FEBRUARY 8 • 2024 | 43

that they were on a spiritual as well 
as a physical journey and they might 
not know all the details of the law at 
once. Nishma here means not “to hear” 
but “to hearken, to obey, to respond 
faithfully in deed.”
3. “We will obediently do” (Sforno). 
On this view the words na’aseh and nish-
ma are a “hendiadys,” that is, a single 
idea expressed by two words. The 
Israelites were saying that they would do 
what God asked of them, not because 
they were looking to benefit but simply 
because they wanted to do His will. He 
had saved them from slavery, led and 
fed them through the wilderness, and 
they wanted to show their complete 
loyalty to Him as their redeemer and 
lawgiver.
4. “We will do and we will under-
stand” (Isaac Arama in Akeidat 
Yitzchak). The word nishma can have 
the sense of “understanding.” According 
to this explanation, when the Israelites 
put doing before understanding, they 
were giving expression to a profound 
philosophical truth. There are cer-
tain things we can only understand by 
doing. We only understand leadership 
by leading. We only understand music 
by listening. Reading books about these 
things is not enough. So it is with faith. 
We can only truly understand Judaism 
through living by its commands. You 
cannot comprehend a faith from the 
outside. Doing leads to understanding.

A CLOSER LOOK
Staying with this interpretation, we may 
be able to hear another important idea 
here. If you look carefully at the book 
of Shemot, chapters 19 and 24, you will 
see that the Israelites accepted the cove-
nant three times. But the three verses in 
which these acceptances took place are 
significantly different:
1. The people all responded together, 
“We will do [na’aseh] everything the 
Lord has said.” (Shemot 19:8)
2. When Moses went and told 
the people all the Lord’s words and 
laws, they responded with one voice, 
“Everything the Lord has said we will do 
[na’aseh].” (Shemot 24:3)
3. Then [Moses] took the Book of 
the Covenant and read it to the people. 
They responded, “We will do and hear 

[na’aseh ve-nishma] everything the Lord 
has said.” (Shemot 24:7)
Only the third of these contains the 
entire phrase na’aseh ve-nishma. And 
only the third has no statement about 
the people’s unanimity. Notice how the 
first two emphasize that the people were 
as one: the people “responded together” 
and “responded with one voice.”
This suggests that when it comes to 
action (na’aseh) we must be united. 
However, there can be more than one 
path to understanding our faith (nish-
ma).

THINKING MORE DEEPLY
At the level of na’aseh, the Jewish deed, 
we are one. To be sure, there are dif-
ferences. In every generation there are 
disagreements between leading poskim, 
halachic authorities. That is true in 
every legal system. Poor is the Supreme 
Court that leaves no space for dissenting 
opinions. Ashkenazim and Sefardim dif-
fer too. Yet these differences are insig-
nificant in comparison with the agreed 
fundamentals of halachah.
This is what has historically united the 
Jewish people. Judaism is a legal system. 
It is a code of behavior. It is a commu-
nity of deed. That is where we require 
consensus. Hence, when it came to doing 
— na’aseh — the Israelites spoke “togeth-
er” and “with one voice.” Despite the 
differences between Hillel and Shammai, 
Abaye and Rava, Rambam and Rosh, R. 
Yosef Karo and R. Moshe Isserles, we are 
bound together by the choreography of 
the Jewish deed.
At the level of nishma, understand-
ing, however, we are not called on to be 
one. Judaism has had its rationalists and 
its mystics, its philosophers and poets, 
scholars whose minds were firmly fixed 
on earth and saints whose souls soared 
to heaven. The Rabbis famously said 
that at Sinai, every person received the 
revelation in their own way: 
“‘And all the people saw’ (see Shemot 
20:15) — they saw the sounds of sounds 

and the flames of flames. How many 
sounds were there and how many flames 
were there? Each heard according to their 
own level of understanding what they 
were experiencing.” (Mechilta 20:15b)
What unites Jews, what should unite 
us, is action not reflection. We do the 
same deeds, but we may understand 
them differently. There can be agree-
ment on the na’aseh but not the nishma. 
That is what Rambam meant when 
he wrote in his Commentary to the 
Mishnah, that “When there is a dis-
agreement between the Sages and it 
does not concern an action, but only the 
establishment of an opinion (sevarah), 
it is not appropriate to make a halachic 
ruling in favor of one side.”
This does not mean that Judaism 
lacks strong beliefs. It has very import-
ant tenets. The simplest formulation 
consists of three fundamental beliefs: 
in creation, revelation and redemption. 
Rambam’s 13 principles elaborate this 
basic structure. These three beliefs also 
form the pattern of Jewish prayer.
Creation means seeing the universe 
as God’s work. Revelation means see-
ing Torah as God’s word. Redemption 
means seeing history as God’s deed 
and God’s call. But within these broad 
parameters, we must each find our own 
understanding, guided by the Sages of 
the past, instructed by our teachers in 
the present, and finding our own route 
to the Divine Presence.
Heresy-hunting is not our happiest 
activity. One terrible episode of Jewish 
history is the treatment of Rambam, 
who was accused of heresy during his 
lifetime, and after his death many of 
his books were confiscated and burned. 
These were shameful events.
Judaism is a matter of creed as well as 
deed. But we should allow people great 
leeway in how they understand the faith 
of our ancestors. “We will do and we 
will understand” means: we will do in 
the same way; we will understand in our 
own way.
I believe that action unites us, leaving 
us space to find our own way to faith. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the 

chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His teachings have 

been made available to all at rabbisacks.org. 

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. How can the Jewish people be 
united in action?
2. Can you think of examples of different 
paths to faith within Judaism?

PHOTO BY ANASTASIYA BADUN ON UNSPLASH

