‘Hearing’ What Cannot Be Heard

by Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

The parsha opens by telling us that Yisro heard what Hashem had done for Klal Yisrael, causing him to come to the midbar to join them. Rashi (Shemos 18:1) asks, what exactly did Yisro hear? He answers that he heard about Krias Yam Suf and the war with Amalek. These were the great, world-shaking events that reached him and stirred him to action.

There is an obvious question. According to some Tannaim, Yisro came after Matan Torah. If so, why does the Torah not say that he heard about Matan Torah? What could be greater than Hashem speaking to an entire nation? The question becomes even stronger later in the parsha. When Moshe Rabbeinu tells Yisro everything that happened to Klal Yisrael, the Torah says he told him about the makos in Mitzrayim and about all the hardships they experienced on the way out (Shemos 18:8). Yet again, Matan Torah is not mentioned. How can such a central event be left out?

Rav Chaim Kamil explains that Matan Torah was fundamentally different from all other nissim. Other miracles are events that happen to a person or to a nation. You can describe them. You can tell someone what occurred. Matan Torah, however, was Hashem speaking to Klal Yisrael panim el panim (face to face). It was a direct, overwhelming revelation of Hashem Himself. That kind of experience cannot really be transmitted in words. You had to be there.

Chazal say that all the neshamos that would ever come into existence in the future were present at Har Sinai, and even those of the gerim who would be born and later convert were there. They all experienced that revelation. Yisro who was already born was not there. Since he did not experience it directly, Moshe could not truly convey it to him. You can describe Krias Yam Suf. You can describe the plagues and the wars. But Hashem speaking to a person, panim el panim, is something that only someone who was present can grasp.

To understand this more deeply, we need to think about what Matan Torah gave Klal Yisrael. First and foremost, it implanted emunah in the deepest possible way. The Torah says that Hashem spoke to the nation directly. The Rambam writes in Yesodei HaTorah (8:1) that miracles alone are not the ultimate foundation of emunah. Miracles can always be questioned or explained away. Only at Har Sinai did they reach complete emunah. At Matan Torah all of Klal Yisrael reached a level of nevuah (prophecy). They did not just hear information; they experienced Hashem speaking to them.  The greatest foundation of emunah is prophecy itself.

This is why Matan Torah could not be described secondhand. The emunah  of  Har Sinai is something that lives inside of us. Rav Chaim Friedlander explained that a person has to return to this again and again. Just as we constantly speak about Yetziyas Mitzrayim and relive it, we must also bring Har Sinai alive within ourselves. Somewhere deep inside, every Jew carries that experience. When a person has questions or doubts, he should reconnect to that inner knowledge: six hundred thousand people heard Hashem speak. That reality cannot be overturned.

Matan Torah was not only about emunah. It was also meant to instill yiras Shamayim. The pasuk says (Shemos 20:17) that Hashem spoke to them face to face in order to increase their fear. The Torah describes thunder, lightning, fire, darkness, the sound of the shofar, and an overwhelming sense of awe. Rav Chaim Friedlander explained that this was not just fear in the simple sense. Klal Yisrael had already seen Hashem’s power through the plagues and through Krias Yam Suf. Here, they were shown the fear of the Torah itself.

The entire world stood still. Nothing else mattered. This was to teach us how we must relate to Torah. Torah is not just wisdom or guidance. It is divrei Elokim Chayim, words of the living G-d. If Torah is so precious to Hashem that the entire creation shook at its giving, our approach to Torah must be with great respect and fear. Every word matters. Nothing can be treated lightly. Before doing any mitzvah, learn through all the laws very thoroughly and make sure not to miss anything. Every mitzvah is so valuable.

The fire at Har Sinai also hinted to the inner strength of Torah. The Bach (Ohr HaChaim: Siman 47) explains that the fire represents the kedushah and power embedded within Torah itself. The Gemara says (Sotah 21a), that the Torah protects and saves a person from sin. It has the power to change a person from within. The Torah is called a fire (Devarim 33:3). Fire transforms whatever it touches, and Torah does the same to a person who truly engages with it. Rav Chaim Volozin says that if a person has a bad trait, like anger or selfishness he should ask Hashem that the power of his learning should help improve it.

The Rambam (Issurei Biya 22:21) writes that when a person has troubling thoughts, the best remedy is to occupy his mind with the wisdom of Torah. Torah has the ability to redirect the mind and elevate it. We see this clearly in life. People change through Torah. The Chazon Ish would say that when a bochur was struggling in his behavior, the answer was not always rebuke. The answer was to increase his learning. Immersion in Torah refines a person.

The Chazon Ish also said that Torah leaves a mark in the world. He could sense when he passed a place whether Torah had been learned there. Kedushah remains. More than anything else, Torah learned with sincerity and kedushah has the power to influence others and bring people closer to Hashem.

This was the foundation of what Rav Aharon Kotler built when he came to America. America was running after materialism, but Rav Aharon believed that the answer was to build a true place of Torah. He built a huge yeshiva in Lakewood. By learning day and night with depth and intensity the fire of that Torah produced generations of bnei Torah.

May we be zocheh to truly connect ourselves to Har Sinai and relive it.