This past Sunday America celebrated one of its most sacred holidays… the evening when we grade and analyze commercials on national TV for which sponsors paid over $4 million for 30 seconds. In addition to the bodily threats associated with the foods consumed during the celebration, one ad early on in the broadcast had folks’ blood pressure shoot up quite unsafely, posing potential medical challenges. It was a commercial for Chevrolet. The ad began with a black screen and static. While millions of American started cursing or jumping up from their couches to check on their sets, a voice eventually emerged from the darkness. The sales pitch preached that even if you lost TV reception, the particular Chevy vehicle being promoted  had Wi-Fi and the game could be enjoyed in the automobile. A national relief was felt among the celebrants of Super bowl Sunday and a collective EKG stabilized.

How many times have you said something and you were confronted with dead silence, crickets? What’s the saying, “Either no one heard a word, or everyone agreed or they were floored.” You don’t know if people are talking behind your back, reveling in your brilliance or screaming that they have lost contact and can no longer hear you.

Imagine the nascent and recently-liberated Jewish nation just stood around a mountain in the Sinai desert and heard the word of God. Midrashic interpretation teaches that the Israelites were so intimidated and petrified by this Voice, they asked Moshe to intercede and recite the final eight, since the first two caused their souls to depart from their bodies. After the tenth utterance was proclaimed, the Torah records the reaction.

"וכל העם ראים את הקולת ואת הלפידם ואת הלפידם ואת קול השפר ואת ההר עשן, וירא העם וינעו ויעמדו מרחק. ויאמרו אל משה דבר אתה עמנו ונשמעה ואל ידבר עמנו אלקים פן נמות ויאמר משה אל העם אל תיראו כי לבעבור נסות אתכם בא האלקים ובעבור תהיה יראתו על פניכם לבלתי תחטאו" (שמות כ:ט"ו-י"ז)

“And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they were shaken, and stood far away. And they said to Moshe, ‘Speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moshe said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to test you, and that His awe may be before your faces, that you sin not” (Shmos 20:15-17).

It was so quiet; you could even hear the sounds! That was the reaction. So many questions in these verses, so little time!

The simple (and intended) meaning of the verse is that the Hebrews saw the sounds and voices. Although some will note that it may be poetic license to merge the different senses (see Bereshis 26:27 and Koheles 1:16), others (amongst them Rashi) suggest that the entire Revelation was supernatural. Another commentary opined that they saw throughout the entirety of their lives and experiences the veracity of what they heard at Sinai, a compromise position to seek a different connotation for ‘seeing.’ The great Chassidic Rebbe, Rav Bunim of Pshichsa opined that they realized that they just had experienced what mortal man had yet to perceive; they realized how far they were from God and true spirituality. Hence their retreat backwards.

The Sfas Emes (#5661/1901) notes that the Torah describes this vision in the present tense, not as a narration of something that had occurred. “The souls of the Jews which could see that which was proclaimed were components of God Above. This soul observes the past and the future and the essence of God. This perception remained in the souls of Israel. We need to toil in Torah and mitzvos to continue to perceive this spirit in ourselves.”  

While I admit that much of what the holy Sfas Emes expresses is far beyond my ken to grasp, I understand the gist of what he said. God allowed a portion of the experience of revelation to remain within all of us, past and present (according to tradition, all of our souls were there experiencing this most seminal moment in human history). We need to be able to access it as motivation and inspiration. And if we work hard on our Torah study and our performance of the mitzvos, we indeed can re-experience it.

Moshe’s initial calling began as he heard voices from within a fire. On the very same mountain, the nation he would lead experienced the very same thing. They heard words from within a fire. They experienced sounds through the perception of sight.

The aseres hadibros, the ten utterances, provide us with our calling, with our mission. In addition to the seminal message conveyed in the 620 letters of Revelation (according to the Midrash representing the 613 mitzvos and 7 days of Creation, including Shabbos) we find meaning in the way in which they were conveyed. The enduring message is that as active Jews and members of the covenantal community striving to take quantum leaps towards the Almighty in the center of our universe, we must train ourselves to see the song of Torah, to envision the sounds. As the Sfas Emes preached 114 years ago on this Shabbos, we need to look inside and find the ability to do what is not possible. We have it in us to see sounds! As it says in the verses quoted above, we must pass this test. We can do the impossible because God gave us the ability; we just have to access it. If we can do the impossible by seeing sound, (because He gave us the key within ourselves), He will continue to protect us.