In the year of 1954, David Ben-Gurion, the Prime Minister, flew to the United States to meet with the president then, Eisenhower, in order to ask for his help and support to ease the difficulties of the young state of Israel. In one of these meetings, the Secretary of State, John Foster Dallas, confronted Ben-Gurion with much arrogance: “Tell me Prime Minister, who do you and your country represent? Are the Polish Jews, or the Yeminite Jews, the Romanians, Moroccans, Iraqis, Brazilians, and those from the Soviet Union all really the same thing? After 2000 years of exile, can you still call it one nation or one culture? Do you still have the same tradition?
Ben Gurion responded: “You see, dear Secretary of State, 200 years ago, there was a ship that embarked on a journey from England called the Mayflower. On it there were the first settlers of what we know as the the powerful, democratic country of the United States of America. I want you to go outside and ask ten North American children these things: Who was the captain of the ship? How long was the journey? What did the travelers eat during the journey? How were did the sea behaved? You will find it hard to hear any accurate answer for these questions.
Now take a look at the Jews. More than 3000 years ago, the Jews left Egypt. I ask you on one of your travels through the world, try to meet ten Jewish children from different countries, and ask them who was the captain when we left, how long was the journey, what they ate on the way, and how the sea behaved. When you have the answers and are surprised, try to remember and appreciate the question you just asked me.
This week’s parasha is rich in mitzvot. Many of these mitzvot are fundamental mitzvot for both us and the other nations. If we go through the parasha, we will find that there are two groups of mitzvot. There are some mitzvot that are followed by the sentence, “I am HaShem,” and some are followed with, “I am HaShem your God.” When the mitzvot end with just “I am HaShem,” they are mitzvot that are based more on morality, and are not necessarily special to Am Yisrael. Some examples are stealing, lying, giving false testimony, cursing the deaf, hating, taking revenge, and holding a grudge in your heart. All of these mitzvot are commanded to just to us, but also the other nations.
But, the mitzvot that end with, “I am HaShem your God” are mitzvot that connect us with Yetziat Mitzrayim. Many of those mitzvot also remind us of the Ten Commandments, like respecting our parents and keeping Shabbat. Also, looking after the poor people and the strangers by not harvesting your entire field and leaving a portion of the crop unharvested for them reminds us of Yetziat Mitzrayim. We were in their same postition when we were in Egypt.
But, if we take a closer look at the commandments, we see that Shabbat is mentioned twice; once ending in “I am HaShem,” and the other ending with “I am HaShem your God.”
We can simply answer that one of these commandments commerates the creation of the world (as HaShem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh), and the second commandment commemorates Yetziat Mitzrayim. But, how do we explain the redudancy found with the commandment not to steal. It says by the mitzvah not to steal and to be moral, etc., “I am HaShem.” But, later on, when it discusse the different weights to prevent cheating in business, it says, “I am HaShem your God.” Why do we say just “I am HaShem” with stealing, and “I am HaShem your God” with the weights? What’s the difference?
One needs to have “I am HaShem” in one pocket, and “I am HaShem your God” in the other. Many moral acts are undisputable, and there is no doubt what is right, like helping the needy where he has nothing to eat. Only when we get to a questionable case what is the morally right choice.