Nishma V’Naaseh – An Old/New Paradigm

Nishma V’Naaseh – An Old/New Paradigm

Rabbi Jim Rogozen

 

 

There is a famous verse that, I believe, is the most misunderstood verse in the Torah.

 

In Exodus 24:7 we read:

 

(ז) וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר ה' נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה וְנִשְׁמָֽע׃

 

And he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant, and he read it aloud to the people; and they said: ‘All that God has spoken “naaseh v’nishma.”  How do we translate that?  We will do and hear? We will do and hear more later on? We will do and only later understand?

 

This last translation was first mentioned in the Talmud, Shabbat 88a. Rabbi Elazar taught: When the People of Israel said “We will do” before “We will hear” a Bat Kol, a heavenly voice, emerged and said to them, “Who revealed to my children this secret, which only the angels know? At first the angels fulfill His word (oseh dvaro), without understanding it; only later do they actually hear the words (lishmoa bkol dvaro).’”   “oseh then shomea” “do, then hear” “naaseh v’nishma.”  It seems that Rabbi Elazar believed that saying “yes” before hearing or understanding, made the Jewish People just like the angels.

 

This translation had pride of place for centuries, up to our own time when Orthodox writer Rabbi Eliyahu Safran wrote, “Today, there are Jews who have it backwards. They have to understand before they act.”   “Had these people been at Sinai,” he wrote, “I imagine they would have said, ‘prove it and we’ll consider acting.’ Hardly a divine statement of faith.”

 

Do our texts actually back up this line of thinking– that reason and understanding weren’t necessarily part of the deal? Let’s look at our verse again…

 

וַיִּקַּח֙ סֵ֣פֶר הַבְּרִ֔ית וַיִּקְרָ֖א בְּאָזְנֵ֣י הָעָ֑ם

 

“And he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant, and he read it aloud (literally: within earshot) of the people.”

 

This first part of the verse points out that there were laws that God had already taught. In this case, it was the 10 Commandments, back in Chapter 19, as well as the laws in Chapters 21 to 24. Three and half chapters of laws!  It seems the people had heard plenty. They were not being asked to agree to things they had not yet heard.

 

If that’s so, what else could naaseh v’nishma mean?

 

Consider the 2^nd paragraph of the Shema (Deut 11:13): v’haya eem shamoa – it can’t mean “if you perform the physical act of listening” all these great things will happen. God wanted more - a commitment: if you obey, all these good things will happen. But, if you don’t obey, well…good luck! So, in our verse: naase means, we will do, and then nishma – in this context, means we will commit, we will obey.   

 

To lock this down even further, the Gemara on the same page as the Heavenly Voice story tells us an additional story: God held a mountain over the people and warned them: If you accept the Torah – good; if not – here you will be buried.”  The message of the Gemara is not about “hearing” but about making a commitment.  So Naaseh v’nishma means: we will do and we will obey.

 

Moving forward:  In Deut. 5:24, as his life draws to a close, Moshe re-tells the stories of Exodus through Numbers. When he recalls the giving of the Torah, Moshe reminds the people how it all went down: 

 

קְרַ֤ב אַתָּה֙ וּֽשֲׁמָ֔ע אֵ֛ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר יֹאמַ֖ר יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵ֑ינוּ

 

“You all said to me, you, Moshe, go closer and hear all that the LORD our God will say…and then you tell us everything that God tells you…

וְשָׁמַ֥עְנוּ וְעָשִֽׂינוּ

…and once we hear it (or understand it) then we will do it.” 

The words are in the exact opposite order of naase v’nishma.

And that’s how it played out. God teaches Moshe, Moshes teaches the people, then tells them:

וְשָֽׁמַעְתָּ֤ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְשָֽׁמַרְתָּ֣ לַֽעֲשׂ֔וֹת     

You have heard, Israel, (or, you now understand), so make sure you do all of this.

Hearing or understanding came before commitment.

The Rabbis in the Midrash and Talmud were careful readers. They understood the various meanings of the verb shomea. So why did our Tradition give so much attention to naaseh v’nishma – we will do and then we will hear – when these other verses show the opposite?

Because some of the Rabbis had an agenda. I believe that they wanted to encourage a particular national theological narrative, some would call it a foundational myth, in which our ancestors accepted a divine Torah unconditionally.

That’s the story they wanted to pass down, but not everyone agreed.

You see, Rabbi Elazar’s story may have another meaning, a crack in the narrative if you will, one that challenged this idea of the people’s perfect faith. Perhaps the voice from heaven who said “Who revealed to my children this secret?” - that naaseh comes before nishma – perhaps that Bat Kol didn’t say those words out of joy, but out of surprise, or even disappointment. Maybe Rabbi Elazar understood that God never expected the people to blindly accept the Torah in such a unilateral fashion. You see, the angels didn’t have free will. They had no choice but to be oseh, and then shomea, to do and then understand, but people were given free will and open minds.

 

And that’s why the same page of Gemara relates the story of God holding the mountain over the people’s heads. It shows a different narrative, one that recognizes the tension between free will and compliance.

 

This tension shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. After all, our longstanding covenant with God is told through stories that are absolutely filled with such tensions. It’s a narrative the Bible makes no effort to hide. Observance and monotheism vs rebellion and idolatry. Even today, we have a wide range of observances, understandings, and beliefs.  Sometimes we are naaseh v’nishma, sometimes we’re shamanu v’asinu.

 

So what’s the good news in these competing narratives? It is this: in all of these ancient stories and texts, the verbs all refer to all of us – we will do, we will hear, we will obey. Whatever our individual beliefs and practices, we are all tied to God and to one another. We navigate these issues...together.

 

During Elul, when we focus on renewal and re-commitment, we’ll read in Parashat Nitzavim:

 

לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַֽעֲלֶה־לָּ֤נוּ הַשָּׁמַ֨יְמָה֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַֽעֲשֶֽׂנָּה:

 

The Torah is not in the heavens that anyone should say “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and recite it so that we may observe it.”  Notice the words:  Yashmiyenu (hear it), v’naasena – (then do it)  - nishma v’naaseh.

 

And then, moving from the collective to the individual:

 

כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִלְבָֽבְךָ֖ לַֽעֲשׂתֽוֹ:

 

“Rather, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, to observe it.”

 

We all stood at Sinai to receive the Torah; we heard it then, and we continue to hear it today … with open minds and open hearts… each of us in our own way.

 

May this be a year in which we truly hear one another’s narratives, and respectfully learn from each other’s Torah.  Nishma - First we need to understand and respect one another, and then naaseh, then we act. Naaseh v’nishma might work for the angels up in heaven, but Nishma v’naaseh is in each of our hands, down here on earth.

 

 

Shabbat Shalom