Shalom.
This week’s Torah portion is parashat Yitro, in which, three months following the
exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel arrive at the wilderness of Sinai, there to receive
the
Torah from G-d Himself.
This parasha features many profound and important things, the
character of Yitro himself, after whom the portion is named, his pagan background and
indeed
idolatrous prowess which he abandoned to follow the one true G-d with great dedication, who
he
was, the advice he gave his son-in- law Moses, the concept of the judicial system….the
description of the character of those who are worthy to be leaders…but the main event
of the
parasha is the arrival at Sinai and the experience of the Revelation, the giving of the
commandments.
This is an event of unparalleled spiritual magnitude, which changed the course
of human history and verily, validated creation.
There is so much we can discuss, so much to
learn about the nature of that experience, that brush with the Divine and eternal that
every man,
woman and child witnessed and internalized so deeply.
But permit me today to dwell on one
aspect of this experience.
I’ve always been fascinated by this concept but today I would like to
go a little deeper and try to understand the implications for us all.
Chapter 20 and verse 15 reads,
in Hebrew,
וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם
וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם
וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק:
Which is translated literally as “The entire people saw the thunder and the flames and
the sound
of the shofar and the smoking mountain, the people saw and trembled and stood from afar.
The obvious question is, its one thing for the entire people to see the flames, and the
smoking
mountain, but how could the verse state that they saw the thunder and the sound of the
shofar.
Not to mention…who was blowing the shofar?
Something that is accessible through the sense of
sound, cannot be associated with the sense of sight.
Sound has to be heard.
How could the
sounds have been seen?
Does this have anything to do with the fact that light travels faster than sound because
sound
waves can only travel as waves of pressure in a medium, whereas electromagnetic waves
of
which light is made, move on their own even through vacuum….sound’s speed depends
on the
medim through which it travels.
No, I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
This is generally referred to as an example of whats called Synesthesia, defined as the
production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation
of
another sense or part of the body.
But there are various differing explanations expounded upon by the sages as to what was
going
on here.
Some authorities maintain that the verse should be understood simply, that despite the verse’s
awkward syntax, the plain meaning is that they saw what is seen, and heard what is heard,
and
the verse simply groups them together.
Others define the seeing as in the sense of understanding,
as used elsewhere in the Torah, as in, (Gen.27:27) “See, the fragrance of my son is like the
fragrance of a field that Hashem has blessed”….in other words, even for something that is not
seen but is conceptualized, the word seeing could be and is used, as in, I think I finally
see.
IN
that case the verse would be better read as All the people perceived the thunder and the
lightning
flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking;
But others great commentators explain this as actual sight.
They saw in a supernatural manner,
meaning, supernatural defined simply as a manifestation or event attributed to some
force
beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.This was something sublime, ethereal,
sacred, the renowned kli yakar explains famously, “each word that was uttered by the mouth
of
the Holy One, blessed be He, immediately took form until the people actually could perceive
the
letters formed in front of them, in the air, as if everything was written out before them”,
posted,
if you will.
Thus they saw those voices that they heard, in the form of letters.
So to summarize,
some explain the aspect described here by Torah of sight as understanding, and others
as actual
sight.
Today some explain this phenomena within the context of the research of modern
parapsychology, Extrasensory experience, such as telepathy or glimpses of the future.
Extrasensory perception involves awareness of information about events external to the
self not
gained through the senses and not deducible from previous experience.
Such phenomena are today under laboratory conditions, in controlled environments.
People who
experience spiritual sight using the mind’s eye are examined in sealed rooms, or while
dreaming,
and when their descriptions match reality, the results of such tests would seem to demonstrate
conclusively from a statistical standpoint, that information can be obtained without the
aid of the
senses.
So open up your heart in the deepest way.
Don’t you understand what happened at Mount Sinai.
What this revelation really was, or should we say, as we shall soon ‘see,’ what this
revelation is
all about.
The Kadosh baruch Hu, the Holy One blessed be He, is absolute, and it was not
necessary for Him to give over His message to the people of Israel through the aid of
the senses,
but through spiritual seeing and spiritual hearing.
Listen: Our sages state that at the experience of Mount Sinai, everyone was whole, everyone
was
healed of all blemishes and disabilities that they left Egypt with, where many of the Israelites
were maimed or disabled from the hard labor and cruelty of the Egyptian taskmasters.
Completely healed.
How do you know?
There was no one who blind, for the verse testifies, ‘The
entire people saw…”
There was no one who was dumb, for the entire people answered, “We will
do,” and not one among them was deaf, for the entire people answered, “and we will
hear.”
So,
since there are no words to describe receiving information in this manner, and the verse
utilizes a
mixing of the senses of sight and hearing to convey this idea.
Now there is no scientific explanation for an extra-sensory experience.
Why?
Because this is
exactly where science stops.
Because the explanation is the existence of the soul, which science
doesn’t touch.
While we live, our soul is connected to our bodies, but the soul’s existence is not
dependent on the body, and it continues to exist after the death of our bodies.
We believe that
the soul is free of the physical limitations of space and time.
Therefore the soul can experience
manifestations of the acquisition of knowledge without the senses.
Indeed the great Ramchal
writes that soul level connection is called the sight of the soul, which is not vision
like the sight
of the body, because this type of seeing is not the vision of the eyes.
At the Sinai revelation, the people of Israel reached such a high spiritual state, they
actually
transcended the physical limitations of the body, and their souls became dominant over
their
physicality, and they were able to grasp and receive that which was said by the Almighty
without
the agency of the physical senses.
Indeed perhaps this frames an ancient and puzzling statement
of our sages in a new light: We are taught that “with each word uttered by Hashem,
their souls
departed from them.’
The Malbim explains this to mean that their physical bodies were dividing
between them and the Eternal, and thus ‘their souls departed, ‘ meaning, they were able
to divest
themselves of physicality and depart from their bodies completely, and they saw with
an internal,
spiritual vision, and when G-d’s speech was concluded, their souls returned to their
bodies, and
then they saw with their physical vision again.
Open up your heart again now.
The verse states, ‘roim et hakolot,’ the entire people
sees the
sounds, in the present tense, not rau, ‘they saw.’
This teaches us that in every generation, the
potential for this experience exists, it is constant, even if on a very reduced level.
At the Sinai
revelation the entire people experienced it.
But G-d is infinite and above time and His voice
thunders from Sinai every day, as the rabbis teach, and thus those words can still be seen
by
those who are found worthy, or should I say, who make themselves worthy, since everything
is
up to us.
Western civilization has ingrained in all of us the tendency to rationalize everything.
But we are
believing Torah Jews.
And the fact remains that this world is but a passageway that leads to the
next world, and the soul is the main component of our being, not this body that we perceive
with
our physical senses that holds us back from perceiving the true nature of reality.
Once in a while,
we get a brief glimpse of something greater, and we see without our eyes, once in a while,
in a
rare moment perhaps, we hear something without our ears, and see something without our eyes.
We are so bogged down with what we have been taught to expect and with who we think we
are
and we have so given up hope on ever having a real relationship with G-d, it’s a wonder
we can
even see or hear at all.
We need to learn to pay attention to the Torah’s true message, and to the
message of the timelessness of the Sinai revelation, the great gift of the Torah, the covenant
the
Almighty made with us, we need to know that “seeing the sounds” is in the present
tense to this
day, we need to pay attention to our spiritual essence, a little less twitter, Instagram,
and
facebook, and a little more concentration on the words of the Torah that are constantly
dancing
in front of us, the perpetual post of G-d’s utterance that stand before us, that’s the
real Face, the
real facebook page, you don’t need no app to see it, if you want to see that voice,
you have to
really want that, really work for it, we need to really work on ourselves to become real
again, and
really want the Torah to be part of you, deep inside, to make a difference to every moment
of
your life.
The mishne in Chapters of the Father (2,1) states in the name of Rebbe, look at three
things and
you will not come to sin.
Know what is above you: An eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all
your deeds are written in a book.
Commenting on these words the Holy Baal Shem Tov taught, in the future, knowledge will
be
revealed, there will be no coverings, no concealments, and exalted spiritual level in which the
eye will see what the ear hears will be the reality for each and every one of us.
Amen.