Anochi Adonai Elohecha: Hearing the Voice of God

(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.

(1) God spoke all these words, saying: (2) I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: (3) You shall have no other gods besides Me.

(15) All the people witnessed 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.”

(2) The first word, as it came forth from the mouth of the Holy One, whose Name be blessed, was like storms, and lightnings, and flames of fire, with a burning light on His right hand and on His left. It winged its way through the air of the heavens, and was made manifest unto the camp of Israel, and returned, and was engraven on the tables of the covenant that were given by the hand of Moses...

(1) A psalm of David. Ascribe to the LORD, O divine beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. (2) Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name; bow down to the LORD, majestic in holiness. (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.

I the Eternal am your God

R. Levi then offered them this explanation: It says, ’Did ever a people hear the voice of God?’ What does this mean? Had it said ‘The voice of God in His power’, the world would not have been able to survive, but it says instead: The voice of the Eternal is with power (Psalm 29:4) - that is, according to the power of each individual, according to the individual power of the young, the old, and the very small ones. God said to Israel: ‘Do not believe that there are many deities in heaven because you have heard many voices, but know that I alone am the Eternal your God,’ as it says, I am the Eternal your God (Deut. 5:6)

(33) Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have, and survived?

(1) Another interpretation (of Exod. 20:2): I the Eternal am your God: R. Hanina bar Pappa said: The Holy One appeared to them with an angry face, with a neutral face, with a friendly face, and with a laughing face. An angry face is for Scripture. When someone teaches their child Torah, they are obligated to teach with fear. A neutral face is for Mishnah. A friendly face is for Talmud. A laughing one is for Aggadah. The Holy One said to them: Even though you see all these likenesses, I the Eternal am your God.

R. Levi said: The Holy One appeared to them as an image with faces on every side. If a thousand people were looking at it, it would be looking back at all of them. So it is with the Holy One. When God spoke, each and every person of Israel said: The Divine Word has been with me alone. What is written is this: I the Eternal am your God (with YOUR in the singular).

R. Jose bar Hanina said: It was according to the capacity of each and every person that the Divine Word spoke with him or her, and do not be surprised at this fact. Since we find in the case of the manna that, when it came down to Israel, each one of them savored it according to his or her capacity, how much the more would the principle apply with the Divine Word!

And God spoke all these words (Exod. 20:1). He spoke them all simultaneously. He causes death and restores life at the same time; He wounds and He heals simultaneously; He answers a woman in travail, those who travel on the sea and wander on the desert, and those who are imprisoned in the east, the west, the north, and south. He forms the light and creates the darkness, makes peace and fashions evil (Isa. 45:17)—all at the same time. Dust is turned into man, and man is turned back into dust, as it is said: And bringeth on a shadow of death in the morning (Amos 5:8). What is meant by a shadow of death in the morning? It means that He restores man to his original state by morning.¹⁵According to tradition, the soul leaves the body when it is sleeping and returns in the morning, when it awakens.