In this, the fourth and last session of our pre-Shavuot mini-course, we will engage in two final ways with the beginning words of the Ten Commandments.
First, we will drill down and study very carefully the text of the first dibra – “אנכי”. We will do this by examining the classical commentaries of Rashi (11th cent. CE France/Germany), Ramban (13th cent. Spain), Seforno (16th cent. Italy), and the Bechor Shor (12th cent. France/Germany).
To conclude our journey for now, we will encounter a radically different interpretation of the events at Sinai from what we’ve already seen – relating to what the people experienced, how they reacted, and what was the end result – presented in the Hasidic text דגל מחנה אפרים. He also relates to the question of why the people only heard the first two commandments, with a surprising explanation.
I have posted here the sources for this session.