It says in this week's Parasha, "I am not only making this
covenant with you, but I am also making it with whoever is standing
with us today in the presence of Hashem, our God, and with those who
are not here with us today. For you know how we lived in the land of
Egypt, and how we passed through the nations which you passed
through. Where you observed the abominations and their loathsomeness
[idols] - wood and stone, silver and gold, that they owned."[1]
Rashi explains what the Torah meant by, "For you know how we
lived in the land of Egypt." He says that since we have observed
the idolatrous Gentile nations, perhaps someone among Bnei Yisroel
may have been tempted to follow them, therefore, Hashem needed to
compel us to swear and keep His mitzvos.
I had a couple questions while reading this:
1) The Torah says, "For you know how we lived in the land of
Egypt." I understand there might have been temptations to follow
the other nation's abominations, ie. idol worshiping, but why would
we have contemplated worshiping idols after witnessing the great
miracles Hashem performed for us by yetzias mitzraim? Even the
magicians of Pharoah admitted the miracles were "Yad Elokim -
the Hand of God!"
2) "Therefore, Hashem needed to compel us to swear to keep
His mitzvos?" We just read last week all the curses and
blessings; after hearing that, why would swearing to keep His mitzvos
be more effective?
To answer the first question; it comes to show how strong the
yeitzer hara is for worshiping idols. Perhaps it's one of the reasons
why Hashem listed it as One of our Ten Commandments! Alternatively,
even though we having something amazing going for us, sometimes we
feel it's not enough. We'll always want what the other person has. A
familiar example is, "I'm jealous of this guy, he doesn't have
to worry about money. If I were rich, I would be so happy!"
However, it's not true. Even rich people have their own issues.
Regarding the second answer; I'd like to answer with a personal
story: This week I tried to access my online banking. Upon signing
on, I got an error message saying, "You have been denied access
and must call (xxx) xxx - xxxx. We apologize for the inconvenience."
When I called, I had to go through a series of security questions to
make sure the person they are speaking to was really me. After going
through the whole process, the rep explained to me that someone tried
calling in on a burner cell phone to get information about my
account. Since the number was unfamiliar, they decided to close all
my credit cards and temporarily close my account. In addition, they
asked me to set up a "Verbal Password" so that the next
time I call, only I would know the verbal password and be granted
access - as a preliminary measure.
We heard the curses and brachos as an incentive to keep Hashem's
mitzvos, but as a preliminary measure Hashem also made us swear. Even
though we've heard the curses and blessings, at times it can be hard
to keep. Sometimes we feel it helps if we 'swore' we weren't going to
do a specific sin, as a boost to help us keep 'our word'.
That doesn't mean, however, we'd be able to use this 'measure'
[tactic] and swear for our own personal use. In addition to 'not
worshiping other gods' in the Ten Commandments, there's another
commandment of, "You shall not take the Name of Hashem, your
God, in vain, for Hashem will not absolve anyone who takes His Name
in vain."[2] Hashem forbade us to swear. We say in Hataras
Nedarim (as you'll see in a few days;) "Any vow, or oath, or
prohibition... for which we have accepted to perform good deeds... we
regret only the acceptance of these matters with an expression of vow
or oath... And therefore we ask for annulment of them all, etc.
We see from here, that even though you want to swear for good
reasons, ie: You've just eaten meat and you now have to wait six
hours to eat this luscious dairy cheesecake. You know it's too hard to
keep, so to help yourself refrain, you swear you won't eat this
cheese cake for the next six hours. That is forbidden.
If you think about it though, you don't even need to swear that
you won't eat this cheesecake for the next six hours because you
already swore to Hashem that you will keep His Torah and Mitzvos! So
when you feel you need to swear to help yourself keep Hashem's
mitzvos, DON'T - because you ALREADY did.
Have a wonderful Shabbos,
Nisso
[1] Devarim 29:14-17
[2] Shemos 20:7
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