״שמור״ ו״זכור״ בדיבור אחד

בראשית
(first of all)

Thanks to all of you who've left messages of sympathy, hope, faith and philosophy on the previous post. I really appreciate it, and it definitely can't hurt my father's conditions.

שמות
(names)

Many people are familiar with the midrashic claim that ״זָכֿוֹר״ ו״שָׁמוֹר״ בדיבור אחד נאמרו — “remember” and “observe” were said as one utterance — because it was enshrined by R' Shelomoh Haleivi Alqabetz in his liturgical poem for Friday Night, Lekha Dodi. This midrash mitigates the contradiction between the Ten Commandments Decalogue as recorded in Shemot/Exodus and as recorded in Devarim/Deuteronomy, by explaining that the two contradictory phrasings were proclaimed at the same time, something that no human being could accomplish. God's speech at Mt Sinai is therefore even more miraculous.

What I did not know until I read it while going through the commentary of R' Shelomo Yarhhi/Yitzhhaqi on last week's parsha, however, is that the midrashic source of this interpretation, the Mekhilta, has a longer list of other statements that were made "as one utterance", including:

“one who breaks sabbath restrictions is killed”
and
“offer sabbath sacrifices”

“don't have sex with your brother's wife”
and
“perform levirate marriage with your deceased brother's wife”

What it seems the midrash is telling us is that the Godly act here was not necessarily to enunciate the sound sequences */zakor/ and */šamor/ at the same time, but to give us laws and instructions that seem to contradict each other, only to reveal the complex unity of the system.

ויקרא במדבר דברים
(and he called words in the wilderness)

Blogger is forcing me to 'upgrade' the next time I log in.
Let's see how that works out...