Secondly, immediately after enumerating the Ten Commandments, the Torah describes that the people “saw the sounds.” What does it mean to see sound? Is this even possible? What is the Torah trying to convey to us with this cryptic description?

Let us also explore the first of the Ten Commandments, "I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt." What is the nature of this commandment? The Rambam in one place (Hil. Yesodei Hatorah 1:6) writes that we are commanded to know Hashem exists. However, in another place (Sefer Hamitzvos Mitzvah 1) he writes that we are commanded to believe Hashem exists. Which is it? If we know something, then we certainly wouldn't say that we believe it. We don't believe that two times two is four. We know it! On the other hand, if we only believe in Hashem's existence, this implies that we are not 100% sure. If that is the case, then who is to say that we, the Jews, are right, and the other seven billion people on Earth are wrong? There is no inherent value in belief unless there is evidence to support that the belief is true. If the only thing holding us to Judaism is belief, then why can't we just believe something else?

There are two fundamental differences between seeing and hearing. The first is that hearing is essentially an involuntary faculty; you cannot really stop yourself from hearing something. In contrast, it is actually quite easy to prevent yourself from seeing something. You could simply look away, or close or cover your eyes. The second, and perhaps more profound difference between seeing and hearing is aptly summarized by the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 25b) – “lo t’hei shemiah gedolah me’re’iyah - Hearing cannot be greater than seeing!?” In English, we might say, “Seeing is believing.” But the truth is, seeing is not believing. Seeing is knowing. When you see something with your own eyes, you know it took place. There is no room for doubt. This is not the case, however, when you hear about an event that happened. Maybe it happened; maybe it didn’t. You must use your judgement to decide.

With this in mind, we can now understand the first of the Ten Commandments. In truth, we know that Hashem exists. It is certainly possible to prove Hashem's existence. In fact, the Rambam (Hil. Yesodei Hatorah 8:1) writes that the source of this knowledge is the revelation at Har Sinai. This is what separates us from other religions. Most other religions are based on the testimony of one man who had some sort of vision, or spoke to G-d, and G-d revealed to him the edicts of the religion. G-d theoretically could have spoken to that man, but there is no evidence to support such a claim, and it would therefore be foolish to believe it. Not so with Judaism. Our religion is based on the testimony of over two million people who saw G-d's presence with their own eyes. This is what the pasuk means when it says the people “saw the sounds”. They saw that which every other religion only hears about. For other religions, the revelation of G-d’s existence is only a rumor. It is secondhand information whose reliability must be assessed as such. But for the Jewish People, G-d’s Presence was something they experienced firsthand. They saw it with their own eyes!

That is all very well. But then what is the idea of emunah? The answer is that emunah doesn’t actually mean ‘faith’ at all. Rather, it means ‘faithfulness’. It means remaining steadfast to that which you know to be true. Every time we sin, we are choosing to blind ourselves to the truth. The Gemara (Sotah 3a) states, “A person does not sin unless a spirit of insanity has entered them.” In order for us to sin, we must suspend our knowledge of Hashem’s existence in that moment. Otherwise, how could we possibly sin? Emunah means remaining faithful to that knowledge and allowing it to influence our actions.

At Har Sinai, the Jewish People were first-hand witnesses to the most important event of all time. One responsibility that comes with being a witness is testifying. As the sole nation to undergo an experience like Mattan Torah, we are charged with delivering this testimony to the world. In fact, the pasuk (Yeshayah 44:8) says, “And you are my witnesses.” Hashem Himself expects us to live up to the expectations that come with being witnesses to such a monumental event. And when in fact do we deliver this testimony? When we say Shema. In the Torah, the Shema is written with two big letters, ayin and dalet, which spell ‘eid’, a witness. When we say Shema, we are taking our firsthand knowledge of Hashem’s revelation and testifying about it to the world. This involves transforming the vision which we saw into a sound. The benefit of this is that in this new form, the information can no longer be disregarded. We are forced to let the data enter our ears and impact the way we live our lives. This could be a reason why we cover our eyes during Shema, as if to say, even if I choose to close my eyes and not let myself see this evidence, I will still cause myself to hear it, which is unavoidable.

The Gemara (Sotah 2b) informs us that whenever the Torah uses the word ‘eid’, it really refers to two witnesses. Based on this, the Gemara (Makkos 6b) deciphers that regarding dinei nefashos, cases involving capital punishment, the testimony of two witnesses is invalid unless they were aware of each other’s presence during the event. We can certainly consider the revelation at Har Sinai to be something that our lives depend on. For this reason, we needed to be like one person with one heart. Since we are Hashem’s witnesses in the world, we had to be united at Har Sinai. The word ‘vayichan’ expresses this exact idea that the Jewish People became so unified that they were considered one. In fact, the word ‘vayichan’ has the same gematria as the word ‘eid’. This is because the Jewish People at Har Sinai were able to achieve a unique level of achdus which allowed them to be considered one and qualified them to act as Hashem’s personal witnesses for the rest of time.

Our mission as a nation is to testify to the world about Hashem; to be witnesses to His Existence. To accomplish this, we must be unified, like one person with one heart. Then, and only then, can we achieve our purpose as a nation.