Parshat Yitro
January 24th-25th, 2003
22 Shevat, 5763

NOTE: I am happy to say that I arrived back, Baruch Hashem, from a wonderful (and exhausting) trip to Israel late on Thursday night. In the next few weeks, I hope to write about some of the things I experienced there. Now, however, I can think of little but SLEEP…

Below is a revised version of a Savannah Kollel Insights sheet from the archives. Good Shabbos!

THE SPECTACLE OF SINAI

"On the third day when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the shofar was very powerful, and the entire people that was in the camp shuddered...All of Mount Sinai was smoking because Hashem had descended upon it in the fire; its smoke ascended like the smoke of the furnace, and the entire mountain shuddered exceedingly." (Chapter 19: 16, 18; Artscroll translation)

From the Torah's account, we learn that the Revelation at Mt. Sinai was a pretty darn frightening affair: fire and smoke rising, the earth quaking, and the blast of a shofar waxing louder and louder.

The Midrash (quoted by Rashi) goes even further in telling of the extraordinary nature of the Revelation at Sinai. It explains that when the Torah writes (a bit later in the parsha), "The entire people saw the thunder...," it is meant to be taken quite literally! At Mt. Sinai, the Jews saw what was usually heard; they had what is termed a "synesthetic" experience. (No, they weren’t dropping some pre-historic acid. The Lord G-d Himself is the ultimate mind-expander!)

But wait, the excitement and wonder of Sinai don’t stop there either. In the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), Moshe tells the Jewish people, "You have been shown in order to know that Hashem, He is the G-d! There is none beside Him." (4, 35) Rashi once more quotes a rabbinic teaching to explain what it means that the Jews were "shown in order to know." "When the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave the Torah, He opened for them the seven heavens; and just as He split the upper [regions], so He split the lower, and they saw that He was alone."

In other words, the Children of Israel were shown at Sinai a glimpse of the inner mechanism of the entire universe--from subatomic particles to black holes and beyond, presumably. The curtain was drawn back for an instant, so that the Jewish people would unmistakably perceive and know that Hashem, the One and only G-d, is the sole Ruler of the entirety of this vast Creation!

With due respect to Lord of the Rings (and Harry Potter), then, we must conclude that Hashem Himself (as displayed in this very parsha of Yisro) takes the all-time Oscar for special effects.

Why did the giving of the Torah have to be such a production?

Consider. If each of the roughly three million individuals present had merely heard a soft voice whispering in his or her ear, "This is your Creator talking," wouldn’t that have been enough of an attention grabber? Even more so if it had been followed, say, by a choice embarrassing detail from his or her life that ONLY the Master of the World could have known! I mean, did they (or we) really need this whole spectacle of fire and smoke and all the rest?

I'm sure there are many different answers to this question. I will mention two that I came across.

Rabbi Elie Munk, zt'l, in The Call of the Torah, writes that we needed to see Hashem's absolute control over all elements of Creation so that we could be sure of two things. First, no other force or presumed "divinity" could hold a candle to the G-d of Israel, Who showed Himself at Sinai to be absolute master of the universe. Second (and this is a more subtle point), "…no other truth could exist besides His." In short, Hashem needed to "strut His stuff" in order to impress upon the Jews that there is no reality besides Him (in the heavens above, or on the earth below), and no other absolute truth besides the eternal Torah (which represents His will).

A heavenly whisper just would not have been enough to convey all this. But the mind-blowing prophetic experience of Sinai, in all its supernatural splendor, was enough.

A more extended answer to our question is offered by Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, zt'l, great 20th century Torah thinker and educator, in Da'as Chochmah U'Mussar (Volume 5, 163-166). He explains that the fire and smoke at Sinai were not meant to be merely a stirring backdrop to the 10 Commandments, or even a proof of Hashem's Sovereignty--which had anyway been clearly demonstrated through the 10 plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea.

Rather, the supernatural phenomena at Sinai illustrated the quintessential nature of Torah itself! Every single word of Torah shakes all of Creation with its awesome spiritual power, and opens the "seven heavens" to reveal to the person who learns it sincerely that There is none beside Him. At the Red Sea, it is true that the Children of Israel experienced a high level of prophecy: a common serving maid saw more than Ezekiel the prophet, our Sages tell us. And yet, it did not begin to approach the loftiness of Sinai, where we saw the King Himself, as it were.

This is the uniqueness of Torah study, which enables us to "see the King," and through which we can cling to Him to a greater extent than through any other experience (or mitzvah) on this earth.

In other words, Hashem was simply (!) teaching Torah--and its nature--to the Jewish people on Mt. Sinai. There had to be fire and smoke, awe and trembling--for that is the spiritual essence of Torah, which is termed an aish dos (a fiery law). Indeed, the Talmud tells of a great sage whose Torah learning would create actual flames around him, and another whose study had the power to sizzle birds flying overhead. (Gosh, if I could do that, those Hebrew school kids might start to pay attention.)

Rabbi Levovitz concludes by quoting the teaching from Ethics of the Fathers: "If there isn't wisdom, there isn't awe [of G-d], and if there isn't awe, there isn't wisdom." They are meant to go together, Torah and yirah (awe)…or, more precisely, they are one and the same.

In its purest form, Torah study should always recapture (or recreate) some of the awe of Sinai.

Even if you or I will never sizzle birds, we can all at least try to study Torah with more passion, more love, and more awe…so that its wisdom (and purifying essence) can enter more deeply into our lives and our souls. GOOD SHABBOS!!

My e-mail address is yosefe@comcast.net

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Rabbi Yosef Edelstein, Savannah Kollel. Phone: 912-351-0469; fax: 354-9923