Do You Hear What I Hear? The Sounds of Revelation

(16) On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. (17) Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. (18) Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the LORD had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder. (20) The LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. (21) The LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to the LORD to gaze, lest many of them perish. (22) The priests also, who come near the LORD, must stay pure, lest the LORD break out against them.” (23) But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it.’” (24) So the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come back together with Aaron; but let not the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.” (25) And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

(1) And God spoke all these words, saying: (2) I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

(15) All the people saw the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance. (16) “You speak to us,” they said to Moses, “and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”

(3) The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over the mighty waters. (4) The voice of the LORD is power; the voice of the LORD is majesty; (5) the voice of the LORD breaks cedars; the LORD shatters the cedars of Lebanon. (6) He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion, like a young wild ox. (7) The voice of the LORD kindles flames of fire; (8) the voice of the LORD convulses the wilderness; the LORD convulses the wilderness of Kadesh; (9) the voice of the LORD causes hinds to calve, and strips forests bare; while in His temple all say “Glory!”

(1) (Ibid. 20:15) "And all the people saw the sounds and the lightnings": R. Akiva says: They saw and heard what was audible. There was nothing that left the mouth of the Omnipotent which was not inscribed on the tablets, as it is written (Psalms 29:7) "The voice of the L rd hews (with) flames of fire."

(2) "And all the people saw": the sounds of sounds and the flames of flames...The intent is that each heard according to his power (to absorb what he experienced), viz. (Psalms 29:4) "the voice of the L rd in power, the voice of the L rd in majesty." Variantly: "And all the people saw": to apprise us of the exalted state of Israel. When they all stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, as soon as they heard the pronouncement, they assimilated it. As it is written (Devarim 32:10) "He encircled him; he invested him (with understanding). As soon as they heard the pronouncement, they assimilated it.

As when the Torah was given to the Jewish people, the voice of the Holy One, Blessed be He, went from one end of the world to the other end, and all of the kings of the nations of the world were overcome with trembling in their palaces and recited a song of praise, as it is stated: “The voice of the Lord makes the hinds to calve…and in his palace all say: Glory” (Psalms 29:9), i.e., each king in his own palace recited songs of praise to God.