Yisro: Everyone Died at Sinai?
This week, we read about the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, an unparalleled event in history. Beyond the laws given, Jewish tradition tells us of miraculous occurrences—sicknesses were healed, physical and spiritual realities were unified, and even souls left their bodies due to the overwhelming divine revelation. These miracles weren’t just physical—they symbolized the deep connection between the Creator and His creation. Through this revelation, we come to understand that the Torah is not just a religious guide but the very source of life itself, leading us to the ultimate redemption and the arrival of Moshiach. By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton • Full Article
This week we read about the giving of the Torah. Besides being the basis of the Jewish faith it is an event unequaled in history. So much so that no other religion, race or nation even so much as claimed that they experienced the same miracles.
G-d, the creator of all spiritual and physical being, actually appeared and spoke to millions of Jews and defined for the first and only time in history why He created the world and what He wants from man.
But according to Jewish tradition at Sinai G-d did other miracles 1) He cured all those present from their ailments: The blind saw, the deaf heard etc. (Rashi 20:14) 2) Everyone ‘Saw’ what is usually heard and ‘Heard’ what is usually seen (ibid). And finally, 3) Each time G-d actually spoke EVERYONE died and G-d brought them back to life (Shabbat 88b)
At first glance this makes no sense.
What do these three miracles have to do with the giving of the laws and rituals of the Jewish religion?
What possible difference could it make to future generations if a few people back then were blind or not? And what possible benefit is there in seeing sounds or hearing sights? In fact, what does it mean? How can you see a sound? And why did everyone die?
To understand this, here is a story that, G-d willing, might help. (HaGeula VaYishlach 5766)
The time is 1963 three religious bearded Jews are sitting around a table and one, a noted Rabbi and community leader by the name of Rabbi J., was weeping.
The previous day he had called the other two, both Chabad Rabbis, and asked if he could meet with him at the place of their choice.
Now they were sitting together in and Rabbi J. dried his eyes and began his story.
“About a half a year ago I began feeling very weak. At first, I thought it might be fatigue. I rested up, took vitamins, took a vacation but it just got worse. So, I went to a doctor and he didn’t have good news. It was cancer in its advanced stages and he said that at best I have another month or so to live.
“I was devastated. I didn’t want to believe it but I had no choice. It wasn’t long before I didn’t have enough strength to even get out of bed and only with the greatest effort could I move my arms and legs. The end was near.
“I started going over my life from as far back as I could remember to see if there was maybe something I should fix up. Then I remembered that about twenty years ago, in the middle of the war when things were really in turmoil, I happened to meet a Chabad Chassid by the name of Itchi Masmid (Yitzchak Horwitz). He was a fantastic Torah scholar and unique personality. I even heard that he was so devoted to learning Torah that he slept only two hours each night. Anyway, I don’t remember why, but he gave me a Chabad book called the Tanya that he said would bring Moshiach and I put it on my shelf.
“To tell you the truth I was never really interested in Chabad, so it just sat on my shelf for all these years. But found it and opened it for the first time and read the first chapter.
“I couldn’t believe what happened. It took a few minutes but suddenly I felt my body fill with life. I felt good! I got out of bed for the first time in months, walked around the house, I even opened the window and took a deep breath of cool air. It was unbelievable! So I began reading the second chapter.
“Believe me, I got half way through and felt so happy that I actually put a record on the phonograph and danced! My wife thought I was losing my mind and… to tell you the truth, so did I! But I didn’t care.
“The next day I rose early and went to the Synagogue as usual, I hadn’t told anyone of my illness so no one knew what was happening but when my good health continued for yet another day, I decided that it wasn’t just an accident.
“By this time, I had already read several chapters of Tanya and it wasn’t difficult to realize that all these years I was missing something. “That’s why I called you and why I’m here. I’ve decided I want to be a Chassid, a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and I want you to tell me how to do it.”
They spoke for a while and finally decided that first he should return to his doctor and if the doctor said he was well enough, he should travel to Brooklyn and see the Rebbe in person. There was no substitute for seeing the Rebbe.
Rabbi J. consulted several doctors, they took tests and surprisingly agreed! They all told him that there was no medical explanation for his improvement, gave him directions what to do if his condition reversed and gave their okay.
Several weeks later he was standing before the Rebbe. It had all come about so suddenly, he was actually shaking with excitement; it was so obvious that the Rebbe was unparalleled in holiness and knowledge.
He told the Rebbe his story and added that he wanted to become his Chassid. But the Rebbe wasn’t enthusiastic about his idea.
“Chassid?” the Rebbe answered, “I am willing to accept you as a partner. But not a Chassid. A Chassid is something totally different.”
That Shabbat he attended the ‘Farbringen’ (public gathering) of the Rebbe. The Rebbe spoke for several hours and among his subjects was …. cancer. The Rebbe pointed out that it was a result of cells that we might think are healthy and normal, increasing in dangerous numbers and although this disease had existed previously, it was now becoming so prevalent that science was desperately trying to find a way to eliminate these extra cells.
The Rebbe compared it to the spiritual world. Selfishness and false egotism have existed since the beginning of time but they are now increasing so rapidly and are so widespread that there must be that a solution existed even before this ‘plague’.
And the solution is Chassidic teachings. This is the antidote and cure to eliminate these unnecessary and unhealthy ‘growths’.
Rabbi J. was elated. After the Farbrengen he told everyone he met of the amazing miracle that was happening to him; how just reading the Tanya and seeing the Rebbe completely cured him of the worst disease and made him young again. When the Shabbat was over, he called home and told his family to advertise the miracle until everyone knew.
The next day, after much requesting and lobbying, he again got an audience with the Rebbe and again repeated his request to be his Chassid. But this time the Rebbe answered more positively, “A Chassid is like a soldier; always ready to sacrifice himself to improve the entire world around him. Are you ready for this?”
He never felt better in his life. He exclaimed that he was ready. It had been almost two months now that he was healthy and he felt it would last forever.
“I’ll begin by telling everyone about my miraculous recovery!” He exclaimed enthusiastically.
But the Rebbe emphatically stopped him. “No! You must tell no one! The first tablets containing the Ten Commandments were given with miracles and thunders and they ended up getting broken while the Second Tablets were given quietly and they endured.”
But it was too late. It had already been advertised.
He returned home a different man, full of life and Chassidic joy and began several projects to spread and teach Chassidut but months later he contracted a cold which developed complications and, as the Rebbe foresaw, he passed away.
This answers our questions about the ‘additional’ miracles at Sinai.
The Torah is not just a religious book to get us into heaven.
Rather the Torah is the will and wisdom of the Creator Himself.
And the Creator is the source of all life, existence, spirit, reality and truth. He creates the spiritual and the physical and when He is revealed via the Torah; pure life and reality is revealed.
That is why everyone got healed at Sinai. Because sickness is the just the concealment of life and here all concealment was removed. Something like what the Tanya did to Rabbi J.
That is also why they ‘heard’ sights and ‘saw’ sounds: The revelation of the Creator was so great that it equalized the spiritual and the physical. Suddenly all the spiritual worlds that are usually only ‘HEARD about’ were near and ‘SEEN’ …… while the physical world that we usually SEE, also became “heard”; namely its most distant secrets we usually only hear about, became understood.
And that is why their souls jumped from their bodies!
The revelation was so real and intense that they couldn’t take it. (The same revelation was in the Holy of Holies where the Ten Commandment Tablets were; anyone entering, other than the High Priest on Yom Kippur, would die from the holiness). And G-d enlivened them similar to the Raising of the Dead (see Tanya end Chapt. 36)
That is why that Rabbi J was told the Tanya will bring Moshiach (and the Raising of the Dead). Because the Tanya is the revelation of the “inside” of the Torah; the Tree of Life. It reveals the hidden (seeing what is ‘heard’) and puts meaning in the revealed mundane world (hearing what is usually seen).
But, unlike what the Rebbe told Rabbi J. today we should advertise to ALL the world that the time for Moshiach is here! Soon all the sick will be permanently healed, war and hatred will cease and eventually even the dead will rise!
It all depends on us.
We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought will bring ……
Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
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