Reply To: Short & Sweet

Yisro: ‘Cuz I Said So

R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch has a beautiful explanation of what Bnei Yisroel meant when they said נעשה ונשמע:

First comes the נעשה; we keep the mitzvos because Hashem told us to, for only by obeying Him can we develop a relationship with Him.

Then comes the נשמע. This is when we try to listen to the messages behind the mitzvos, to figure out from the mitzvos how to lead the rest of our lives.

But the נשמע, the lessons we take from the mitzvos, are themselves a part of the נעשה, obeying Hashem. We don’t keep the moral lessons of the mitzvos because we happen to like them. We accept them as correct because they are God given, a part of Hashem’s mitzvos.

Morals that human beings make up change every decade, because they are based on nothing more than passing feelings and fads. Only a morality based on the eternal word of Hashem can last forever.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום