According to Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homilies on the Book of Exodus, the answer might surprise you. It all goes back to Mount Sinai.

Rabbi Yitzḥak makes a bold claim: Everything the prophets were destined to prophesy, in every single generation, they received at Sinai. He bases this on Moses's words in Deuteronomy (29:14): "Rather, with him who is here with us standing today [before the Lord our God], and with him who is not here with us today." Notice that the verse doesn't just say "standing with us today," but "with us today." Rabbi Yitzḥak understands this to include even the souls yet to be created – those who weren't physically present at Sinai. Even they received their due.

It's a powerful idea, isn't it? That even before we're born, we're somehow connected to that foundational moment of revelation.

Think about the prophet Malachi. The verse says, "The prophecy of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi" (Malachi 1:1). It doesn’t say "in the days of Malachi." The Midrash suggests that the prophecy was with him since Sinai, but he wasn't given permission to speak it until his time. It was lying dormant, waiting for the right moment. Isaiah echoes this, saying, "From the time that it was, I was there" (Isaiah 48:16). He explains: From the day the Torah was given at Sinai, I was there and received this prophecy; however, "now the Lord God has sent me with His spirit" (Isaiah 48:16).

But it’s not just the prophets. The Midrash goes on to say that all the Sages, in every generation, also received their wisdom from Sinai. It's as if there's this vast, eternal wellspring of knowledge, and each generation draws from it. Deuteronomy (5:19) says, "These words the Lord spoke to your entire assembly…A great voice that did not cease."

Rabbi Yoḥanan takes this even further. He says that the one voice was divided into seven voices, and those seven into seventy languages! Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish adds that all the prophets who prophesied stood from it. One unified source, branching out into countless expressions. But then the Rabbis offer a different view: it had no echo. Yasaf, cease, implies it did not continue.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani, quoting Rabbi Yonatan, asks a crucial question: What does it mean when we say, "The voice of the Lord is with might" (Psalms 29:4)? Surely God, who fills the heavens and the earth (Jeremiah 23:24), doesn't need to speak mightily! He answers: The voice of the Lord is with the might appropriate for each of the voices. It's tailored, personalized, designed to resonate with each individual soul. Rabbi Yoḥanan's earlier point is bolstered by Psalms (68:12), "My Lord gives the word, and the heralds are great armies."

The Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, also explores this idea of the divine voice and its multifaceted nature. It speaks of different levels of revelation, each accessible to different souls based on their capacity and preparation.

So, what does this all mean for us? Are we, too, connected to that moment at Sinai? Do we each have a piece of that eternal wisdom within us, waiting to be awakened? Perhaps the question isn't whether we received something at Sinai, but whether we're willing to listen for it, to open ourselves to the whisper of the Divine that still echoes through the ages.