punishment could have fallen upon you were you not to fulfil it,
but now that you have accepted it, you must obey it." [212]

In order to convince Israel of the unity and uniqueness of God, He
bade all nature stand still, that all might see that there is nothing
beside Him. When God bestowed the Torah, no bird sang, no ox
lowed, the Ofannim did not fly, the Seraphim uttered not their
"Holy, holy, holy," the sea did not roar, no creature uttered a sound
- all listened in breathless silence to the words announced by an
echoless voice, "I am the Lord you God." [213]

These words as well as the others, made know by God on Mount
Sinai, were not heard by Israel alone, but by the inhabitants of all
the earth. The Divine voice divided itself into the seventy tongues
of men, so that all might understand it; but whereas Israel could
listen to the voice without suffering harm, the souls of the
heathens almost fled from them when they heard it. [214] When
the Divine voice sounded, all the dead in Sheol were revived, and
betook themselves to Sinai; for the revelation took place in the
presence of the living as well as of the dead, yea, even the souls of
those who were not yet born were present. Every prophet, every
sage, received at Sinai his share of the revelation, which in the
course of history was announced by them to mankind. [215] All
heard indeed the same words, but the same voice, corresponding to
the individuality of each, was God's way of speaking with them.
And as the same voice sounded differently to each one, so did the
Divine vision appear differently to each, wherefore God warned
them not to ascribe the various forms to various beings, saying:
"Do not believe that because you have seen Me in various forms,
there are various gods, I am the same that appeared to you at the