Pensamiento judío sobre Deuteronómio 4:13

Presumably, it represented the five illusory powers Achaziah recognised as deities. The first five of the ten commandments, dealing with the relationship between man and G'd, also warn against these five faulty philosophic concepts. Anochi, "I," means "I alone," not even the invisible intellectual concept of "time" has power to control our destiny. Lo Yihyeh, refers to the celestial forces moving the constellations and galaxies. Lo Tissa, do not use the name of G'd in vain, means that if one subscribes to the theory that everything is preordained, employing the name of G'd is equivalent to a denial of G'd, seeing that one does not view Him as a free agent. Zachor, abstaining from work on the Sabbath, proves that we do not believe that we are subject to the "Prince of the day," who supposedly decides what will or will not succeed on that day. "Honouring" parents, as distinct from "fearing" them, as demanded elsewhere in the Torah, teaches that our natural origins do not determine the course of our lives, though they have a share in influencing it. Moses again and again emphasised that at the revelation at Mount Sinai the Jewish people saw fire but no form or image. The people begged G'd to stop the sound and the fire, and G'd concurred. They also asked that Moses the prophet be their intermediary, to communicate G'ds will and words to them. The acceptance of their request by G'd, and the subsequent promise to supply other prophets in lieu of Moses, made obedience to the prophet a cornerstone of Judaism henceforth.

"The entire Jewish nation saw the sounds." This shows that on the one hand the Jewish people had shed enough of the physical part to be able to gain a whole new perspective on sound. On the other hand, they were still frightened of the other physical phenomena such as the lightning and the smoke. "The people saw and trembled." The latter is what caused them to ask Moses to be their intermediary. Moses who said "do not be afraid,” meant to tell them "do not be afraid to listen to G-d directly." G-d’s purpose is to give you experience now, so that this will remain an undying memory of this supernatural experience. It will remind you that man can survive hearing the voice of the Living G-d. Moreover, the awe you experience as of now, will insulate you against any future desire to sin against Him. Only if you did that, would you really die. The fact that "and these are the laws" are described as presented to the people by Moses, indicates that all the ten commandments had been heard by the people directly from the shechinah. "The people stood at a distance while Moses approached the thick cloud," refers to receiving the remainder of the Torah. Again in Parshat Va-etchanan it states "these words G-d spoke to your whole assembly at the Mount," indicating that the entire ten commandments are what is referred to. The whole sequence in Va-etchanan dearly indicates that Moses became the intermediary only for the remainder of the Torah. To reconcile statements by our sages which appear to say that Israel heard only the first two commandments directly, can be done in the following manner. "You have seen that I spoke directly," therefore all the things prohibited in the first two commandments are clearly comprehensible, do not build fancy altars, gold or silver images etc, I do not relate to you through an intermediary." The emphasis on "you shall construct an altar made from earth etc.," shows that simple materials are to be used to form the basis of worship. G-d wishes to tell us that even when ostentation in architecture is employed, this should not lead to the fatal error of viewing the costly materials as intermediaries between Israel and its G-d.