Parshas Yisro contains the most important event in World History, the Giving of the Torah. No event has had as big an impact on the Jewish nation and the world at large as Matan Torah. The Torah is the blueprint as well as the sustaining influence for creation; its being given over to mortal man is to give him the keys to the entire universe. How lucky we are that it was given to us!
The Torah describes the scene at Matan Torah in a way that’s impossible to imagine. The mountain on which the Torah was given, Har Sinai, was smoking, there was lightning and thunder and a mighty shofar blast could be heard for miles around. To top it off, Hashem himself “spoke” out the Ten Commandments, leading the nation to run away, faint, or, in some cases, die from fear. Chazal say that the entire world heard the Torah being given, such was the effect it had on the world physically and spiritually.
The lightning and thunder had an extra miracle to them. For the first and only time in history, thunder could be seen and lightning could be heard! With all these amazing and awesome miracles happening at the same time, Bnei Yisrael were unable to take this all in. As a result, they asked Moshe to say the commandments himself instead of hearing them directly from Hashem. As it says in the pasuk, “וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק” “And the entire nation could see the sounds and the flames, the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain; the people saw and they moved and stood from afar” (20:15).
The Meforshim (commentators) have different ways of explaining what it means that the sounds were visible. Some say that the use of the adjective of sight is to symbolize a deeper understanding by the people of what it meant to see Hashem. Some explain that it is simply referring to what caused the noises.
The Kli Yakar comes to explain this point and to also ask two more questions. First, how come the pasuk has to say twice that the nation could see the sounds? Also, the next pasuk states that after the Jews had been scared by the entire scene, “וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל מֹשֶׁה דַּבֵּר אַתָּה עִמָּנוּ וְנִשְׁמָעָה” “And they said to Moshe, ‘you speak to us and we shall hear…” (20:16), that Moshe should tell them the rest of the Torah and not Hashem. How come they had to say “and we shall hear”, isn’t that obvious?
He explains that each time Hashem spoke one of the commandments, the speech itself was so real, that the words themselves were floating in the air in front of them! He brings a proof that this is possible from the gemarah in Chagigah (14a) that everything Hashem says turns into a malach (angel) to do his bidding, this is because everything that comes out of Hashem’s mouth becomes a new creation. So too by the commandments, when they were brought into the physical world directly from Hashem, even through speech they became physical. He uses this to explain a different gemarah in Pesachim (87b) which says that when Moshe broke the first Luchos, the letters flew into the air and later came down onto the second set of Luchos when they were built. How else could this be unless there was something actually physical about the letters! So what it means when Bnei Yisrael saw the sounds is that they saw the physical speech of Hashem as it came out of his mouth.
Now, a person’s sense of sight is more powerful than his sense of hearing. Therefore, when Bnei Yisrael ran away in fear of Hashem’s presence, their thought was that even if they couldn’t hear Hashem (they could still hear the thunder and the shofar), they would still be able to see what he was saying. However, after a short time, they realized that they were wrong to run away from this amazing display of Hashem’s glory, and they decided to come back. But, since they were still scared of Hashem’s “voice”, they asked Moshe to take over saying the commandments. That is why it says “and we shall hear”, that even if they would no longer see the dibros (commandments) since Hashem was no longer speaking, at least they would hear them.
May we all be zoche to fulfill the Torah with all its Mitzvos and opportunities!
Shabbat Shalom!
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