In the previous shiur, the first of this series, we saw that the Rambam counted the content of the verse אנכי ה’ אלקיך (“I am Hashem your G-d…”) as a separate and distinct commandment of the Torah, and distinct from the following verses, which themselves contain the second commandment לא יהיה לך (“You shall not have before me other gods…”). We also saw how he explained the content of these two commandments in the first paragraphs of his great halachic work the Mishneh Torah.
In this second class of the series, we will learn what the Sages have taught about the manner in which the people of Israel heard and understood these commandments in the extraordinary experience they had at Mount Sinai. We will examine the words of the commentators Rashi and Hizkuni on the verses and on those words of the Sages, and see how these explanations differ from that of the Rambam in the Moreh Nevuchim (Guide of the Perplexed).
I have posted here some of the sources that we will use in the class, including the full text of the abovementioned Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim chapter 33) in English.