Matan Torah: A Feminine Event

The giving of the Torah at Har Sinai was the realization of a centuries-long dream. Generations before, Avraham Avinu was told that his descendents would be “strangers in a land not their own”¹ but that Hashem would eventually redeem them, and they would leave their place of bondage with great wealth². This journey began with the birth of Yitzchak and culminated in yetziat Mitzrayim³. But yetziat Mitzrayim wasn’t an end unto itself – the Torah tells us in no uncertain terms that Paroh was ordered to let the Israelites go so that they could serve Hashem⁴. Yetziat Mitzrayim truly ended with Matan Torah at Har Sinai.

The Gemara relates an important feature of Yetziat Mitzrayim, it says that “In the merit of the righteous women who were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt”⁵. Actions such as Miriam’s rebuke of her father⁶, the Israelite midwives saving baby boys⁷, Yocheved shielding Moshe from the Egyptians after his birth⁸ and placing baby Moshe in the Nile⁹. All of these were instrumental in the redemption from Egypt, and all required enormous courage and emunah that Hashem would keep his promise to Avraham. 

We saw during Kriat Yam Suf that this heightened emunah of the women continued, as the Torah records that “Miriam the prophet … picked up a hand-drum, and all the women went out after her in dance with hand-drums”¹⁰. Rabbeinu Bachya points out that this is the first time the Torah names a woman as a prophet, and infers from the wording of the pasuk that Miriam and the women spontaneously began singing their own song praising Hashem, not just imitating Moshe and the men¹¹. Rashi points out that just the fact that the women had brought these hand drums with them was an expression of confidence that Hashem would perform miracles for them.¹²

Seven weeks after Am Yisrael completed their long journey out of Egypt, they received the Torah at Har Sinai. In preparation for this, Hashem told Moshe “Thus shall you say to Beit Yakov  and declare to Bnei Yisrael”.¹³ Numerous commentators remark that “Beit Yakov” here refers to the women of Am Yisrael, and “Bnei Yisrael” refers to the men. The commentators point out another difference in the pasuk. Hashem tells Moshe “tomar (say) l’beit Yakov” but “tagid (declare) l’bnei Yisrael”. There is not just a differentiation made between the genders, there is also a differentiation made in the way to address them. 

Rashi notes that the difference in the verbs indicates that the women were to be spoken to in a gentler tone, including the rewards for keeping the mitzvot, while the tone used with the men was to be harsher and include the punishments for transgressions¹⁴. Lest we think that addressing the women more ‘gently’ is negative, the Siftei Chachamim clarifies that the same word, “amar” is the language the Torah used when describing how Yosef addressed his brothers when he revealed his identity to them in Egypt¹⁵ – it is simply noting that different audiences need to be addressed in a manner most receptible to them in a given context. As with all differentiations that the Torah makes between men and women, the difference is necessary, though not lauding one over the other. 

There is a lot of detail packed into this one pasuk, and the commentators expound on it. Firstly, Hashem is telling Moshe that the women will receive the Torah before the men. The Tur HaAroch¹⁶ says that the women were to be spoken to first as a result of the communication failure of Adam and Chava in Gan Eden (where Hashem told Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but Adam told Chava that they could not even touch it¹⁷). The Tur HaAroch reasoned that by the women receiving the laws first, they would be bolstered to keep the Torah more fiercely given the honor bestowed upon them. 

It was made evident in Egypt that the women possessed a higher level of emunah than the men. The men were realistic, they focused on the details. That was the crux of the climacteric conversation between Miriam and her father, Amram. Amram (and after him, all of the men of Am Yisrael) divorced his wife after Paroh’s decree to kill all Israelite baby boys. He decided that the risk was too high to continue having children – and this was a perfectly reasonable stance to take. This was a serious decree that went against the very core of Torah values – to preserve and protect life.

The Tur HaAroch continues that this was proven 43 days later, when the women refused to give their jewelry for the Golden Calf, and the Tze’enah URe’enah also specifies that it was because the women were more pious than their husbands that they refused to take part.¹⁸  

Furthermore, Rabbeinu Bachya notes that Moshe was instructed to give the women the general principles and subject matters of the Torah, without all of the details (which would be told to the men). Again, this kind of comment can sound somewhat derogatory – why exactly would the details not concern the women? The truth is that the details certainly concern the women – they just didn’t need to be instructed about them as explicitly as the men did. 

It was made evident in Egypt that the women possessed a higher level of emunah than the men. The men were realistic, they focused on the details. That was the crux of the climacteric conversation between Miriam and her father, Amram¹⁹. Amram (and after him, all of the men of Am Yisrael) divorced his wife after Paroh’s decree to kill all Israelite baby boys. He decided that the risk was too high to continue having children – and this was a perfectly reasonable stance to take. This was a serious decree that went against the very core of Torah values – to preserve and protect life. For Miriam to rebuke her own father, the spiritual leader of Am Yisrael at the time, no less, was completely unreasonable. But that was the thing – Miriam was not acting out of reason. She was acting out of emunah. 

Rabbi Tatz²⁰ brings an important definition of emunah – it is not that it simply means to have faith in Hashem, it is a critical quality of being faithful to Hashem. It means that we follow the will of Hashem, no one else, even when it does not seem reasonable to do so at first. Of course Miriam knew what was at stake, of course she understood the details, but Am Yisrael had to be grounded in and guided with emunah.

The Zohar writes that “He is truth and she is faith”. Remember that in practice there was only one address to all of Am Yisrael at Har Sinai. The words relayed were the exact same for everyone, but the way it was received by the women was different to the men. The women received the Torah at Har Sinai from a place of emunah. They heard their God loud and clear, gently and earnestly, and using their emunah as both a receptacle and a muscle, they cemented themselves as the mainstay for the Jewish people and their families, as Hashem created them to be. 

1. Bereishit 15:13 ↩︎
2. Bereishit 15:14 ↩︎
3. Rashi on Bereishit 15:13 ↩︎
4. Shemot 9:1 ↩︎
5. Sotah 11b ↩︎
6. Sotah 12a ↩︎
7. Shemot 1:17 ↩︎
8. Shemot 2:2 ↩︎
9. Shemot 2:3 ↩︎
10. Shemot 15:20 ↩︎
11. Rabbeinu Bachya on Shemot 15:20 ↩︎
12. Rashi on Shemot 15:20 ↩︎
13. Shemot 19:3 ↩︎
14. Rashi on Shemot 19:3 ↩︎
15. Siftei Chachamim on Shemot 19:3 ↩︎
16. Tur HaAroch on Shemot 19:3 ↩︎
17. Haamek Davar on Bereishit 3:3 ↩︎
18. Tze’enah URe’enah on Shemot 32:2 ↩︎
19. Sotah 12a ↩︎
20. Tatz, The Thinking Jewish Teenagers Guide to Life, Chapter 9 ↩︎