וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר יְהוָ֧ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינַ֖י בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד בְּאֶחָד֩ לַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִ֜י בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשֵּׁנִ֗ית לְצֵאתָ֛ם מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר׃
On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:
במדבר סיני, “in the desert of Sinai;” at what location did G-d speak to Moses? From the Tabernacle; before the Tabernacle had been erected, G-d had communicated from the top of Mount Sinai. From the day the Ten Commandments had been given, G-d’s presence had not moved away from Mount Sinai until the day after the Tabernacle had been erected.
...It is only left to ask why HaShem did not use consistent measures in this verse. When it describes where they were, the general location (the Sinai Desert) is mentioned first and only afterwards does it specify 'in the Tent of Meeting;' but when it mentions the time, the specific is mentioned first, 'on the first day of the second month,' and afterwards the general - 'in the second year.'
It appears, actually, that in a very intelligent fashion the verse did use consistent measures. This can be understood in the same way they explain "...see there is a place near Me..." (Shemot 33:21) in Bereshit Rabbah 68, saying 'that the place of the Holy One is secondary to Him.' From this perspective, every place is secondary in relation to the place where God encamps. Therefore, in our verse, the Tent of Meeting is actually the encompassing measure and the desert is secondary to it. In order that we read the verse from this perspective, the second half was joined to it 'on the first of the month...in the second year.' The phrase 'Tent of Meeting' is actually the encompassing measure, and therefore was placed second just as the words 'second year' were placed after the phrase 'on the first day of the month.' ...Though it appears little to the eye, it is great from the perspective of the One who dwells there, Blessed be God.
"And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" (Numbers 1:1). Why the Sinai Wilderness? From here the sages taught that the Torah was given through three things: fire, water, and wilderness. How do we know it was given through fire? From Exodus 19:18: "And Mount Sinai was all in smoke as God had come down upon it in fire." How do we know it was given through water? As it says in Judges 5:4, "The heavens dripped and the clouds dripped water [at Sinai]." How do we know it was given through wilderness? [As it says above,] "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness." And why was the Torah given through these three things? Just as [fire, water, and wilderness] are free to all the inhabitants of the world, so too are the words of Torah free to them, as it says in Isaiah 55:1, "Oh, all who are thirsty, come for water... even if you have no money." Another explanation: "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" — Anyone who does not make themselves ownerless like the wilderness cannot acquire the wisdom and the Torah. Therefore it says, "the Sinai Wilderness."
שפת אמת, בראשית:פרשת תולדות
ענין הבארות שחפרו האבות. באר הוא כמו הואיל משה באר את התורה. כמו כן קודם קבלת התורה היו האבות מבארים חכמת הבריאה. שהכל בתורה נברא. ולכבודי בראתיו. וצריך האדם להתבונן בכל הבריאה להבין כוונת הבורא ית"ש. ואאע"ה ביאר איך לבוא מכל הבריאה לאהבת הבורא ולהסתכל בחסדים וטובות הבורא שכבודו וגדלו וטובו מלא עולם...
Sefat Emet, Genesis: Parsha Toldot
Regarding the wells the patriarchs dug: the word be'er (well) is to be read as in: Moses agreed to explain (be'er) this teaching (Deut.1:5). In the same way, even before the Torah was received, the patriarchs explained/"welled" the wisdom of Creation, since everything was created through Torah and for God's glory. We have to contemplate all of Creation in order to understand the Creator's purpose. Abraham our Father explained/"welled" how to derive the love of God from all of Creation. How showed us how to look upon the kindness and goodness of the Creator, whose goodness and glory fill the world...
The word Torah is used in two senses; the supernal Torah, the existence which preceded the creation of the world, and the revealed Torah. Concerning the supernal Torah the Rabbis maintained: "The Torah is hidden from the eye of all living...Man knows not the price thereof." "Moses received Torah" but not all of the Torah "at Sinai." And not all that was revealed to Moses was conveyed to Israel; the meaning of the commandments is given as an example. Together with the gratitude for the word that was disclosed, there is a yearning for the meaning yet to be disclosed. There is a theory in Jewish literature containing a profound parabolical truth which maintains that the Torah, which is eternal in spirit, assumes different forms in various eons. The Torah was known to Adam when was in the Garden of Eden, although not in its present form. Commandments such as those concerning charity to the poor, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, would have been meaningless in the Garden of Eden. In that eon the Torah was known in its spiritual form. Just as man assumed a material form when he was driven out of the Garden of Eden, so has the Torah assumed a material form. If man had retained "the garments of light" his spiritual form of existence, the Torah, too, would have retained its spiritual form.
Abraham fulfilled the entire Torah even before it was given since his love was complete he was thus able to fulfill the Torah, as it says, " וְתֽוֹרַת־חֶ֝֗סֶד" — a Torah of kindness" (Proverbs 31:26).
- Rav Kook (18650-1935) explained: "The prophetic vision at Mount Sinai...granted the people a unique perspective, as if they were standing near the source of Creation. From that vantage point, they were able to witness the underlying unity of the universe. They were able to see sounds and hear sights. God’s revelation at Sinai was registered by all their senses simultaneously, as a single, undivided perception." [source: Gold from the Land of Israel, p. 135, adapted from Mo'adei HaRe’iyah, p. 49, found here: http://ravkooktorah.org/SHAV58.htm]
- The Sfat Emet (18470-1905) taught: "...the Seer looks at a thing in its completeness, exactly as it is. But for the Hearer, the sound changes as it enters his ears, and it isn’t exactly the same sound that was originally made. That’s the advantage of Seeing. But with Hearing, there is an advantage that the sound truly enters inside of him through the ear, whereas the sight remains outside. With this in mind, the verse teaches us that the Children of Israel had both advantages. They received the words in the manner of 'seeing sounds,' such that even though they truly entered inside of them, nevertheless they 'saw' the sounds, without any distortion." [source: R. David Kasher's "Synesthesia at Sinai," which includes many of these sources as well as this Hasidic interpretation from R. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter: https://boulderjewishnews.org/2018/synesthesia-at-sinai-parshat-yitro/]
- The Zohar says, Rabbi Abba said, “It is written: All the people were seeing הקלות (ha-qolot), the thundering. Were seeing—the verse should read were hearing. However, we have learned as follows: Those קלין (qalin), voices, were engraved in that darkness, cloud, and dense fog, and were visible in them as a body is visible, and they saw what they saw and heard what they heard from within that darkness, dense fog, and cloud. From within the vision that they saw, they were illumined by supernal radiance and knew what later generations coming after them would not know. They all saw face-to-face, as is written: Face-to-face YHVH spoke [with you] (Deut. 5:4) And what did they see? Rabbi Yose taught, “Radiance of those voices—for there was not a single voice that did not shine radiantly, enabling them to gaze upon all hidden, concealed treasures and all generations that will appear until King Messiah. Therefore, “All the people were seeing הקולת (ha-qolot) the voices—actually seeing!” ... Rabbi Shim’on said, “Upon this voice of the shofar depends all. It is written: a mighty voice (Deut. 5:19); a voice of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:12)—with radiance more subtle and lucid than all.” [source: Zohar 2:81b, Pritzker Edition Vol. 4, translated by Daniel C. Matt p. 443-446]
- My favorite translation of the enigmatic phrasology in Exodus 20:15 comes from a friend, Yoseph Needelman, who points out the tense of the keyword רֹאִ֨ים implies that the children of the Children of Israel—that is, us—are still seeing these revelatory sounds.
- Another friend, the scholar Leonard Stein, understands the verse this way: "Seeing is a common verb for experiencing, and that’s the idea here. But it isn’t just the description of experiencing the kolot (which, based on a simple reading of the context, means thunder). The Torah always uses berakim for lightning, not lapidim (which are actually torches of light). My sense from the passage is that it’s trying to evoke the visceral experience of this profound moment, which defies comprehension; making something distant extremely close-up. It does that by conflating the primal ways we perceive what is outside our bodies, through our senses. And here you have all five senses awakened. There’s sight (they see flashes of light), smell (the mountain smoke), hearing (the sound of the shofar), and touch (yanu’u, their bodies trembled or swayed, like someone grabbing a lulav). That leaves you with taste, what is most intimately experienced from the outside in, the kolot, what is produced through one mouth meeting another, the secret of “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth…” And that leads to another consideration of this synesthesia, so that it is not simply seeing/hearing."
- And then there's this, as heard in Exiled in the Word: Poems & Other Visions of the Jews from Tribal Times to Present (ed. Jerome Rothenberg & Harris Lenowitz, p. 91):