<b>And the Lord said to Aaron: “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses” (Exod. 4:27).</b> Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: <i>God thundereth marvelously with His voice; great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend</i> (Job 37:5). What is meant by <i>God thundereth marvelously with His voice</i>? When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah at Sinai, He revealed untold marvels to Israel through His voice. In what way did He do that? The Holy One, blessed be He, spoke, and His voice reverberated throughout the entire world. When Israel heard the sound of His voice, it appeared at first to come from the south, and so they ran to the south to receive the voice. In the south the sound appeared to reverse itself and to emanate from the north, whereupon they ran to the north. In the north it shifted as though it came from the east, and so they hastened to the east to await the voice; then it appeared to shift once more from the east to the west, and they ran to the west. In the west, it turned about as though it came from the heavens, but when they lifted their eyes toward heaven, it seemed to come from the earth. Whereupon they looked toward the earth, as it is said: <i>Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee; and upon the earth He made thee to see His great fire; and thou didst hear His words out of the midst of the fire</i> (Deut. 4:36).
The Israelites said to one another: <i>But wisdom, where shall it be found? And where is the place of understanding. The deep saith: “It is not in me”; and the sea saith: “It is not with me.” Destruction and death say: “We have heard a rumor thereof with our ears”</i> (Job 28:12, 14, 22).
The Israelites asked: From where does the Holy One, blessed be He, come—is it from the east, the west, the north, or the south? After all, it is said: <i>And he said: The Lord cometh from Sinai</i> (Deut. 33:2), And also: <i>God cometh from Teman</i> (Hab. 3:3), <i>And all the people perceived the thunderings</i> (Exod. 20:15). The verse does not say “perceived the thunder,” but rather <i>the thunderings</i>. R. Johanan explained this as follows: The sound went forth and divided itself, at first, into seven sounds. These sounds in turn became seventy different languages, so that all nations might comprehend (what was being said). When each nation heard His voice in its own language they fainted away, but Israel listened to it and was unharmed.
How did the voice go forth? R. Tanhuma declared: It went forth in a dual role, destroying the nations that would not accept the Torah and giving life to Israel, which accepted the Torah. Thus Moses said to them at the end of the forty years: <i>For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?</i> (Deut. 5:23); that is to say, only you have heard His voice and have lived, while other nations heard it and perished.
Observe that His voice went forth to each Israelite in accordance with the individual’s capacity to receive it. The elders, the men, the youths, the little ones, the sucklings—each heard it according to his own capacity. Even Moses heard it according to his capacity, as it is said: <i>Moses spoke, and God answered him by</i> (with) <i>a voice</i> (Exod. 19:19); that is, with a voice that Moses was able to comprehend. Thus, it says: <i>The voice of the Lord was powerful with strength</i> (Ps. 29:1). “With His strength” is not written in this verse, but rather <i>with strength</i>, that is, according to the strength of each individual (to tolerate the sound). Even the pregnant women heard it in accordance with their strength. Therefore it says: Each one of them according to their strength.
R. Yosé the son of Hanina stated: If you are amazed at this remember, that the manna descended for each Israelite with a taste that varied according to the needs of each individual. The young men, for instance, ate it as bread, as it is said: <i>Behold, I will cause to rain bread from heaven for you</i> (Exod. 16:4); the elders ate it as wafers of honey, as it is said: <i>And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey</i> (ibid., v. 31); the sucklings, as milk from the breasts of their mothers, as is said: <i>And the taste of it was as the taste of a cake baked with oil</i> (Num. 11:8);<sup class="footnote-marker">32</sup><i class="footnote">Reading <i>leshad ha-shemen</i> (“a cake with oil”) as <i>le-shad ha-shemen</i> (“as a fat breast”).</i> for the ill, as fine flour mixed in honey, as it is said: <i>Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil</i> (Exod. 16:13); and the gentiles who tasted it found it as bitter as coriander seed, as is said: <i>Now the manna was like coriander seed</i> (Num. 11:7).
R. Yosé the son of Hanina stated further that just as the manna, which was actually of one kind, could change into different kinds (tastes), because of the requirements of each of them, so could the voice that went forth change for each of them according to the individual’s ability to hear it, so that no harm might befall him. Whence do we know that the voice divided itself into many sounds? It is said: <i>And all the people perceived the thunderings</i>. The plural <i>thunderings</i> is written, and not the singular “thundering.” Therefore, <i>God thundereth marvelously with His voice</i> (Job 37:5).