Comentario sobre Exodo 20:15

וכל העם ראים AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAW — This statement teaches us that there was not a blind person amongst them. And whence may we learn that there was not a dumb person amongst them? Because it states (Exodus 19:8) “And all the people answered”. And whence may we learn that there was not a deaf person amongst them? Because it states (Exodus 24:7) “We will do and we will hear” (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:15:2).

AND ALL THE PEOPLE PERCEIVED THE THUNDERINGS… 16. AND THEY SAID UNTO MOSES. In the opinion of the commentators,⁴⁹⁹Ibn Ezra in Verse 16. this happened after the Giving of the Torah. It is with reference to this that Scripture says, And ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and ye said: Behold, the Eternal our G-d hath shown us His Glory, etc. If we hear the Voice of the Eternal our G-d any more, then we shall die.⁵⁰⁰Deuteronomy 5:20-22.
But such is not my opinion, for it says here, but let not G-d speak with us,⁵⁰¹Verse 16. and it does not say “any more.” Besides, Moses said here to the people, Fear not,⁵⁰²Verse 17. and there it is said, They have well said all that they have spoken.⁵⁰³Deuteronomy 5:25. Moreover, here it is told that they feared only the thunderings, the lightnings, and the smoking mountain, and there it is said that they feared the speaking of the Divine Presence, for they said, For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the Voice of the living G-d, speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?⁵⁰⁴Ibid., Verse 23. Again, here it is said, And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness,⁵⁰⁵Verse 18. but it does not say that “he entered into it.” [If the events narrated in this section of the Torah happened after the Revelation, it should have said that he came “into the midst of the cloud,” as it says further on in 24:18.]
The correct interpretation regarding this section of the Torah and the [entire] order of events pertaining to the Revelation appears to me to be as follows: And all the people perceived… And they said unto Moses — all this happened before the Revelation. Now at first, [in Chapter 19], Scripture mentioned in sequence all the words of G-d that were commanded to Moses regarding the setting of a boundary to Mount Sinai and the admonition given to the people.⁵⁰⁶Above, 19:24. This is followed [at the beginning of Chapter 20] by the Ten Commandments, and now Scripture refers back and mentions the words of the people to Moses, relating that from the moment they had perceived the thunderings and the lightnings, they moved backwards and stood afar off, further away from the boundary of the mountain that Moses had set for them.
The order of events [on the day of the Revelation] was thus as follows: In the morning, there were thunderings and lightnings and the loud voice of the horn,⁵⁰⁷Ibid., Verse 16. but the Divine Presence had not yet come down on the mountain, something like it is written, And a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Eternal; but the Eternal was not in the wind.⁵⁰⁸I Kings 19:11. And the people that were in the camp — i.e., in their place of encampment — trembled.⁵⁰⁷Ibid., Verse 16. But Moses encouraged them and brought them forth towards G-d… and they stood at the nether part of the mount.⁵⁰⁹Above, 19:17. While they were standing there at the nether part of the mount in anticipation, the Eternal descended upon the mount in fire and the smoke thereof ascended⁵¹⁰Ibid., Verse 18. unto the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.⁵¹¹Deuteronomy 4:11. The mountain itself trembled⁵¹⁰Ibid., Verse 18. and quivered as mountains do in an earthquake called zalzalah,⁵¹²An Arabic word meaning earthquake. In another Ramban manuscript, the reading is chalchalah. or even more than that. And so it is written, What aileth thee… ye mountains, that ye skip like rams; ye hills, like young sheep?⁵¹³Psalms 114:6. See Pesachim 118 a that this verse refers to the time of the Giving of the Torah. This is not a figure of speech, just as the preceding verse — The sea saw it, and fled; the Jordan turned backwards⁵¹⁴Ibid., Verse 3. — is not a mere figure of speech. Meanwhile, the voice of the horn waxed louder and louder.⁵¹⁵Above 19:19. Then the people saw what was happening, and they moved backwards and stood further away from the boundary [that Moses had set for them]. They all said to Moses that G-d should not speak with them at all lest they die, for by reason of the vision, their pains came upon them and they retained no strength,⁵¹⁶See Daniel 10:16. and if they would hear the Divine utterance, they would die. Moses, however, encouraged them, and he said to them, Fear not.⁵⁰²Verse 17. And they heard him, and the people stood from afar off⁵⁰⁵Verse 18. at their positions, for in spite of all his words, they did not want to come near the boundary [he had set for them]. And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness⁵⁰⁵Verse 18. but did not come into it, and then G-d uttered the Ten Commandments. Now following the Ten Commandments, Scripture did not mention here what the elders said to Moses, for it wanted to explain the commandments and the ordinances in succession. But in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses mentioned that after the Ten Commandments [were given], all the heads of the tribes and their elders approached him and said to him, “If we hear the Voice of the Eternal our G-d any more, then we shall die,⁵¹⁷Deuteronomy 5:22. for we have estimated our powers [and found] that we could not stand any more the burden of the word of the Eternal G-d.” They had thought that G-d wanted to relate to them all the commandments [of the Torah], and therefore they said, Go thou near, and hear all that the Eternal our G-d may say; and thou shalt speak unto us all that the Eternal our G-d may speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.⁵¹⁸Ibid., Verse 24. And the Holy One, blessed be He, agreed to their words, and He said, They have well said all that they have spoken,⁵¹⁹Ibid., Verse 25. for such was His desire to proclaim to them only the Ten Commandments, and their fear appeared correct to Him.

רואים את, the word רואים as “seeing” is to be understood as like the same word in Kohelet 1,16 ולבי ראה, “and my heart ‘saw.’” Just as the heart cannot see, so people cannot “see” sounds. The meaning is that they understood the meaning of these sounds. They could not continue to endure the volume or nature of thee sounds. The same is explained in greater detail by Moses in Deuteronomy 18,16. They were afraid they would die.

רואים, the author translates this as literally “seeing” with one’s eyes.

וירא העם וינועו, as a result of what the people saw they became afraid, trembled.

וכל העם רואים את הקולות, “The whole nation was able to see the sounds, etc.” This is not the only time that the term “seeing” is used instead of “hearing.” Another such instance is found in Genesis 42,1 where Yaakov is described as “seeing” that there was food for sale in Egypt, a distance of hundreds of kilometers from where he was at the time. What was meant is that he had heard about it, from returning travelers. Our sages understand the verse literally, i.e. that during these exalted moments the people actually saw the sounds, the words. Nachmanides writes that our verse does not describe what the Israelites had seen during the revelation, but what occurred later, and that this is what Moses referred to in Deut.5,20 ותקרבון אלי וגו', “you approached me, etc.” They told Moses at that time that they could no longer endure the voice of G’d and were afraid to die unless Moses from then on would act as their interpreter. Personally, Nachmanides’ opinion is not acceptable to me, considering the fact that the Torah quotes the Israelites as saying words of a similar nature already in our paragraph immediately after the conclusion of the Decalogue. At that point nothing was said about the Israelites being afraid to die as a result of the overwhelming impact of what they had experienced. Furthermore, Moses is already telling the people: “אל תיראו, “do not be afraid (that you will die).” G’d had already commented that the people had done well in requesting that Moses be their interpreter of G’d’s words. (Deut. 5,25) I believe that the chronological sequence of what is reported in these paragraphs is as follows: the paragraph commencing with the words וכל העם (20,15) reports something which had preceded the actual giving of the Ten Commandments. As an introductory preamble, the Torah, i.e. Moses relates all the instructions he had received concerning the fencing off of the Mountain, followed by the proclamation of the Ten Commandments. Now Moses reviews what the Israelites had been saying to him in the course of this whole procedure, reminding them that from the moment they saw thunder and lightning they had trembled, retreated backwards, and taken up a position quite some distance from the bottom of the Mountain, way beyond the security fence Moses had erected. The secret to understanding all this lies in the fact that from early morning on the day of the revelation there were continuous explosion-like sounds of thunder, tremendous flashes of lightning, all of which preceded the manifestation of G’d’s presence. The people reasoned, understandably, that the intensity of these phenomena was likely to increase still further once the Shechinah began to manifest itself. Moses, in order to demonstrate to them that they had nothing to fear, led them closer to the bottom of the Mountain, a location from which the descent of the Shechinah to the top of the Mountain could be observed as a spectacle resembling the smoke arising from a crucible (19,18) all the way to heaven. The very Mountain started trembling, as if they were experiencing a major earthquake. David, in Psalms 114,4 describes the mountains of the Sinai range as dancing like rams. Seeing that, as reported, the sound of the shofar instead of receding, continued to become ever louder, the people reacted accordingly. The description by David in Psalms is not allegorical, just as the description of the sea fleeing from G’d at the time He split the Sea of Reeds, (Psalms 114,3) is not allegorical, but is a factual description of what had occurred. At that point, the people turned to Moses in awe, begging him to become their interpreter. They were willing or even eager to skip the experience of hearing the Lord address them directly. They had not even wanted to respond to Moses’ encouraging overtures to approach the Mountain somewhat closer to the edge of the fence. They observed Moses approach the thick cloud within which the presence of the Shechinah was concealed. He did however, not enter it. At that point, G’d began to recite the Decalogue. The Torah, at this juncture does not report at all what the elders had been saying to Moses, i.e. the recollection of events as presented in Deuteronomy to the new generation, shortly before he himself was to die. At this juncture the Torah’s major concern was to begin to elaborate on all the commandments, primarily the ones dealing with inter-personal relations that are set out in the portion called משפטים in chapters 21-23. In the Book of Deuteronomy, however, Moses does relate that all the leaders of the people after the revelation approached him, expressing their profound fear that if they were to be exposed to more mind-boggling experiences like these they would not be able to endure this. The reason they approached Moses at that time was that they thought G’d would address all the Commandments to them in the manner experienced at the Mountain. They therefore gave Moses their leader carte blanche to accept all these Commandments on their behalf committing themselves to observe any and all of these Commandments they had not been informed of as yet. G’d agreed with the feelings the Israelites had expressed. It had been His intent all along that the people would only hear the Decalogue from His mouth directly.

וכל העם רואים את הקולות, “And all the people saw the sounds (thunder), etc.” The word “saw” in this context is to be understood as “understood, comprehended,” similar to when Yitzchak spoke of ראה ריח בני “look at the fragrance of my son” (Genesis 27,27). He was well aware that fragrance just as sound cannot be seen by the eye. He meant that just as the eye is used to understand something clearly, so he experienced a clear understanding of what his son’s fragrance represented. Similarly, here; the Torah describes that the aural perceptions of the people were as convincing to them as if they had experienced the same thing with their eyes, a normally superior tool for clear perceptions. An alternative meaning could be that the Torah employed the word “saw” because these thunders were invariably accompanied by fire, something very visible to the eye. We have examples of such expressions and meanings in Psalms 29,7: “the voice of the Lord kindles flames of fire.” The people then saw the fire not the thunder. The words of the text may then be understood literally without the Torah telling us of an additional miracle.

This teaches that not one among them. . . You might ask: Did we not already learn this from, “In the sight of all the people” (19:11), as Rashi explained there? The answer is: Here it teaches that they did not go blind after the giving of the Torah. For even if someone looks at the kohanim’s hands while they bless the people [in the Beis Hamikdosh] his eyesight dims, as R. Chagai said in the Talmud Yerushalmi. And this is on account of the Shechinah’s presence upon the kohanim’s hands. [And we would think this applies] here even more so, since the people saw an even greater revelation of the Shechinah.

V. 15. V. 19 heißt es: "Ihr habt gesehen, dass ich vom Himmel mit euch gesprochen". Die Überzeugung, dass ein Wort von einer bestimmten Person gesprochen worden, kann wohl nur durch die gleichzeitige Sinneswahrnehmung des Auges und des Ohres bewirkt werden. Mit geschlossenem Auge werden wir wohl die Richtung im allgemeinen bestimmen können, in welcher unser Gehör einen Laut wahrgenommen, allein wir werden nicht den Punkt, somit auch nicht die Person fixieren können, von der aus derselbe an unser Ohr ergangen. Nur unser Auge findet den Ausgangspunkt des unser Ohr berührenden Schalles. So auch hier. Das Volk sah die zu ihm gesprochenen Laute gleichzeitig mit den Fackelblitzen. Es sah, dass das Wort eben von da aus zu ihm drang, woher die Blitze leuchteten, und sah daher auch den Schofarruf. Es ist dies das buchstäbliche: אתם ראיתם כי מן השמים דברתי עמכם. Und es sah, wie der Berg in Rauch verging, wie das Festeste unter dem Irdischen dieses Nähertreten des Göttlichen nicht ertrug. וירא העם, dies, was es sah, das Berg zündende Heranblitzen der Worte — um so zu sprechen — אשדת — דבריו שמעת מתוך האש, wie es daher kombiniert genannt wird, מימינו אשדת למו, — das machte sie erbeben, und sie traten unwillkürlich zurück. —

וכל העם, “And all the people;” from here on as far as verse 23, לא תגלה ערותך עליו, “you must not reveal your nakedness while on it (the altar),” the sequence of the way in which the Torah has been written is unusual, as the words: ולשומרי מצותיו, “and to those who observe His Commandments,” should have appeared at the end of verse 6. The reason why they do not appear at that point is in order not to interrupt the sequence of the Ten Commandments.

ראים את הקולת [THEY] SAW THE SOUNDS — they saw that which should be heard (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:15:1) — something which is impossible to see on any other occasion.

וירא העם, they understood what they should do.

וינועו, “they trembled.” Our sages (compare Rashi quoting Mechilta)) understand the word as related to זיע, It appears in a similar sense in Isaiah 24,20 נוע תנוע ארץ כשכור, “the earth wobbles like a drunk.” People retreated from that spectacle out of fear.[the word poses many problems even in the Mechilta de Rabbi Yishmael, compare Torah Shleymah, Rabbi Menachem Kasher Ed.] According to the followers of the plain meaning of the text, the פשט, the word is related to תנועה, motion, i.e. the people moved away from this spectacle.

Which came from the Almighty. Rashi is answering the question: וכל העם רואים את הקולות seems to have been before the giving of the Torah, for it is written above (19:16): ויהי קולות וברקים . If so, why was not “They trembled and stood far off” written above, before the Ten Commandments? Therefore Rashi explains that the קולות mentioned here refer to [Hashem’s uttering] the Ten Commandments, [not of the thunder that preceded].

VAYANU’U.’ In the opinion of our Rabbis,⁵²⁰Mechilta on the verse here, and mentioned partly in Rashi. the term nu’a here can only denote reeling to and fro, and so it says, The earth ‘no’a tanu’a’ (reeleth to and fro) like a drunken man.⁵²¹Isaiah 24:20. If so, the verse is stating [two things]: that the people were shaken up, and that out of their fear, they retreated farther backwards and stood afar off. But in the opinion of “the masters of the plain meaning of Scripture,”⁵²²The allusion is to Ibn Ezra, who interprets it so. vayanu’u means that “‘they moved’ backwards from their place and stood from afar,” the usage of the word being similar to: ‘na’ (a fugitive) and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth,⁵²³Genesis 4:12. and so also: ‘vay’ni’eim’ (and He made them wander) in the wilderness.⁵²⁴Numbers 32:13.

לפד ,לפיד, verwandt mit לפת: zwei Dinge mit Gewalt zu einander bringen, auch: seinen Körper mit Kraft zusammenziehen, daher überhaupt: mit einander und in einander verschlungen machen, und לפיד: mit einander verbundene Feuerbrände: Fackel. So auch rabbinisch: לבד, eine engere Verbindung, daher auch: Filz.

רואים את הקולות, “were seeing a visual image of the thunder.” The plain meaning of the verse is that even phenomena normally not subject to being seen, had become visible during the revelation. [In our time: “sound waves had become visible to the naked eye.” Ed.] Kohelet 7,27 already used the verb ראה “to see,” when he said: “see this is what I have found;” he referred to something that no one else before him had been able to find, (with his eyes). Or, compare Exodus 32,1 וירא העם כי בושש משה, “the people saw that Moses was tarrying.”

את הקולת THE SOUNDS which issued from the mouth of the Almighty.

וינועו, a word describing involuntary movements of one’s body, trembling. One is unable to arrest one’s motion i.e. that which is known as נע. The word appears transitively in Numbers 32,13 ויניעם במדבר, “He made them wander in the desert.” It occurs intransitively also in Isaiah 24,20 תנוע ארץ כשכור, “the earth is swaying like a drunkard.” The Israelites’ trembling was inspired by the fright they experienced at hearing G’d’s voice.

The root word נוע means זיע . It is an expression meaning זיע ורתת (shaking). It is not an expression meaning נע ונד (wandering). For afterwards it is written, “And stood far off.”

וינעו THEY MOVED — The root נוע denotes trembling (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:15:3).

Twelve mil, the distance of their encampment. . . You might ask: How does Rashi know they went back twelve mil, not less? The answer is: Since it is written, “Stood far off,” we may infer that until now they [all] were standing near. Even those at the back of the camp were near. And the length of their encampment was twelve mil. Therefore, if not that they were startled backwards twelve mil, those who stood at the front of the camp would still be within twelve mil. If so, how could it say, “And stood far off”? (Nachalas Yaakov)

ויעמדו מרחק AND THEY STOOD AFAR OFF — they moved back startled twelve miles, a distance equal to the length of their camp, and ministering angels came and assisted them — to bring them back, as it is said, (Psalms 68:13) “The angels of the God of Hosts made them move on, move on” (Shabbat 88b).