The giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai was accompanied by several natural and metaphysical phenomena: “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and the sound of a shofar exceedingly loud” (Exodus 19:16); “And all the people saw the sounds of the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the shofar and the mountain smoking” (Exodus 20:15). Rashi comments that all the people were able to see that which is heard, something which cannot ordinarily happen. Modern science refers to this phenomenon as “synesthesia,” a condition wherein one of the senses reacts in a novel way to a stimulus ordinarily dealt with by another one of the senses (such as, the sense of sight designating a certain sound as blue, or the sense of sound designating a certain color as bell-like). The ability of all the people to see the sounds of the shofar represents a heightened state of consciousness, a “harmony of the spheres.”
Kabbalah explains that as God uttered the Ten Commandments, the people perceived the dimensions of physical and spiritual reality as one harmonious whole. Symbolically, the mystical tradition relates that all the heavens opened and were revealed at Sinai. Further stressing this unity, we are taught that at first God uttered all the Ten Commandments simultaneously and only after repeated them word by word (Rashi on Exodus 20:1).
In the verse mentioned above the Hebrew word for “smoking [mountain]” (ashan), is comprised of three Hebrew letters, which form an acronym for the various dimensions of reality described by the Sefer Yetzirah. The letter ayin represents the Hebrew word for “world” or “space” (olam); the letter shin represents the Hebrew word for “year” or “time” (shanah); the letter nun represents the Hebrew word for “soul” or “consciousness” (nefesh), a dimension, according to the Sefer Yetzirah, as real as the other physical dimensions. Albert Einstein was able to reveal just one hundred years ago that time can also be considered a dimension and that the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time form a unified space-time continuum.
Although science has yet to deem soul a dimension per se, quantum physics now recognizes that consciousness is not a passive observer, but a critical determinant, of reality. (See the portions of Re’eh and Ki Tavo in the book of Deuteronomy for a more detailed explanation of the role of consciousness from a scientific perspective.) The idea of soul or consciousness as a dimension or as a determinant of reality is reflected by Rashi’s comment on the verse: “They travelled from Rephidim and came to the desert of Sinai and they camped in the desert, and Israel camped across from the mountain [Mount Sinai]” (Exodus 19:2). Rashi notes that the Hebrew word for “camped” is written in the singular, when, presumably, as the verb expressing the action taken by a multitude of people, it should have been written in the plural. Rashi informs us that the singular form comes to emphasize that the children of Israel came to Sinai “as one person with one heart,” a state of affairs not to be repeated again with such intensity during the forty year sojourn in the desert. Many commentators conclude from Rashi’s comment that it was this level of collective elevated consciousness that allowed for the Giving of the Torah. The people’s unity elevated their spiritual and physical connection to the point that they were worthy receptacles and was in fact the prerequisite for and an essential part of the awesome experience. Their consciousness quite simply was instrumental in determining the reality as it unfolded at Sinai.
Taking a step backwards, we might ask what induced this feeling of unity among the people? A credible answer may be that their recent prophetic experience during the crossing of the Reed Sea and especially during the singing of the Song of the Sea (see “Music and Prophecy” above), inculcated a sense of oneness and unity among the people, of their being “as one person with one heart.”
Another factor could be the battle with Amalek, the last episode related in the Torah before the Jewish people arrived at Mount Sinai. Only by attaining a high level of determination, unity, and a sense of purpose could the children of Israel have defeated an enemy whose very purpose is the destruction of the Jewish people. Time after time in recent Jewish history we have seen the people of Israel, despite their many differences and disputes, come together “as one person with one heart” to defeat enemies bent on their destruction.
Both the experience at the Reed Sea and the battle with Amalek transformed the people, endowing them with a feeling of unity and a sense of purpose. This consciousness was translated into their arrival at Sinai “as one person with one heart” and consequently led to the awesome and unique historical experience of the Giving of the Torah.
