612 & 613: Blueprints from the Har Sinai Experience Shavuot 5779 | East Hill Synagogue | Englewood, NJ

Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. 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. The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder.

The text comes to show us that the receipt of the Torah was not an equal experience, but varied based on readiness to accept it.

The same way an identical fire can burn items in different manners, based on the makeup of the item, so too each individual received the Torah in a manner fitting his spiritual preparedness and openness.

(Loose translation)

Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere the LORD your God and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching.

(1) It is a biblical positive command to assemble all Israelites, men, women, and children, after the close of every sabbatical year, when they go up to make the pilgrimage, and recite to them sections from the Torah which will urge them to perform the precepts and encourage them to cling to the true religion,

(4) How did he read? Trumpets were blown throughout Jerusalem to assemble the people; and a high platform, made of wood, was brought and set up in the center of the Court of Women. The king went up and sat there so that his reading might be heard. All the Israelite pilgrims would gather round him.

(6) Proselytes who did not know Hebrew were required to direct their hearts and listen with utmost awe and reverence, as on the day the Torah was given at Sinai. Even great scholars who knew the entire Torah were required to listen with utmost attention. If there was a person who could not hear, he had to direct his heart to this reading, which Scripture has instituted only for the purpose of strengthening the true faith. Each had to regard himself as if he had been charged with the Torah now for the first time, and as though he had heard it from the mouth of God, for the king was an ambassador proclaiming the words of God.

Listening to Hakhel will stir the heart in order to awaken awe of G-d.

(loose translation)

Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel.

It is an affirmative precept binding upon every individual Israelite to write a scroll of the Law for his own use, as it is said, "Now therefore write ye this Song for you." As the Torah is not written in separate sections, this text means, "Write for yourselves the Torah in which this Song is contained." Even if one's ancestors have left a person a scroll, it is a religious duty to write a scroll at his own expense. If he wrote it with his own hand, it is accounted to him as if he had received it from Sinai. If one does not know how to write a scroll, he should get others to write it for him. He who corrects a scroll, even a single letter of it, is regarded as if he had written it completely.

write yourselves [plural] Not only Moshe, but also everyone who knows how to write, is commanded to do so [Sanhedrin 21b]. teach it i.e., he is to explain the difficult meanings to them. place it into their mouths that they should know it word for word.

However I am warning you very much to be on guard and guard yourself very very much to remember from where the commandments came to you, such that you not forget the stand at Mount Sinai with all of the things that your eyes saw there - the voices and the torches, His glory and His greatness, and His words that you heard from the fire. And you shall inform your children and your children's children for all time [about] the thing that your eyes saw at this great stand. And the explanation of the reason is in order that you should learn to fear Him all of the days, and teach your children for all generations. If so, you shall do this and not forget Me.

The second mitzvah [that the Rambam‏ ‏‎“forgot” to include in his Book of‎‏ ‏Mitzvot] is that we have ‎been warned to‏ ‏never forget standing at Har Sinai, and‏ ‏to never remove this event from our‏ ‏consciousness. Rather, our eyes and our‏ ‏hearts should be directed there all of the‏ ‏days. It is as the ‎Exalted One said, “Be‏ ‏careful, and guard your soul greatly, lest you forget the things that your eyes ‎saw‏ ‏and lest they leave your heart all the‏ ‏days of your life. And you shall make‏ ‏them known to ‎your children and their‏ ‏children - the day that you stood before‏ ‏Hashem your G-d at Chorev,‎‏ ‏etc.” ‎‎(Devarim 4:9-10).‎‏ ‏The intent in this [commandment] is of tremendous importance....

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. The LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to the LORD to gaze, lest many of them perish.

If even one person was killed, it would be as if the entire population was destroyed.

(loose translation)

Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai.

Seeing that you have experienced with your own senses that you do not need to resort to intermediaries in order to communicate with G’d do not construct for yourselves such intermediaries - even for communicating with Me.

And this idea, that one must exert great effort to retain one’s Torah knowledge, is in accordance with what Avdimi bar Ḥama bar Dosa said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “It is not in heaven…nor is it beyond the sea." “It is not in heaven” indicates that if it were in heaven, you would have to ascend after it, and if it were beyond the sea, you would have to cross after it, as one must expend whatever effort is necessary in order to study Torah.

Study the Torah laboriously with the intention to take heed and to fulfil its teachings, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 5:1) “and ye shall learn them and take heed to do them".

The people of Israel were crowned with three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of sovereignty.

The crown of priesthood was acquired by Aaron, even as it is said: "And it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of everlasting priesthood" (Num. 25.13); the crown of sovereignty was acquired by David, even as it is said: "His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me" (Psalms 89.37);

but the crown of the Torah, behold it, there it lies ready within the grasp of all Israel, even as it is said: "Moses commanded us a Law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" (Deut. 33.4), Whosoever wants it may come and take it.

...herefrom be instructed that the crown of the Torah is greater than both of the others.

The crux of a person's Avodat Hashem is the aligning of the heart and the mind.

(loosely translated)

And why did they see fit to institute to say the blessing of repentance after the blessing of understanding? As it is written: “And they will understand with their heart, repent, and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10), showing that the theme of repentance properly follows the theme of understanding.

So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.”

The two Kolot symbloize Tefillah (open, missing, incomplete, striving) and Torah (full, complete, whole.)

(loose translation)

The Kol of Torah evokes Moshe,

The Kol of Tefillah evokes David HaMelech.

(loose translation)

The LORD is near to all who call Him, to all who call Him with sincerity.