Moshe was told to ascend Mount Sinai, where he was to receive “the Torah and the commandment” [1]. The simple understanding is that even though the word “commandment” is in the singular form, it is referring to all of the commandments [2]. But why then is it written in the singular form?
An outraged SS guard suddenly burst into the children’s block in Auschwitz with a truncheon in hand – a new weapon used by the SS to flog their victims. After the flogging, the victim normally ended up in the crematorium. The children had heard of this deadly weapon, but had never had it tried on them… until now…
The SS guard came over to one of the bunks and told a 13 or 14 year old boy to climb down. The boy was beaten all over his body, head and face. After 25 lashes he still did not scream or cry. The guard was outraged. He wanted to make the boy scream but he did not succeed. This outraged the brute. So he continued hitting the child in a fury. But still, after 50 lashes the boy did not let out even a sigh. Then the guard left his victim to die in a puddle of blood and left the block.
But the boy wasn’t dead yet. His friends tried to revive him, helped him to his bunk and watched over him. When they finally saw he was able to talk, they asked him if he knew what he had done to incur such a beating. Broken and bleeding all over his body, with a big mark on his forehead from the lashes, he replied, smiling, “Yes I know why: I brought some prayer books for a few of my friends so that they could pray… even if I would have died It would have been worth it!”
Each and every commandment is important. Each commandment that we fulfil demonstrates that we are representatives of G-d. It would have been worth receiving the Torah for a single commandment. Indeed this is how important we must view each commandment.
Moshe was told to “come up the mountain” to receive “the commandment”. Our fulfilment of even a single commandment helps us to ascend the ‘mountain’ of life and to ultimately ascend to a greater realm.
Have a worthwhile Shabbos,
Dan.
Additional sources:
Story told by Yosef Zalman Klienman at the Eichman trial in Jerusalem (can be heard e.g. on Yisroel Goldwasser’s Holocaust series, class 50, on Yizkerem)
[1] Shemos 24:12
[2] Rashi, Shemos 24:12
