God in Search of Man (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 185)
"We must not try to read chapters in the Bible dealing with the event at Sinai as if they were texts in systematic theology. Its intention is to celebrate the mystery, to introduce us to it rather than to penetrate or to explain it. As a report about revelation the Bible itself is a midrash."
(ד) פָּנִ֣ים ׀ בְּפָנִ֗ים דִּבֶּ֨ר ה' עִמָּכֶ֛ם בָּהָ֖ר מִתּ֥וֹךְ הָאֵֽשׁ׃
(ה) אָ֠נֹכִ֠י עֹמֵ֨ד בֵּין־ה' וּבֵֽינֵיכֶם֙ בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֔וא לְהַגִּ֥יד לָכֶ֖ם אֶת־דְּבַ֣ר ה' כִּ֤י יְרֵאתֶם֙ מִפְּנֵ֣י הָאֵ֔שׁ וְלֹֽא־עֲלִיתֶ֥ם בָּהָ֖ר לֵאמֹֽר׃ {ס}
(4) Face to face ה' spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire—
(5) I stood between ה' and you at that time to convey ה’s words to you, for you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain—saying:
"פנים בפנים דיבר ה' עמכם"
כו'. במד' "הרב נותן והתלמיד מקבל" כו' ע"ש.
פי' כי הקב"ה נותן התורה ונותן ג"כ כח בישראל לקבל התורה כי הכל ממנו הוא. והכנת בני ישראל אל התורה הוא חסד בפ"ע שזכו בנ"י להיות מכוון פנים בפנים לקבל הדברות.
וזהו הי' ע"י משה רבינו ע"ה כמ"ש אנכי עומד בין ה' וביניכם. וזה מתעורר בכל שנה ג"כ כמ"ש עומד ולא כתיב עמדתי.
וזהו ג"כ תנופת שתי הלחם. לחם מן השמים ומן הארץ. בחי' תורה שבכתב ושבע"פ. פירוש הנתינה והקבלה שניהם מתעוררין בחג הזה:
"Face to face the Lord spoke to you" (Deuteronomy 5:4). The midrash says "the teacher gives and the student receives".
This is to say that God gave the Torah and also gave strength to Israel to receive it. This is because everything comes from Him! Israel's Readiness for the Torah is itself a loving act that they merited: to have focus, face to face with Hashem, ready to receive the Commandments.
This was done by means of Moshe Rabbeinu, as the Torah says, "I stand between Hashem and you" (Deuteronomy 5:5) And this experience is awakened each and every year, which is why it says "stand" (in present tense) rather than "I stood".
The waving of the two loaves of bread on Shavuot has the same meaning: they represent bread from heaven from the Earth, the written and the oral Torah. Both giving and receiving are awakened on this day.
God in Search of Man (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 192)
"To the biblical man, the miracle of revelation was not only in the fact of God speaking but also in the fact of man being able to endure it."
Commentary on Sefat Emet by Rabbi Arthur Green
Here only fragments of a much longer homily are preserved. The point is that everything comes from God, who gives us the Torah and gives us the power to receive it. We think of Revelation as a dialogue, one side giving and the other receiving. But in fact, there is only One: God gives and God (operating within us) receives.
This teaching is attested by the comments on the two loaves: we might think that bread from heaven (manna) is the gift of God and bread from the earth is our own product. But we thank God as the One "who brings forth bread from the earth," showing that both forms of food are equally Divine gifts. So too the written Torah, given directly from Heaven, and the oral Torah, that which seems to well up from within our own minds. They, as he has already frequently reminded us, are gifts too, one being "implanted within us" by the hand of God.