Standing at Sinai Synesthesia

With the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot beginning this coming Sunday evening, I thought it appropriate to provide this quote, which comes straight from the Torah. Shavuot is a holiday that marks a landmark event, whether literal or metaphorical, or somewhere in between, when the people who left Egypt as a result of the Passover arrived at Mt. Sinai. In the greatest event of mass revelation in the Jewish tradition, those assembled heard, and maybe in some sense, saw, God speak, or otherwise communicate with them directly. No intermediary this time, as was usually the case with Moses in the past and would be the case with prophets who succeeded him in the future.

When I first studied this passage as an adult, in the commentaries, it was the first time I encountered the word, “synesthesia”. It basically means a crossing of sense impressions, where, as here, they “saw” the sounds of thunder and the shofar. Although this passage/translation doesn’t indicate it, there are views that they also “heard” sights, like the flashing and the smoking.

When you take the time to contemplate this passage, it is quite remarkable and interesting to ponder the various aspects to it. Think about the response of the people, and Moses’s admonishment to them. Think about Moses approaching the “fog where God was”, a common description of the dream-like, other-worldly state of prophesy.

Traditional Jewish teachings maintain that the souls of all Jewish people who have ever existed and will ever exist are descended from/connected with the souls that stood that day at Mt. Sinai.

Standing at Sinai Synesthesia

Now all of the people were seeing the thunder-sounds, the flashing torches, the shofar sound, and the mountain smoking; when the people saw, they faltered and stood far off. They said to Moshe: You speak with us, and we will hearken, but let not God speak with us, lest we die! Moshe said to the people: Do not be afraid! For it is to test you that God has come, to have awe of him be upon you, so that you do not sin. The people stood far off, and Moshe approached the fog where God was.

--Exodus 20:15-18 [This is immediately after God spoke the words of the Ten Commandments directly to the assembled multitude at the foot of Mt. Sinai]; Everett Fox Translation