Parashat Yitro 5786-7 February 2026 / 20 Sh’vat 5786

“Gaddi’s Notes on the Eternal Wisdom of the Prominent Sages”:

“Judges Before Sinai: The Hidden Foundation of Torah”

Parashat Yitro: Sinai as Revelation of Relationship

Parashat Yitro, culminating in the Ten Commandments (Aseret HaDibrot), marks the birth of Israel as a nation-under-God.

Classical commentaries emphasize that Sinai was not primarily a law-giving moment, but a marriage covenant—a revelation of Divine Presence to a people prepared through unity, structure, and inner readiness.

1) Yitro’s Counsel: Structuring for Sacred Service

🔹 Rashi / Sifrei Yitro sees Moses exhausted from single-handedly judging the entire nation and proposes a hierarchy of judges—simple cases go to simple judges; complex cases ascend. Rashi notes Yitro’s concern for Moshe’s well-being and the people’s needs, highlighting wisdom outside Israel acknowledged by Torah. This becomes paradigmatic: spiritual leadership must be supported by human structure.

🔹 Midrash Tanchuma The Midrash contrasts a leader isolated vs. a leader who delegates authority: Moshe’s acceptance of Yitro’s suggestion signals humility before truth and preparation for Sinai. Israel needed internal order to receive Divine order.

🔹 Beit Yisrael International Insight Beit Yisrael frames this moment as holiness emerging from community systems. The sages teach that community governance reflects inner spiritual balance—the judges represent channels of Divine discernment within the people. Moses’ acceptance shows that even a prophet must submit to divine-sanctioned order accessible through wise counsel.

🔹 Gaddi Efrayim Notes Gaddi Efrayim connects the appointment of judges with the preparation to encounter God: a people fragmented by chaos cannot hear the Divine Voice; a structured, communal heart can. Thus judges are not merely judicial; they are soul-mediators who prepare Israel to receive revelation together.

2) “Ki Karov Elokim L'har'ot Lo” — Preparing to Meet God

Before Sinai, God instructs: “Be ready for the third day; do not approach a woman; … sanctify them” (Ex. 19:10–15).

🔹 Rambam / Ramban Contrast Rambam sees this as general spiritual preparation. Ramban emphasizes holiness through separation—a discipline of body and spirit to receive God’s presence.

🔹 Zohar & Kabbalistic Themes The three days correspond to tikkunei (rectifications) of consciousness—preparing the three faculties: thought (Moach), speech (Dibbur), and deed (Ma’aseh)—to receive the Shechinah. The physical separation parallels an inner detachment from worldly entanglement.

🔹 Beit Yisrael International Insight Beit Yisrael teaches Sinai as the archetype of holistic preparation. Israel’s purity isn’t mere ritual, but a transformation of relationship: turning from self-absorption to presence with God and with community. The refrain is that holiness is not isolation but readiness to meet the Divine.

🔹 Gaddi Efrayim Notes Gaddi Efrayim sees the preparation as a collective unification. The people must transform from individuals with separate agendas into one spiritual system capable of receiving a unified word from God.

3) The Revelation: Fire, Smoke, Shofar—A Transformation of Existence

When God descends on Sinai: “There was thunder and lightning, sound of a shofar… the mountain burned with fire…” (Ex. 19–20)

🔹 Rashi Rashi highlights the fear and trembling of the people; Sinai as an awe-inspiring confrontation with the Infinite.

🔹 Talmud (Shabbat 88a–89a) The Talmud describes fire not as ordinary flame but as a sublime heavenly fire—imparted to Israel as a symbol of continuous inner illumination.

🔹 Zohar The elements—smoke, fire, shofar—are cosmological:

• Fire: illumination of God’s truth in the heart

• Smoke: concealment of Divine essence beyond comprehension

• Shofar: awakening of the soul’s memory of origin above the worlds

🔹 Beit Yisrael International Insight Beit Yisrael frames Sinai as “the moment Israel becomes soul-conscious.” The experience is not a one-off miracle but a temporal rupture—a point at which time itself is opened and the human soul remembers its source.

🔹 Gaddi Efrayim Notes Gaddi Efrayim teaches that fire at Sinai is the fire of revealed purpose. Before Sinai, Israel was a mass of freed slaves; at Sinai, they become a people shaped by Divine intent. Sinai ignites Israel’s destiny.

4) The Ten Commandments: Covenant and Identity

Rather than giving laws one by one in the later parashiyot, God first offers the Ten Commandments, which are not merely rules but pillars of identity.

🔹 Abarbanel The Aseret HaDibrot are theological as much as ethical—each commandment calibrates a dimension of the soul in relation to God and others.

🔹 Ramban Ramban stresses that the Ten Commandments are spoken directly by God—they are not mediated through Moses. This is Israel’s unique moment of direct covenant.

🔹 Kabbalah / Beit Yisrael International These commandments encode the structure of divine life in the human vessel:

• First tablets: orientation toward God

• Second tablets: orientation toward community life

Beit Yisrael highlights that Sinai is the template for all future revelation—a model of covenantal life where inner discipline, community order, and Divine presence intersect.

🔹 Gaddi Efrayim In Gaddi Efrayim, the Ten Commandments are understood not as external laws but as inner archetypes of spiritual connectivity:

• Loving God: unity of heart

• Loving neighbor: unity of soul

5) Synthesizing the Themes: Sinai as Birth of Spiritual Nationhood

🧠 Preparation → Structure → Revelation

Structure (Yitro’s Judges)

• A people prepared interiorly and communally.

• Systems reflect inner harmony.

Preparation for Revelation

• Sanctification is inner alignment.

• Separation from distraction means attunement to God.

Revelation Itself

• Fire = illumination;

• Smoke = experiential mystery;

• Shofar = awakening.

❤️ Covenant Over CodeThe Ten Commandments are not first a legal code but a covenantal identity—a revealed pattern for how God and Israel dwell together.

6) Practical Spiritual Takeaways (Beit Yisrael & Gaddi Ephraim)

• ✦ Leadership

  
  

  True leadership is collaborative, humble, and generative.

• ✦ Communal Readiness

  
  

  Holiness arises in relationships and structure, not isolation.

• ✦ Inner Revelation

  
  

  Sinai invites each person to hear “the Divine within”—not just the Divine without.

• ✦ Torah as Life

  
  

  Torah is the architecture of the divine life within the human soul and society.

The Fourfold Vision at Sinai — When the Senses of the Soul Were Unified

At the giving of the Torah, Israel did not merely hear or see—they experienced reality at its root. The Torah describes the revelation at Mount Sinai through four images that the people “saw”, even though two of them are ordinarily heard.

The sages explain that this moment represented a temporary return to the primordial state of humanity, before the fragmentation of the senses after the sin of Adam.

1. “They Saw the Voices” — Vision Beyond Sound

“And all the people saw the voices…” (Exodus 20:15)

This phrase is intentionally paradoxical. Voices are heard, not seen, yet Israel saw them.

Rashi, citing the Mechilta, explains that the voices were perceived as tangible forms—each word emanating from the Divine was visible. Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi(Kuzari I:87) teaches that prophecy at Sinai was not imagination but direct perception of divine truth, bypassing the normal sensory hierarchy.

The Zohar(II, 81a) deepens this: the divine speech emerged from Chochmah(Wisdom), where sound and sight are one, and only later descend into differentiated senses. At Sinai, Israel briefly perceived Torah from its supernal root, where separation does not yet exist.

Gaddi Efrayim – Inner Note: Seeing the voices means that truth was undeniable. Doubt cannot exist where sound becomes sight. This is why faith at Sinai was not belief—but knowledge.

2. “The Torches” — Fire as Revealed Wisdom

The torches( lapidim) represent flashes of divine fire, not destructive but illuminating.

The Midrash( Shemot Rabbah 5:9) compares Torah to fire: just as fire gives light and warmth, Torah illuminates the soul and ignites inner life.

Ramban explains that these flames were not external phenomena but spiritual light made visible, allowing finite beings to encounter infinite truth without being consumed.

In Chassidut, fire corresponds to Gevurah refined by Chesed— intensity held within mercy. The torches symbolize revelation that awakens awe without annihilation.

Gaddi Efrayim – Inner Note: The torches were not outside Israel—they were mirrors. Each soul saw how much divine fire it could receive. Revelation is always according to capacity.

3. “The Blast of the Shofar” — Sound That Became Sight

The shofar blast at Sinai was unlike any earthly sound.

The Talmud( Shabbat 88b) teaches that the shofar grew stronger and stronger— defying physical law. The Zohar explains that this sound came from the breath of creation itself, the same breath that animated Adam.

Why was it seen? Because the shofar originates from Keter, the level of divine will, which precedes differentiation. At that level, sound has form, and form has sound.

Maharal of Prague explains that the shofar bypasses intellect and strikes the essence of the soul, where all faculties are unified.

Gaddi Efrayim – Inner Note: The shofar was not announcing Torah—it was awakening Israel to who they already were. Torah is not foreign; it is memory restored.

4. “The Smoking Mountain” — Fire That Entered Reality

Unlike the first three phenomena, the smoking mountain was physical.

The Midrash( Shemot Rabbah 12:4) emphasizes that the fire took hold of the mountain. This was not symbolic—it altered matter itself. Rambam explains that this was essential: Torah must be anchored in the physical world, not remain a transcendent experience.

The first three revelations were overwhelming and could not endure within reality. The fourth—smoke rising from solid stone— signified that holiness can dwell in the material.

This is why Sinai did not remain permanently holy. The goal was not to sanctify a mountain, but to teach Israel how to sanctify life.

Gaddi Efrayim – Inner Note: Revelation that does not enter action fades. The smoking mountain teaches that Torah must burn within the ordinary—work, judgment, speech, and rest.

The Inner Structure of the Four Images

The sages align the four images with the Four Worlds:

Voices – Atzilut( Emanation)

Torches – Beriah( Creation)

Shofar – Yetzirah( Formation)

Smoking Mountain – Asiyah ( Action )

Sinai unified all four—but permanence belongs only when Torah reaches Asiyah, lived reality.

Conclusion — From Vision to Covenant

At Sinai, Israel reached a level where the senses merged, truth was visible, and the soul remembered its source. Yet God ensured that the final image was physical—because the purpose of Torah is not ecstasy, but embodiment.

Torah is first seen, then heard, but ultimately lived.

And that is why the mountain smoked—so that heaven could remain on earth.

“They Saw the Voices” — Vision Beyond Sound “And all the people saw the voices…” (Exodus 20:15) This phrase is intentionally paradoxical. Voices are heard, not seen, yet Israel saw them. -explore the deep concept from the chassidut jewish prominent sages writings

“They Saw the Voices” — Vision Beyond Sound in Chassidut

“And all the people saw the voices…” (Exodus 20:15)

At the revelation at Mount Sinai, the Torah uses language that overturns ordinary perception. Voices are heard, yet Israel saw them. Chassidut teaches that this is not poetic flourish but a precise description of a radical shift in consciousness.

Seeing vs. Hearing — Two Modes of Knowing

In Chassidic thought, hearing and seeing represent two different relationshipsto truth.

Hearing implies mediation, interpretation, and the possibility of doubt. One hears words and must process them.

Seeing implies immediacy and certainty. What is seen cannot be argued with.

The Alter Rebbe (Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh)explains that spiritual truth is usually “heard”—filtered through intellect. At Sinai, however, divine wisdom was seen, meaning it was grasped as reality itself, not as information.

This is why the people later say, “You speak with us and we will hear”—because after Sinai, reality returned to its usual state. But in that moment, Torah was vision, not instruction.

The Baal Shem Tov — Speech from the Root of the Soul

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that divine speech does not originate in sound, but in Chochmah, the point of pure insight before words. At that level, speech is formless light.

At Sinai, the people perceived the Torahbefore it entered letters and sound. They saw the divine intention prior to articulation. This is why each soul heard the commandments in a way uniquely aligned with its own spiritual root.

Chassidut explains:

What was “seen” was not soundwaves, but the life-force within the words—the soul of Torah.

Rebbe Nachman — When the Senses Are Healed

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches that confusion in life stems from fragmented perception. Sight, hearing, thought, and emotion pull in different directions.

At Sinai, the soul was healed. The senses reunified at their source. This restoration allowed sound to be seen, because the soul was perceiving from above the senses, not through them.

This is a taste of the world to come, where truth is not debated but recognized.

The Rebbe of Lubavitch — Torah as Absolute Reality

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that “ seeing the voices” means that Torah was experienced as ontological truth—the structure of existence itself.

Normally, we experience Torah as guidance within reality. At Sinai, Israel experienced Torah as the definition of reality. Existence itself became transparent to divine will.

This is why the Midrash says that every word split into seventy languages—not as translation, but as direct perception by every soul, according to its capacity.

Inner Meaning — Why This Could Not Last

Chassidut emphasizes that this level was temporary. If Torah always remained “ seen”, free will would vanish. Growth requires effort, struggle, and choosing truth even when it is not obvious.

Thus, after Sinai:Torah returned to being heardFaith replaced visionAvodah (inner work) replaced revelation

But the imprint remains. Every time a Jew learns Torah with deep clarity, a spark of seeing the voices is reawakened.

Gaddi Ephraim — Inner Note

At Sinai, Torah was not taught—it was revealed as identity.

To “see the voices” means: This is who you are.

Learning Torah today is the slow work of turning hearing back into sight—until the day when, once again, “the earth will be filled with knowledge of God as waters cover the sea”.