One of the most common verses in the Torah reads וַיְדַבֵּר ד’ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר, which is often translated as, ”Hashem spoke to Moshe saying." This translation is puzzling. Is it possible to speak without saying something? Do we really need the word, ”saying”?

Some explain that the word לֵּאמֹר means to say. Thus the verse reads, ”And Hashem spoke to Moshe to say.” What Hashem said to Moshe was for him to say to the Jewish people.

The commentary of Meshech Chochma points out that this doesn’t seem to work in a verse in this week’s parsha.

וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹקים אֵת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לֵאמֹר

Hashem spoke all these words (the Ten Commandments) to say. (20:1)

Hashem was speaking directly to the Jewish people here. Who were they to tell these words to? Meshech Chochma answers that actually Hashem had something very important here for the Jewish people to relate to others.

Maimonedes in his Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah, Chapter 8:1-2 writes:

The Jews did not believe in Moshe, our teacher, because of the wonders that he performed […]. What is the source of our belief in him? The [revelation] at Mount Sinai. Our eyes saw, and not a stranger's. Our ears heard, and not another's. There was fire, thunder, and lightning. He entered the thick clouds; the Voice spoke to him and we heard, ‘Moshe, Moshe, go tell them the following[….].’ Thus, [Devarim 5:4] relates: "Face to face, God spoke to you," […]. Thus, those to whom [Moshe] was sent witnessed [his appointment] as a prophet, and it was not necessary to perform another wonder for them. He and they were witnesses, like two witnesses who observed the same event together.

It is our duty as witnesses to this experience to pass it on from generation to generation. We read in Devarim 4:9-10:

רַק הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ וּשְׁמֹר נַפְשְׁךָ מְאֹד פֶּן־תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר־רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ וּפֶן־יָסוּרוּ מִלְּבָבְךָ כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ וְהוֹדַעְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְלִבְנֵי בָנֶיךָ׃ יוֹם אֲשֶׁר עָמַדְתָּ לִפְנֵי ה' אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ בְּחֹרֵב

But take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. And make them known to your children and to your children’s children: The day you stood before your God , Hashem, at Horeb…

Ramban (Nachmoinedes) writes that this

is a negative commandment in which he (Moshe) admonishes [us] severely [as follows]: For, as he stated that we should be careful concerning all the commandments and be heedful to perform the statutes and the ordinances, he again stated: “Only I warn you exceedingly to take heed and guard yourselves very, very much to remember from where the commandments came to you, that you should not forget the Revelation on Mount Sinai, nor all the things which your eyes saw there — the thunderings, and the lightnings, His glory and His greatness and His words that you have heard there out of the midst of the fire. And you should convey all the things which your eyes saw at that glorious Revelation unto your children and your children’s children forever.

Thus, writes Meshech Chochma, the verse in our parsha, “Hashem spoke all these words (the Ten Commandments) to say,” means that it is for every generation to say, to relate these words and the awesome experience that accompanied them to their children so that the truth of the G-d given Torah remains a foundational principle in the lives of our people.

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak