COFFEE & KABBALAH SHAVUOT

(1) And the Lord said unto Moses: “Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven that there may be hail” (Exod. 9:22). Scripture says (elsewhere in allusion to this verse): Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that hath He done, in heaven and in the earth (Ps. 135:6). In reference to the heaven, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: The heavens are the heavens of the Lord (Ps. 115:16), and in regard to the earth, The earth hath He given to the children of men (ibid.). This may be compared to a king who decreed that the people of Rome should not migrate to Syria and that the people of Syria should not migrate to Rome. And similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, decreed when he created the world: The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; and the earth He hath given to the children of men. However, when He decided to give the Torah, He abrogated the first decrees and declared: Let the earthly beings ascend on high and the heavenly creatures descend below, and I will be the first (to do so), as it is said: And the Lord came down upon Sinai (Exod. 19:20). And it is also written: And to Moses He said: “Come up unto the Lord” (ibid. 24:1). Hence, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that hath He done.

(7) Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will faithfully do!”

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The LORD spoke those words—those and no more—to your whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which He gave to me.

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.