The Ultimate Audio Visual Experience

THE ULTIMATE AUDIO VISUAL

EXPERIENCE

Eyes and Ears Open

For centuries, Judaism combined audio and visual instruments in its teaching of Judaism. From the time we received the Torah at Mount Sinai, the Jewish nation was engaged in the transmission of both a written and oral Torah. Both the eyes and ears played crucial roles in learning and teaching, as students alternated between reading the Biblical text and listening to their teacher expound on its deeper meaning.

This audio-visual experience was most pronounced when G-d revealed Himself at Mount Sinai. At that moment, the intermingling of the senses was absolute and unprecedented. The Torah describes this unique audio-visual experience as one in which “they saw the thunder and heard the lightening!” This unparalleled phenomenon was, at first glance, an unnecessary departure from nature. What was G-d’s purpose in performing this miracle?

The Rebbe addresses this issue by first providing an analysis of a most elementary difference between seeing and hearing will provide us with some insight to this dilemma.

Seeing is Believing.

When we see things with our own eyes, it confers automatic acceptance of the even as absolute truth about which there can be no doubt or debate. No matter how farfetched is that which we laid our eyes upon, it will not detract in the least from the certainty that we have of the existence of that object, event or experience.

Certainty is less easily achievable through hearing. No matter how reliable the reporter delivering the information is, if the information is not credible and cannot be rationally substantiated, we will remain unimpressed. Indeed, even if what we’ve heard is rational, reliable and believable, there always exists the potential for it to be refuted. In the best of circumstances, the most credible information we process through hearing remains remote, while the most incredible information we access through vision seems near.

Our world is one that provides us with the opportunity to reach and grasp for everything, material or spiritual. But, there is a difference between the two. Physical phenomena are things we can behold with our eyes, leaving an indelible imprint on our consciousness. We are thus not just influenced by the material world surrounding us through our ability to see it, we become a part of it, as it becomes a part of us.

Spiritual and G-dly experiences, to be sure, are not outside the purview of our senses. Intellectually we can hear and understand matters of the spirit. But, no matter how confirmed the analysis, the information remains distant. It is something we know, not something we are or become.

Tables Turned

At Sinai, the tables were turned. All of the things that people normally accessed aurally; all of the ideas that they could grasp intellectually, they were now able to see.

In other words, the Sinai experience enabled every Jew to integrate the G-dly revelation as though it was a simple, down-to-earth event. The reality of G-d and His teaching was evident to everyone. That was what made the Revelation at Sinai unique and unprecedented.

Simultaneously, all experiences normally accessed visually, now seemed remote. It is not that physical experience no longer existed, it did, but physicality was not the dominating aspect.

Reclaiming Sinai

In the Messianic Age, the world will once more realize the Sinai experience, but on a permanent basis. The salient difference will be that then it will be on a permanent basis. To be sure, in the future Age of Redemption there will still be a physical and material existence, but our primary and more direct experience will be the richer aspects of life, the G-dly dimension, as we see the world for what its true worth.

The enduring values and experiences will be etched in our mind and soul, while the physical will be appreciated for its true worth: as instruments and vehicles to carry out the Divine will.

May we all have a joyous and meaningful reacceptance of the Torah this Shavuos, by actually seeing the unfolding of the Messianic drama and realizing the actual Redemption in its full glory, when it will be Shavuos all year long.

From the book Light from the Future: Shavuos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.