Our Souls Went Out as G!d Spoke

(Exodus 19:19) "Moses spoke and the L-rd answered him with a voice": R. Eliezer says: From Where is it derived that the Holy One Blessed be He would not speak (a new commandment) until Moses said to Him that His children had already accepted (the previous commandment)? From "Moses spoke, etc." R. Akiva replied in disagreement to R. Eliezer: This goes without saying. What, rather, is the intent of "Moses spoke, etc."? That the Holy One Blessed be He gave power and strength to Moses and assisted him with his voice, so that Moses could speak (the commandment) to Israel in the same manner that he had heard it from Him. Thus, "Moses spoke, G d answering (i.e., assisting) him with (the) voice."

Similarly, Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi said: From where is it derived that the translator who translated the public Torah reading into Aramaic is not permitted to raise his voice louder than the reader? As it is stated: "Moses spoke, and God responded in a voice" (Exodus 19:19). This verse requires further consideration, as there is no need for the verse to state: "In a voice." The phrase, "in a voice", adds nothing. Rather, to what purpose did the verse state: In a voice? In Moses’ voice.

“Moses spoke and G-d responded in a voice.” (Ex. 19:19)

We learn about this in Masechet Brachot. "From here is it derived that the translator who translated the public Torah reading into Aramaic is not permitted to raise his voice louder than the reader..." It is astonishing that as Tosafot and the Rif point out, Moshe is the reader and G!d is the translator. The truth of this is that Moshe spoke the Ten Commandments to the Jewish people, and the root of the giving of the Torah was G!d engraving the words of Torah into their hearts, each individually according to his blessed will. And this is the idea of the Blessed Holy One being like a Translator in the giving of the Torah. After Moshe spoke the words of the Torah, G!d followed and engraved the words on their hearts; This is “the voice of the translator” from our Gemara. G!d had the ability to engrave these words of Torah in the hearts of the Jewish people according to G!d's own Power, with a strength far greater than Moshe’s. However it is written that "there never arose among the Jewish people a prophet like Moshe." For G!d did not illuminate a soul among the Jewish people like that of Moshe of blessed memory. And this is the idea that the voice of the translator cannot be louder than the reader, that none can be on a higher level than Moshe.

"G!d spoke all these words, saying..."(Exodus 20:1) They heard literal words on Har Sinai, "G!d spoke..." The way G!d spoke was from the mouths of the Jewish people, which is clear and true of all prophecy. That is by way of the voice of the prophet themself as it says in masechet Brachos (45a) "In the voice of Moshe" At that moment all the Jewish people were on a level of prophecy to hear the Word of G!d as is known, and this was by way of speech. There is no voice in the world which comes from a person's mouth apart from G!d's "My soul left as he spoke" (נפשי יצאה בדברו) (Shir haShirim 5:6) Each person is a component of G!d's Souls at that moment.