Komentarz do Wyjścia 19:18

עשן כלו WAS ALTOGETHER ON A SMOKE — This word עָשַׁן is not a noun, because the ש is punctuated with Patach, but it has the meaning of “it was doing something”, similar to and אָמַר and שָׁמַר and שָׁמַע. On this account, its translation in the Targum is תָּנֵן כֻּלֵּהּ “it was altogether giving forth smoke” (תָּנֵן is a verb corresponding with the Hebrew עָשַׁן). and it does not translate it by תְּנָנָא (a noun denoting smoke, corresponding to Hebrew עָשָׁן). But wherever else the word עשן occurs in Scripture it is punctuated with Kametz because it is a noun.

והר סיני עשן כלו, and Mount Sinai was completely wrapped in smoke, etc. Fire dominated the Mountain itself and burned its stones so that they turned into limestone. The stones of Mount Sinai have remained limestone ever since. When the Torah says: "the whole Mountain trembled," this is a description of the reaction of the stones when fire dominates them just as the stones in a furnace. The sounds that the stones give off are similar to the sound of someone trembling.

עשן כולו, the word עשן here is neither a proper construct mode, in which case it should have two vowels patach, nor is it completely “unattached,” as it would then have to have two vowels kametz. In other words, it is not a noun “smoke,” and not an adjective, “smoking.” It therefore must be a verbal mode. If it would be a noun it should follow the pattern of davar, devar, word, word of, or bakar, bekar, cattle, cattle of. (compare Numbers 7,88 בקר זבח השלמים).

והר סיני עשן כלו, “and the entire mountain of Sinai was smoking.” The mountain was smoke, not the fire; for the fire which sort of separated between the people and G’d had no smoke. If the Torah nonetheless speaks of כעשן הכבשן “like the smoke of a furnace,” we know that in a parable the comparisons do not have to be accurate This is especially so when physical concepts are being compared to meta-physical phenomena. Seeing that we are terrestrial human beings, bound to concepts which we can visualise, the Torah cannot describe matters of a spiritual nature except by using terms familiar to us from our daily experience on earth. Similarly, we find that Scripture compares even the brilliance of the sun to the beauty of human beings, and the sun’s orbit to the runner circling a certain prescribed route in the stadium in which he races. This is the meaning of Psalms 19,6: “who is like a groom coming forth from his chamber, like a hero, eager to run his course.” Everybody knows that such a comparison between sun and a human runner is not even remotely similar. Nonetheless, the psalmist chose to make this comparison to give us an inkling of what he had in mind. The same thing applies to the prophet Amos 3,8 comparing G’d to a lion when he writes: “a lion has roared, who can but fear? My Lord G’d has spoken, who can but prophesy?” The reason that the prophet arrogated to himself the right to make such blatantly inaccurate comparisons is simply that he wanted to compare the most powerful and fear-inspiring phenomenon amongst earth’s inhabitants to G’d in order to give man the feeling that he must relate with at least as much fear to G’d as he does to a lion. Our sages have termed all these so-called comparisons as דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם, “the Torah having adopted a style of expression with which human beings are familiar” (Berachot 31).

And he did not translate it תננא . . . As he translated כעשן הכבשן .

הכבשן A FURNACE of lime (i. e. in which lime is burnt and which emits vast quantities of smoke). One might think that the mountain emitted smoke only like such a furnace and not to a greater degree! Scripture therefore states in another passage, (Deuteronomy 4:11) “[And the mountain] burned with fire unto the very midst of the heavens”. Then what reason is there for stating that it smoked only like a furnace? This is said in order to make intelligible to the human ear as much as it can understand: Scripture gives human beings an example (a comparison) which is well-known to them. A similar case is, (Hosea 11:10) “As a lion does He (God) roar”. But who gave the lion power if not He, and yet Scripture compares him only to a lion! But the reason is that we describe Him by comparing Him to His creatures in order to make intelligible to the human ear as much as it can understand. A similar example is: (Ezekiel 43:2) “And His voice was like the sound of many waters”. But who gave the waters a thunderous sound except He, and yet you describe Him by comparing Him to His handiwork — it is to make it intelligible to the human ear (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:18:2).