20 May BEFORE THE INK DRIED: TRACING THE TORAH’S JOURNEY FROM SPEECH TO SCRIPT

The reading of
Parashat Behar
comes at a perfect
time, just before
Shavuot. The first
Rashi teaches us how the Torah was given
to our nation, offering many insights into
what is considered the most important
event in Jewish history—the giving of the
Torah at Har Sinai.
The parashah deals extensively with the
laws of working the land during the
seventh year, yet it opens by stating that
these laws were given at Har Sinai. Rashi
asks: Why is this particular mitzvah
singled out as having been given at Sinai?
He answers that just as all the details of
the mitzvah of Shemitah were taught at
Sinai, so too all the mitzvot—with their
general principles and specific laws—
were given there. This teaches us that the
Torah was not given merely as broad
concepts, but with exact halachic details,
all originating at Har Sinai. Thus the
Shemitah example is not an exception,
but a model for understanding the

comprehensive nature of Matan Torah as
it reflects on the way all the mitsvot were
given.
Rashi’s words align with the opinion of
Rabbi Akiva, as we find in the Gemara a
machloket regarding the nature of the
revelation at Sinai (Zvachim 115b). Rabbi
Akiva holds that every detail of every
mitzvah was given at Sinai. In contrast,
Rabbi Yishmael maintains that general
principles were given at Sinai, and the
details were taught later in the Ohel
Moed.
Rashi clearly follows Rabbi Akiva’s
view: that all elements of the Torah, down
to the smallest specifics, were given at
Har Sinai. This perspective reinforces the
idea that Sinai was not only the moment
of receiving the foundational
commandments, but the complete
transmission of Torah in its totality—
written and oral, general and detailed.
While the above discussion relates to how
the mitzvot were transmitted, a different
Gemara (Gittin 60a) discusses how and

when the Written Torah
was given. This refers not
only to the
commandments, but to
the narrative portions as
well—the events
described in the Torah,
such as the creation of the
world, the lives of the
Avot, the slavery in
Mitzrayim, the Exodus,
the journey through the
desert, and so on.
It is not possible to say that the written
Torah was given at Har Sinai, since many
of its events took place afterward. For
example, Moshe Rabbeinu strikes the
rock in a manner that was not acceptable
to Hashem. If the entire Torah had already
been given to Moshe at Sinai, he should
have known in advance not to hit the
rock.
This leads the Sages to two primary
understandings. One opinion holds that
the Torah was given to Moshe in stages:
as events unfolded, Moshe was instructed
to write them down, and at the end of his
life he compiled all the parts into one
complete Torah scroll. Another opinion
is that the entire Torah was given to
Moshe at the end of the forty years,
shortly before his passing.
These views highlight the difference
between the giving of the Torah’s content
as the mitzvot and halachot, which Rashi
says were fully revealed at Sinai, and the
giving of its form (the written text),
which followed a different process.
The first time Moshe started writing the
Torah was actually three days before
Matan Torah at Har Sinai. Rashi (Shemot
24, 4) tells us that Hashem commanded
him to write everything from Bereishit—
the story of creation—up until that point,
as he was preparing to ascend the
mountain. He also wrote the few mitzvot
that the nation had received earlier at
Marah. This understanding is based on
the words of the Mechilta d’Rabbi
Shimon bar Yochai on the pasuk: “בּ תְֹּכְּיִַּוַ
all wrote Moshe’”—“ֹמֶֹׁשׁה ֵאֵת- ָּכּל ִּדְּבְֵרֵ י ה
the words of Hashem.” The Mechilta
—“ֵאֵּלּו ְּדָּבִָרִ ים ֶׁשָּׁקְּדְמּו ְ-ל ַַמַּתּן ּתֹוָרָ ה” :explains
“These refer to matters that preceded the
giving of the Torah.”
This Rashi appears to follow the opinion
that the Torah was written by Moshe
gradually, part by part, as events occurred

and as Hashem instructed him.
There are several verses like this one that
indicates Moshe wrote parts of the Torah
before his final days. How, then, does this
align with the opinion that the Torah was
written only at the end of Moshe’s life?
The Rishonim (see Rashba Gitin 60)
explain that while Moshe compiled and
finalized the Torah at the end, he was
instructed by Hashem throughout his life
to write down specific sections as they
occurred. At the same time, he was
reviewing and teaching the rest of the
Torah orally, without writing it down
until the conclusion of his life.
Moreover, there are sources that indicate
written scrolls existed even before Moshe
Rabbeinu. For example, Shemot Rabbah
5:18 on Parashat Shemot states:
ִּתְּכְַּבּד ָהֲָעֹבָֹדָה ַעַל- ָהֲָאֲָנִָׁשׁים ְוַיֲַעֲׂשּו ָבָּה- ְוְַאל ִיְִׁשׁעּו”
– (5:9 Shemot” (ְּבִּדְִבְֵרֵ -י ָׁשֶׁקֶר
“Let the work be heavier upon the men so
that they will engage in it and not turn to
false words.”
A question is asked: What were the “false
words” that disturbed Pharaoh? The
Midrash explains: “This teaches that they
had scrolls passed down through tradition
from the forefathers, with which they
would delight from one Shabbat to the
next, reading that Hashem would
ultimately redeem them, since they would
rest on Shabbat.”
This suggests that even prior to the formal
giving of the Torah, there were written
traditions preserved and studied among
Bnei Yisrael.
Rashi also writes that Yaakov sent
Yehudah ahead to Egypt to establish a
Beit Midrash, indicating that they were
already engaged in Torah study. However,
while it’s clear they were learning Torah,
it was not the written Torah as we have it
today. Rather, the Torah itself existed in a
different form, having been created even
before the creation of the world.