Regarding the Voice with which G-d gave the Torah, it is described in the verse as "a great voice that did not cease."[83]

The Midrash[84] offers three explanations of this verse:

1. The voice was not limited to the Holy Tongue. Rather, it divided into seven voices, and then into the languages of all seventy nations.

2. The voice did not cease at that time, rather it is continuous. For streaming forth from the voice that gave the Torah are those matters that were subsequently revealed through all the prophets and sages.

3. The voice did not have an echo.

What is the Midrash teaching us with these three seemingly disparate comments?

Non-Jewish nations are commanded to observe the Seven Noahide laws, which in turn consist of many sub-commandments. In fact, when they are able, Jews are to assist them in observing these laws.[85]

In order that we realize that the nations' laws are also connected with the Giving of the Torah, the Midrash informs us that the voice was divided into the seventy languages of the nations; their commandments as well came because G-d gave them to Moshe on Sinai.[86]

Our Sages also inform us that Jews were exiled among the nations to elevate the sparks of holiness found there.[87] This is accomplished by utilizing the language of those nations for spiritual purposes.

The Midrash teaches us that it was the very voice of Torah that descended and vested itself within the languages of the nations so that they can be used for Torah purposes. When this is done, the "voice" of the nations becomes the voice of Torah.[88]

Anochi, the first word of the Ten Commandments, is an acronym, says the Gemara,[89] for G-d's statement: "I have written and placed [within Torah] My very 'Soul' and Essence."

One may mistakenly think that this applies only to the Ten Commandments, while those portions of Torah that were revealed later, especially what was revealed through the prophets and sages of subsequent generations, do not have the same spiritual import.

The Midrash therefore tells us that the voice that gave the Torah never ceases; it continues in the voice of the prophets and Torah sages. For every aspect of Torah has its own particular time when it is destined to be revealed, and its own particular person through whom it shall be revealed.

The revelation of G-dliness that accompanied the Giving of the Torah penetrated all of creation. Thus we find the following statement about the "voice" with which G-d gave the Torah: "The sound of G-d's giving the Torah arrived from all four directions as well as from above and below."[90] Moreover, the sound infused even inanimate matter.

The Midrash therefore says that the voice did not produce an echo. For an echo results when sound waves are not absorbed by an object, but bounce off it. Since the sound of G-d's giving of the Torah penetrated all matter, it was impossible for the sound to echo.

This was so because, as indicated by the word Anochi, G-d revealed His quintessential Essence at the time He gave the Ten Commandments, just as G-d imbued the Torah with His Essence. Since G-d is the one entity that is truly infinite, it follows that at the time the Torah was given, nothing was impervious to the revelation; it permeated even the grossest matter.

An echo, symbolizing something that rejected or was impervious to the voice of Torah, was thus literally impossible.

Based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IV, pp. 1092-1096.

   

Notes:

83. (Back to text) Devarim 5:19.

84. (Back to text) Shmos Rabbah, end of ch. 28.

85. (Back to text) Rambam, Hilchos Melachim 8:10.

86. (Back to text) Ibid. 10:11.

87. (Back to text) Pesachim 87b. In accordance with the interpretation in Torah Or, p. 11b.

88. (Back to text) See Torah Or, p. 77d.

89. (Back to text) Shabbos 105a, in accordance with the text of Ein Yaakov.

90. (Back to text) Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 22 (64b); Tanya, ch. 36.