Welcome to our special Rosh Hashanah Musaf Pesukim series. We're up to the third pasuk of Shofarot- Shemot 20,15: וְכׇל־הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹ֜ת וְאֶת־הַלַּפִּידִ֗ם וְאֵת֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר וְאֶת־הָהָ֖ר עָשֵׁ֑ן וַיַּ֤רְא הָעָם֙ וַיָּנֻ֔עוּ וַיַּֽעַמְד֖וּ מֵֽרָחֹֽק׃ Everyone saw the sounds and the lightning and the sound of the Shofar. And the mountain was smoky. And they saw, and they were moved . They shook and stood from afar. Rashi says firstly that Everyone saw means that no one was blind, and everyone was healed. Additionally, Rashi says they were able to see the sound, which is seemingly impossible. You hear sound and you see sights. You don't see sound. But kolot , says Rashi, was the word of God . So what exactly does that mean, that they saw the word of God? Rav Chaim Volozhin, in his sefer Nefesh HaChaim 3,11 explains that when Hashem created the world, He said, Yehi Or/ Let there be light, and those words , that emanated from God's mouth (God and His word are one of the same) continue to pump energy into the sun, to make there be light. For example, we say, L'Olam Devarecha Nitzav B'Shamayim/Forever Your word is in the heavens. What does that mean? Hashem said, Yehi Rakia / Let there be a firmament…Let there be a sky. We might think the sky was just created once, but that's wrong. God is the force and energy behind creation. If Hashem stops pumping energy into creation, it ceases to exist. The example I like to use is a bounce house or moonwalk that kids jump around in. A moonwalk constantly has air pumped in and the kids jump and bounce on it. But if that air stops pumping in, everything collapses. So too with the world. It doesn't have its own independent existence. But, he explains, we can't see that. When we look at an apple, we only see an apple. We don't see the word of God that's making the apple exist. Like it says through the mann , they realize, ki lo al lechem levado yechia Adam/Man does not live on bread alone... He lives from what emanates from the mouth of God. It's the energy of God in the food that keeps us alive. And in the future, Yeshaya says, we're going to see it. Everyone will see, Ki PI Hashem Di'ber / They'll see that Hashem spoke. It will be so clear to us that we'll be able to see, with our physical eyes, the emanation of God that's in every existence. That is what happened at Har Sinai. We saw the voice, which means we had the clarity, that God is the Source of all existence. Har Sinai is the biggest revelation. The shofar, Rav Wolbe says, is the concept of a Gilui / revelation of God. And that revelation happened when we saw the true existence behind everything. That is our first point on this pasuk. They saw . When say these Pesukim we are supposed to be conceptualizing this. Additionally, the Sror U'Mor asks why Everybody moved ? Many commentaries say that these words are the source, that when Jews learn, they move back and forth. They don't just sit stationery. And the Sror U'Mor in Shemot on this pasuk cites a Zohar that a heretic once asked Rabbi Shimon some questions. One of them was, Why do Jewish people move back and forth when they learn, more than other nations? He didn't answer the man, but they continued to discuss that they were already asked above (whatever that means) and the answer was, it shows the quality of the Jewish people that our soul comes from fire. Ner Elokim Nishmat Adam/The soul is like the fire of God. That's why we light a candle when someone passes away, and fire always flickers back and forth and upward. And since the Jewish people's souls come from that fire, when we learn Torah, we're reconnecting with that fire. Mishnah/ Nishama . When one learns Mishnayot , it's connected to their Neshama . We still have this from Matan Torah. Matan Torah wasn't a one time episode. The Haamek Davar , on this pasuk, is bothered. It starts off saying everyone saw the voices, they saw the sounds of Hashem, and then it says, Vayar HaAm / and they saw Vayanu / and they began to shake. Why does it say they saw twice? The Haamek Davar gives a beautiful answer. He says that when somebody lifts a weight that's heavier than he can handle, his hands start to shake because his muscles can't handle it. So too, when Hashem revealed the revelation, and they saw it, they were holding something that was above their grasp, so to speak. It was above their abilities to really comprehend, so they started to shake. That's why the second time, it says they couldn't hold on to this tremendous load of Kedusha . It was above their abilities. And that's why they shook at Har Sinai.