When Hashem gave us the Torah on Har Sinai, the Yidden experienced yirah, fear and awe. “The entire people saw the thunder and the flames, the sound of the shofar and the smoking mountain; the people saw and trembled and stood from afar.” On the other hand, Matan Torah is described as the wedding of the Jewish people to Hashem, the moment Hashem chose us as His holy nation. From that perspective, Mattan Torah was an encounter of love when Hashem revealed Himself to His special nation. Which one was it, a time of fear and awe or a time of love and closeness?
We’ll explore this with a writing of the Zohar Hakadosh. The Zohar writes about one who speaks during davening: “Woe is to him for he has no emunah.” This is a very strong statement; why does talking during davening equal a lack of emunah? What can we learn from this?
The answer is that the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, is revealed in a shul, in general, and during davening specifically. When a person has clear emunah, he experiences Hashem’s presence while he is davening, and feels as if he is standing before the King. When one is standing before the King his behavior will automatically be different. It’s not that he’ll want to speak but forces himself to be respectful in the King’s presence — it’s that he’ll simply feel no desire at all to talk to other people when he is standing before the King! The gravity of standing before the great King silences any conversation that isn’t part of talking to the King Himself!
An organization in the U.S. once had the honor of hosting a Presidential visit. They invested significant resources to prepare, cleaning, painting, renovating, and purchasing beautiful new curtains for the room where the President would speak. As the visit approached, government representatives inspected the building to ensure it was safe and befitting for the President, and approved everything except the new curtains, which they insisted must be replaced.
The administrators were surprised – they had just bought these beautiful new curtains. Why do they need to be removed? The response they received was that, yes, the curtains were beautiful, but they had some very intricate and interesting images embroidered on them, and they were concerned that people in the audience would be distracted and look at the curtains instead of the President!
If this is the one one must beware from the President of the United States, who is President one day and a civilian the next, whose words are empty and devoid of substance, how much more so should we be careful in the presence of the King of all Kings, the Creator of the World! If we have emunah, and experience His presence, we will feel that it is simply impossible to talk to other people in His presence. Rather than needing to ‘force’ ourselves not to talk during davening, we’ll find ourselves unable to talk during davening.
This is the connection between emunah and talking during davening, and with this we can understand the two very different emotions the Yidden felt at Mattan Torah. Mattan Torah was a time of love and closeness; it was also a time that the Divine Presence descended to the mountain in a very tangible way. The automatic reaction of such an experience is yirah; fear, awe, and trembling. Just like nobody would ever think to approach a chosson under his chupah to chat about the current events, l’havdil, no Yid at Har Sinai had any thought other than being fully present and focused on the awesome revelation of Hashem that they were experiencing.
Take It To Go!
The more we grow in emunah, the more we will feel Hashem’s presence during davening, and the more we will have no desire whatsoever to focus on anything other than the awesome experience of standing before the King.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 24.