Har Sinai Every Day: is God still Speaking?

(19) 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. [God] inscribed them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The master said above: "All the seventy had prophesied once, and ceased; but these two did not cease to prophecy." Whence do we infer this? Shall we assume it from the following passage (Num. 11, 25) They prophesied V'lo yassoff, which means they never prophesied again. If so, then how will you explain the passage (Deut. 5, 19) "With a great voice V'lo yassoff?" Does this also mean that it was never heard again? [The Shechina was surely heard in later times]. We must therefore say Yassoff means "not ceased;" if so, then the above inference is gone! We infer it from this passage: "And they prophesied [in the past] while concerning Eldad and Medad it is written, "are prophesying" [present tense]. In regard to the statement that their prophecy was "Moses shall die," it is readily understood, for it is written (Num. 11, 28) My Lord Moses, forbid them. But according to him who said they prophesied about other things, why, then, should they be forbidden? Because it was not seemly for them thus to prophesy in the presence of Moses, which appears as if a scholar decides a question in the presence of his teacher. What is meant by the words, forbid them? He said to Moses: "Throw upon them the care for the public, and they will cease [to prophesy] by themselves."

Each and every day a [heavenly] echo (lit., daughter of a sound) goes out from Mount Horeb The [scholars] in the books of [geography] have said that the sound of an echo – like the sound of thunderous words that no one can understand – is constantly heard around Mount Sinai in the air above the mountain even today . And this is a wondrous thing. And in my humble opinion, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi is hinting to these. Since the sounds that are heard there hint to man to remind him of the giving of the Torah; and that it thunders now about the generation that does not honor it properly to observe its commandments properly. And this is the small sound that reverberates from the great sound that was heard then on the day of the gathering at the time of the giving of the Torah. And this is the "daughter of a sound" that is mentioned here; meaning to say a sound born of another sound.

The verses describing the births of Peretz and Zerach are meant to illustrate how such attempted ‎reaching for that which was not completed represented a lost opportunity, so that the second of ‎the twins wound up being the firstborn [in the physiological and halachic sense, similar to ‎Esau. Ed.] We have a statement in Chagigah 15, according to which there is a heavenly voice calling out ‎once on each day emanating from Mount Sinai calling on sinners to do penitence, excluding only ‎Elisha ben Avuya. The Talmud there illustrates that there exists an opportunity for each one of us ‎to cement our relations with our Creator. All that is needed is to demonstrate one’s sincerity ‎through performance of one of the mitzvot that are basic to Judaism, such as giving ‎charity or Torah study. The reference to ‎שיח‎, a word having several meanings, may be to warn us ‎that we are not to waste our time on earth in idle conversation, if we aspire to establish a firm ‎bond with our Creator. There is no need to add that if one employs the gift of speech to indulge in ‎defamation of others, etc., that this instead of strengthening the bond with our Creator, drives a ‎wedge between Him and us.‎Such abuse of the power of speech is forbidden even when we find ourselves in the part of the ‎universe that has either not yet emerged from the primeval state of ‎חושך‎, darkness, or is on the ‎verge of descending back into that sorry condition. Our author refers to the mental state of a ‎person yearning for the closeness with the Creator that he describes as a state of ‎התעוררות ‏היראה‎, “an awakening to a feeling of awe of the Creator.” He has explained this phenomenon in ‎connection with a statement in B’rachot 64 according to which the very existence of Torah ‎scholars contributes to harmony, peace in the lower universe. [As I have not found where the ‎author’s explanation on that statement in the Talmud has appeared in print, I will try and explain ‎how I understand his thoughts. Ed.]‎ ‎

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: every day a bat kol (a heavenly voice) goes forth from Mount Horeb and makes proclamation and says: “Woe unto humankind for their contempt towards the Torah”,... And it says, “And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets” (Exodus 32:16). Read not haruth [‘graven’] but heruth [ ‘freedom’]. For there is no free man but one that occupies himself with the study of the Torah. And whoever regularly occupies himself with the study of the Torah he is surely exalted, as it is said, “And from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and Nahaliel to Bamoth” (Numbers 21:19).