that the entire world trembled at the moment that God announced this commandment. In addition, it lays out some pretty severe consequences for one who violates this mitzvah:
- About all other sins, the Torah says “v’nakeh” – “God will cleanse you”. Of this sin, it says “lo y’nakeh” – “He will not cleanse”
- The penalty for all other sins is exacted from the sinner alone. For this sin – from the sinner and his entire family.
- The penalty for all other sins is exacted from the sinner alone. For this sin – from the sinner and the entire world.
- All other sins, God will suspend the penalty even up to three generations. For this sin, the penalty is exacted immediately.
On paper, this sin is hardly the worst there is. It is not murder, idolatry, adultery, or even blasphemy. It is simply the inappropriate use of God’s name. Why does it carry such rash consequences?
To answer this question, we need to keep in mind that this is the Third Commandment. Just before it was issued, a great change occurred. So terrified were the people by the experience of having heard the Word of God for the first two Commandments, that they felt they could bear no more and they begged Moshe to be their intermediary to hear the rest of the commandments himself and report their contents. And that was how it was.
“Do not take God’s name in vain”, then, was the first Commandment heard not directly from God, but indirectly through Moshe.
This commandment is making a statement about what it means to be not hearing God’s word directly from God.
Certain words have power simply in their being said. The word “FIRE”, for example, shouted in a crowded room, has the power to empty the room in a matter of seconds. But take a different example – car alarms. When car alarms first came out, they had the power to draw attention every time they were triggered. But shortly after their initial introduction, it became clear that car alarms were going off routinely for reasons other than burglary. Before long, they lost their power to attract attention to the point that today they are hardly noticed.
The essential power of car alarms is not diminished in any way – they remain as loud and as insistent as ever. But their ability to have an impact has been severely damaged over the years of inappropriate usage.
Who caused that damage? Every single individual who ever allowed for an unnecessary release of his car alarm had a hand in reducing the impact of all car alarms for everybody.
God’s name works the same way. From the moment it was first revealed, God’s name had the power to command instant attention. Those who spoke in His Name wielded a tool capable of suddenly and effectively reaching kings, magnates, and masses of ordinary souls. But for that power to be maintained, the integrity of the use of God’s Name would have to be maintained. Every individual who misuses God’s name, whether by invoking it falsely or needlessly (both valid definitions of la-shav), causes a diminishing of the ability of His name to have the effect it needs to have.
Now we can understand the severity of the consequences of violating Lo Tisa. It is not because taking God’s name in vain is the worst sin imaginable. Rather, it is because the sin leaves damage that cannot be repaired. God cannot cleanse this sinner, because it is not really God who is the injured party. It is the entire world, which can no longer be stirred by a genuine invocation. The penalty will be exacted from the sinner’s family and the sinner’s world – innocent as they may be – because it is they who will have to bear the result of living in a world in which God has no easy and effective means of reaching them. The penalty is immediate because the desensitization – even if miniscule – is registered the instant the name abuse occurs.
We now also understand why this must be the message of the Third Commandment. As long as God is speaking to us directly, He unilaterally controls the impact He wishes to have on us. The minute we deny Him that access – which we did by insisting Moshe deliver the rest of the commandments – we assume the ability to limit His impact on us. Without the ability to resort to His preferred instrument, God is compelled, as it were, to devise alternatives. At its extreme, we could leave Him no other way to get our attention but to bring about natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes (the “world trembled” of our Talmudic citation). These catastrophes still do today what the mention of His Name once did – get our attention.
Rather than trying to figure out who these disasters are punishing and why, perhaps we should see them not so much as punishments, but as one of the few ways God has left to reach out to us and wake us up.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Subscribe
