Notes from a shiur given on 24 Shvat, 5765. HaRav Shapira zt"l explains what it means to see the kolos of Sinai, as it says in the Torah. This shiur explains many of the basic concepts and events that took place at Ma'amad Har Sinai, which the Rambam says includes sisrei Torah.
At the end of Sefer Hamitzvos of the Rambam, the Ramban adds the mitzvos that, according to him, the Rambam forgot. The second of these is that we were forbidden to forget the maamad Har Sinai, and must not take it out of our consciousness and it should be before our eyes all the time. Heshomer lecho ushemor nafshecho me'od pen tiskach es hadevorim asher ro'u einecho . . .
The Ramban says that this is a prohibition, an issur. We may not forget. It is not that we have been commanded to do things to recall and refresh the memory of the maamad Har Sinai, but that we have been forbidden to forget it. We must not worsen the current situation. This is the nature of a lo sa'aseh: not to worsen the situation as it exists. It assumes that we have a situation in which this is a constant presence in our life, and we must preserve this.
We learn from the Ramban that our default situation is with ma'amad Har Sinai and we must not destroy this. We are there and, as the Ramban says, "We are forbidden from forgetting the ma'amad Har Sinai. We must not remove it from our consciousness. But our eyes and heart must be there all the time.
This is what the posuk says: not to remove it from our eyes and hearts.
Our eyes are there, and we must not forget. Our hearts are there and we must not remove them.
The Ramban continues and explains that there is a tremendous benefit from this.
We think that this should have been a mitzvas aseh. Instead it is given as a lo sa'aseh, meaning not to disturb or worsen the existing situation.
The Ramban continues that the benefit and intention of this mitzvah is that we must contemplate it and realize that this is world mitzvah. And we must not forget that we must stay at ma'amad Har Sinai and our eyes and hearts must be there all the time.
There is a mitzvas aseh that is within these pesukim: vehodatem levonecho velivnei vonecho, yom asher omadetao . . beChoreiv.
This was not included in the mitzvos. What was included is the exhortation not to forget.
To inform about that maamad to the coming generations. is not counted as a mitzva on its own, as noted by the meforshim, but that is included in the mitzva of Talmud Torah.
The addition here is the prohibition, Heshomer lecho pen tishkach es hadevorim asher ro'u einecho. "Pen" - 3 negative commandments are written here.
The Megillas Esther here says that the Rambam agrees that this is a mitzva but it need not enter into the number 613, since this is a mitzvah that includes all the mitzvas, and such mitzvas are not counted as individual mitzvos. The mitzvos are specific commandments about actions but not general inclusive mitzvos like this one. This is a din meyuchad in the numbering, but the Rambam, according to him, agrees that we have the obligation.
We learn from this mitzva that the dibrot of maamad Har Sinai are still extant. They are still here, but we are commanded not to forget them. We need not do anything in order to have them.
But where are they? How can they command us to forget something that is not part of our consciousness?
The mishna in Ovos (6): "Omar R Yehoshua ben Levi: Every day a Bas Kol goes out from har Chorev and announces, `Woe is to the creatures because of the embarrassment of Torah.' Whoever is not occupied with Torah is called nozuf. Do not read chorut, but cheirut.
A Bas Kol is a voice that comes from a voice. It is like an echo. A voice comes out and then splits up.
These voices of Har Chorev gave birth to daughter voices, the voices of Har Chorev have daughter voices that announce, `Woe is to the creatures because of the embarrassment of Torah.' Rashi explains, `Woe is to the Torah since she is embarrassed that she does not have anyone who is busy with her.' They do not deal with her appropriately and this makes her aluvah, embarrassed. She is degraded, denigrated. The Torah is lowered, and about that the Bas Kol comes out from Sinai and says, `Woe is to the creatures because of the embarrassment of Torah.'
The voices of Sinai are still extant. To our ears come only the benot Kol (and of course one has to be open to hearing them). But these voices exist and come out every day. Whoever hearkens and does not allow himself to be distracted, will hear these voices.
The daughters of the voices announce, `Woe to the creatures from the bad things of Torah.'
The gemora (Yoma 20): The day that one makes a noise in the day, it does not carry well and is not heard as well as a noise in the night. The reason is that during the day there is another voice that resounds in the space of the world. The sphere of the Sun makes noise. It cries. The Sun goes and enlightens and makes a noise. This noise drowns out other noises.
If not for the voice of the sphere of the Sun, we could not stand because of the sound of Roman masses. These two voices neutralize each other. One is against the other.
The sound of the Sun as it blazes a path for itself. It must break itself a path, and this trail blazing makes a noise.
There is another sound that fills the space of the world: the voice of the Roman masses.
The gemora (Makkos) tells of R' Akiva and the Chachomim. They walked through Jerusalem after the Churban, and from a tremendous distance (20 parangs) they heard the voice of the Roman masses, the voice that fills up the space of the world.
This caused the Chachomim to cry and R Akiva to laugh. "These ovdei avodoh zorah sit in tranquillity and fill the space of the world with their voices. Their presence fills up the entire space of the world. And we are at the feet of our G-d, destroyed by fire, — should be not cry?
R Akiva answered, "That is why I laugh. If this is what those who frustrate His will get, then those who do His will, will get all the more?"
Their existence fills the space of the world, and they go against His will. Their allotted time is limited, but the power that they were given is so strong, just imagine the power that we, who do His will, will be given.
From here I see how powerful is the existence that Hashem gives, even when His purpose is punishment and when it is to be extant for only a short time.
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We learn from this that the world is full of voices.
If we say of something that reveals itself, it announces its presence — that is a voice. I exist, I am here, Here I am. This is a voice. This is a voice that is heard in the world.
The same gemora in Yoma says that there are a few voices that go from one end of the world to the other. One of these is the voice of the soul as it leaves the body. When one departs this world, he expresses a voice and this voice goes throughout the entire world.
Basically each and every person is an entire world. When a person leaves the world, this means that the neshomoh goes out of the world and the person leaves this existence and goes to another existence. This speaks to the entire world. Something is said — the person who leaves the world announces his presence. The fact that someone leaves the world is relevant to the entire world. A voice goes from one end of the world to the other.
The gemora says that the chachomim asked for mercy so that these voices will not be heard. That is, there are people who can hear these voices, and since they are heard all the time without cease, a person could not stand it. There are terrible voices that fill up the world, and if one heard them one could not stand it.
Every one now has a certain instrument in his pocket through which he can hear a voice from anywhere the world.
If we could not understand what it means that the voice of the Roman masses fills the void of the world. There were times in which they could not imagine how this could be, literally, and they explained this in non-literal ways. But today it can be taken literally.
The voice announces its owner and demands, since this is the what the Borei Olom created. The voice going out and being heard means that the existence, the being of the owner fills up the entire world. That is what happens.
Every bar daas understands. It is simple. The problem is just the instrument — one needs an instrument to hear it.
Any everyone understands that if the havelim that are broadcast today fill up the world, then the dibburim that were heard from the Borei Olom, and that these dibburim are that upon which the world stands, so anyone understands that these dibburim still exist and persist. They are present. Kol godol velo yosaf. Es hadevorim ho'eileh dibeir Hashem lekol kehalchem.
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Kol godol velo yosaf — the Targum writes of this: velo posak — and it did not stop. There is no need for any other kol, since that kol never stopped. There is a kol in the space of the world, and that kol is powerful and awesome.
The problem is that we do not have an instrument to receive it. And here the Torah reveals: the instrument that can receive this Heavenly voice is at hand. It is even much, much closer than the instrument that is in our pockets.
They want to teach us that those dibburim of Har Sinai still exist and if we do not hear them, then we transgress the issur of "pen tishkach es hadevorim." For if we do not receive them, it means that we have removed them from our hearts. We have caused ourselves to forget, meaning that we have removed them from our hearts.
Those dibburim are live and echoing still today, all the time and in all places (24/7) and of these the mishna says that all must hear these dibburim, even those who have become distant.
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To whom is the mishna addressed when it says, "Woe to the creations from the embarrassment of Torah?" It turns to those who do not hear, woe is to them, but they must also hear the kol, but they do not hear the kol, but the bas kol does reach them.
Thus, the bas kol, that announces to all in the world, speaks to all creatures of the world, not just to those who accepted the Torah. Woe is to all the creations.
And it was on the third day in the morning, and there were kolos uverokim, and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and a very strong voice of a shofar and the am in the camp was frightened.
The posuk says that there were kolos uverokim. This was before the 10 dibros.
After the dibros it says, All the am see the kolos and the lapidim and the voice of the shofar and the smoke on the mountain. It all parallels what was before, with the exception that instead of berakim there were lapidim.
Before there were kolos uverokim. Afterwards there were kolos and lapidim. Where were the lapidim before and where did the berakim disappear to?
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The basic difference between lapidim (torches) and berakim (lightening flashes) is that the former is a steady light and the latter flashes for a second and is gone. The torch continues and persists. It can be used to light the way onward.
Lapidim appear at several places, for example, at the Bris Bein Habesorim.
The lapid is a steady continuing light. The barak is a very strong light, but it lasts for an instant and is gone.
What happened in the transition from berakim to lapidim, from before the dibros to afterwards?
The kolos joined with and became like the lapidim. The torches are in our hands, and we can use them to light the darkness. The lightening is from above, is brilliant but is then gone.
Beforehand, before matan Torah, when the Borei Olom gave us His words, (Shabbos 104) Onochi — Ano nafshi ketiva yehiva. I wrote my soul, my essence, and gave it. The Borei Olom says kevayochol that He gave Himself. The dibros — Onochi — the Borei Olom transferred to us the dibros themselves.
It says in Chazal, Zohar, Ohr HaChaim, the Gra and several other places, that the Luchos — the dibros were said and they were written. These are two separate actions: speaking and writing. Whoever imagines that this is what the Luchos were, a transcript of what was said, this is a machshevet hevel. The dibros themselves were engraved onto the Luchos. This is what it means: they saw the Kolos.
Any dibbur itself, before the Torah was given, is a passing phenomenon. It is no more than lightening.
But after the dibbur is engraved it is something else. The people see the Kolos. Whoever sees the Luchos, sees dibbur itself. The dibbur itself is engraved on the Luchos. This is really beyond our comprehension. We have never seen anything like this.
We see what is written; we hear what is said. We do not hear what is seen and we do not see what is heard.
But the dibrot of Har Sinai were grasped both through sight and through hearing.
A small and partial moshol, to make it somewhat understandable: When one reads a book, there is nothing in this act of reading that links him to the writer. I read what is written; I do not read the writer. The writer is gone. He is no longer present. There is no direct link between the reader and the writer. The reader is directly linked only to the text, but not to the writer of the text.
On the Luchos, one did not read what was written. One who saw the Luchos, saw the Kolos. There was not a connection with some text. There was a connection to a living, persisting speech—dibbur.
Everyone understands, this is the reality. What was written here was the kolos themselves. What one saw there, was to relive the original act. On the Luchos, I could see Hashem, the speaker, speaking to me. On the Luchos there was a direct link between Hashem, the source of the text, the writer as it were, and the reader of the Luchos.
The transition from before the dibros to after the dibros, is that there is now a living dibbur, an existing, persisting dibbur. A great voice that never stops and never stopped.
This is the difference. Before, the Torah tells us that there were kolos uverokim and afterwards, the people saw the kolos and the lapidim.
The torch is in my hand. I can take it with me to light up my way. The lightening is very powerful but it comes and goes immediately.
Every speech act is composed of individual acts that last no longer than the blink of an eye. Instantaneous acts. Speech is flash after flash after flash — here and gone. The instant after the speech is finished, there is nothing left. The instant after each individual word in speech is finished, there is nothing left of it.
After the dibrot were said, there was a new thing: a speech act that persisted, that exists and will exist — forever.
A torch is something that everyone can take hold of and carry with him. A torch is something that can be carried, that can be handed over from one to another. Anyone can go over and take it. A torch — the dibros were given as kolos and torches, not as kolos uverokim.
This is the new thing of the dibros — that they exist forever. Whoever does not hear them, it means that he takes "his ears away and refuses to hear."
Each and every day a voice goes out — every day. The meaning of "each and every day" is like "hamechadesh bechol yom tomid ma'asei bereishis." What is meant by "every day"? What to Chazal want to tell us?
That this is renewed every day. Every day it is heard again.
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Just like we say at the rise of the sun, before the brochoh we conclude "hamechadesh bechol yom tomid ma'asei bereishis" and then the brochoh about the Sun that rises. We can only make this brochoh after the beginning of the day, close to actual sun rise.
There is a voice of the sphere of the Sun that saws through the world, and the voice of the masses of Rome drown it out. What does the sphere of the Sun cry out?
It cuts and breaks through, blazing a path. What does it announce? It says what is said in the world every day, that every day a Bas Kol goes out and announces.
The gemora says that the sphere of the Sun must break a path. The motion of the Sun seems perfectly natural. But the statement of the gemora means that there is something that resists its progress and it must continually overcome it. This is not the sphere of the Sun that we know. We know the natural progress of the Sun that gives light to the world.
However, at that place in the gemora (Yoma) it says that whoever looks at an alumah (beam) of light that comes into a house or into the shade, it appears to be dirty, to be full of (saw)dust. The gemora says that this comes from the effort of the Sun in sawing its way in the world. This is chirga deyoma.
This aspect of the Sun that it goes around in the world according to a fixed schedule that is predictable according to natural laws for thousands of years (we really do not know what will be the next minute, but according to natural laws). This sphere of the Sun overcomes what tries to interfere with it.
The entire material creation is said to be "under the Sun." Whatever happens is said to be under the Sun. We know that there is nothing new under the Sun. The Sun sets years (shonim), meaning things that repeat. We are under the Sun, The Torah tells us that as far as the Sun itself is concerned, every step is a chidush, every step has to overcome something.
This is the struggle of Yaakov and Eisov, which raised dust up to the Kisei Hakovod in the Heavens.
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The true Sun which is the great revelation of the Borei Olom, the head of the army of the Heavens. There is one aspect in which this revelation of the Sun has opponents.
One of the names of Yaakov Ovinu is shemesh. In one of Yosef's dreams, Yaakov is symbolized by the Sun who bows down to Yosef. Yaakov is said to have wondered about this and is quoted as asking, "Who told Yosef that I am called the Sun?"
Yaakov is called the Sun. What prevents the Sun from shining is Eisov. The struggle is constant and that is what brings the dust of the day, the sawdust that comes from the struggle. The world is full of it.
This is what the Sun says all the time. At every step it takes it cries that it has made another step that it has overcome the obstacle. The revelation overcomes that which would hide it.
What wants to hide the revelation? The voice of the masses of Rome. That voice does not want to allow the voice of the Sun to break forth.
Each and every day there must be a new revelation. This is the voice of the sphere of the Sun
Tosafos in Brochos bring a medrash: A margalit was hanging from the neck of Avrohom Ovinu. When Avrohom Ovinu died, HaKodosh Boruch Hu took it and hung it in the sphere of the Sun.
From then, whoever wants to get healed must do what the prophet says: Lift up your eyes and see, Who created all these?
Avrohom Ovinu revealed this in the world. Avrohom Ovinu announced this throughout his life. This was his life: he went throughout the world and called out in the Name of Hashem. Avrohom Ovinu cried: Who created all these?
When Avrohom Ovinu died Hashem hung it from the sphere of he Sun.
If someone knows how to lift his eyes to on High, he will see that margalit that was once hung from the neck of Avrohom Ovinu.
What prevents this from being heard, what makes it forget, is the voice of the masses Rome that shout — to he who is close — the Dibrot themselves. To one who is farther, they cry, Oy to the creatures for the shame of Torah.
The klal hagodol (brought in the gemora) is that two voices cannot be heard. That is, neither is heard. But if one voice is especially dear, it will be heard. A voice that I want to hear, I will hear and the other voice will not be heard.
The rule that two voices cannot be heard does not interfere in a case that one of the voices is particularly chaviv.
If we do not hear the other voice because of the voice of Rome, that reason is that we want to hear that one.
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That is what rabboseinu tell us. Pen tishkach es hadevorim ... that we saw the kolos and lapidim.
It is about that, that it says pen tishkach upen yosuru mei'einecha es hadevorim . . .
If the other voice is the one that we want to hear, if the voice of Rome is disgusting to us — and it is really disgusting — there are not enough words to express the disgust that the voice of Rome elicits.
If we decide to listen to that voice of the Sun, the voice of Maamad Har Sinai, if this is what we pay attention to, this will get our tefillah to rise.
We must remember that the dibrot are eternal and they exist all the time, today. The instrument to hear them is our own ears, our eyes and our hearts. If we want to, we can hear them.
If we do not hear these voices, if they do not exist for us, choliloh, then that means that we have transgressed those mitzvos lo sa'aseh: Heshomer lecho ushemor nafshecho me'od pen tishkach upen yosuru . . .
Whoever is comfortable with the voice of Rome, must know the price that he pays for this. It is a very heavy price. The price he pays is that he cannot hear the other voice of Sinai. If we listen to the voice of Rome, we do not hear the voice of Sinai. We do not hear it at all.
Hashoma Am kol Elokim medabeir mitoch ha'esh vayechi. It is the voice that brings life to the world.
The voice of Rome is the voice of Eisov, of whom it is said that he will live by his sword.
The difference between the voice that brings life and the voice that brings death, that shorten's one;s life. This voice, in all of its echoes, we must get completely away from.
One who separates himself completely from it, is guaranteed that he will hear the other voice, the voice of the sphere of the Sun that in its every move it gets rid of darkness. It is the voice the brings light and pushes darkness.
The voice of Rome brings darkness and pushes away light.
May we truly merit to hear this voice.
