וַיָבֹא The Possuk at the end of this week’s Parsha states: וַיָבֹא מֹשֶׁה בְּתוךְ הֶׁעָנָן “Moshe came within the cloud”. Rashi explains under the heading בְּתוךְ הֶׁעָנָן and says: This cloud was a kind of smoke, and quotes the Talmud and says that Hashem, blessed be He, made a path within it.
א Possuk: Shmos (24:18) וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה בְּתוֹךְ הֶׁעָּנָּן וַיַעַל אֶׁל הָּהָּר וַיְּהִי מֹשֶׁה בָּהָּר אַרְּ בָּעִים יוֹם וְּאַרְּ בָּעִים לָּיְּלָּה “And Moshe came within the cloud, and he went up to the mountain, and Moshe was upon the mountain forty days and forty nights.” The sequence of events that pertain to this Maamor are as follows: At Matan Torah which is the pronouncement of the Ten Commandments, in Parshas Yisro. The Possuk states: (19:18) “And the entire Mount Sinai smoked because HaShem had descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of the kiln, and the entire mountain quaked violently”. After Matan Torah, the cloud remains upon the mountain as the Possuk states: (24:17) “And the appearance of the glory of HaShem was like a consuming fire atop the mountain, before the eyes of the B’nei Yisroel.” Moshe is then commanded to approach HaShem, and to remain with him to receive the Luchos. Moshe ascends on the 7th of Sivan. (Rashi 32:1). As the Possuk states: (24:18) “And Moshe came within the cloud, and he went up to the mountain, and Moshe was upon the mountain forty days and forty nights.”. During these Forty days Moshe receives the laws commanded at the end of Yisro and the bulk of Mishpotim. (20:19 until 23:33; see Rashi on 31:18). The end of the Forty days is described in Ki Sisa. When he is finished speaking, HaShem gives Moshe the Luchos. (31:18).
Rashi explains: This cloud was a kind of smoke, and HaKodosh Boruch Hu, made a path within it. - [From Yoma 4b].
The Talmud: Yoma (4b) It is written in one place: “And Moshe was not able to enter into the Tent of Meeting because the cloud dwelt on it” (Shemos 40:35), as Moses was unable to enter the cloud. And it is written elsewhere: “And Moshe came into the cloud” (Shemos 24:18). This teaches that HaKodosh Boruch Hu, grabbed Moshe and brought him into the cloud since he could not enter on his own. The school of Rabbi Yishmoel taught: There is a verbal analogy that resolves this contradiction. It is stated here: “And Moshe came into the cloud,” and it is stated below, in another verse: “And the B’nei Yisroel went into the sea on dry land” (Shemos 14:22); Just as below, there was a path within the sea, as it is written: “And the water was a wall for them” (Shemos 14:22), here too, there was a path through the cloud.
The Talmud draws a parallel and states that in our Possuk the Torah uses the word ‘B’soch’ and it also uses the same word ‘B’soch’ when the Possuk says: “The B’nei Yisroel went into the sea on dry land”, just like on the dry land in the sea there was a ‘path’ because the Torah tells us that “the water was, for them, a wall” so too over here in the cloud there was also a path.
This smoke (The cloud was like smoke) emanates from fire, but not from the fire itself, but from the substance that the fire is burning and consuming; as the earlier Possuk states: וּמַרְּאֵה כְּבוד ה' כְּאֵש אֹכֶׁלֶׁת בְּרֹאש הָהָר “The appearance of Hashem’s glory was like a consuming fire atop the mountain”. Thus, the smoke comes from the incineration and obliteration of the substance being burned.
However, regarding ‘Matan Torah’ the Torah recalls: וְּהַר סִינַי עָשַ ן כֻּלּו מִפְּנֵי אֲשֶׁר יָרַד עָלָיו הֲוָיָ' בָאֵש גו' “The entire Mount Sinai was engulfed in smoke because Hashem had descended upon it in fire”, without any mention of a ‘consuming fire’ and as the Frierdiker Rebbe points out that from the wording of the Possuk it implies that the fire itself was the cause of the smoke even though in reality smoke comes from the substance being burned and not the fire itself.
And the Frierdiker Rebbe also points out that regarding the smoke it does not matter if it is a physical fire or a fire that descends from heaven, the smoke will always only come from the substance being incinerated.
Prima facie, on Mount Sinai there were neither trees, plants nor grass whose incineration would cause smoke. Furthermore, because Mount Sinai was a rocky mountain, and rocks are not combustible what was the cause of this smoke?
Additionally, The Friediker Rebbe asks about that which is stated in the Possuk: בָאֵשאֲשֶׁר יָרַד עָלָיו הֲוָיָ' ”Hashem had descended upon it in fire”. Irrespective of the intrinsic nature which Hashem had ingrained within the creation of fire, (viz. that unless there is something combustible for the fire to hold on to which causes it to remain below, it soars upwards;) here the fire descended upon the mountain irrespective of the fact that there was nothing combustible on the mountain to hold it!
The Frierdiker Rebbe explains the inner reasoning for the purpose of the creation of the world was revealed at ‘Matan Torah’. The world was created according to the laws of nature which Hashem Himself formulated, into the ‘four elements of the world’ and into the four categories of creation; the inorganic, organic, animal kingdom and mankind. According to Torah it is the job of the human to ‘transform’. Both his own nature and the nature of the world are to be transformed to make them into an abode for Hashem blessed be He. Hashem Himself initiates this process in order to teach us the possibility of change within nature.
Therefore, although Mount Sinai was a rocky, inorganic mountain, without any natural capability of incineration due to a lack of any smoke causing substances, nevertheless עָשַן כֻּלּו it became engulfed in smoke despite its non-combustible nature because אֲשֶׁר יָרַד עָלָיו הֲוָיָ' בָאֵש “Hashem descended upon the mountain in fire”, this was also contrary to the nature of fire itself whose tendency is to ascend.
But we still need clarification as to why in the narrative of ‘Matan Torah’ in Parshas Yisro the Possuk only says that Hashem descended in ‘Fire’ without mentioning that it was a consuming fire. Yet in Parshas Mishpotim the Torah talks about a ‘Consuming Fire’?
We also need to clarify, for what reason does our Parsha not explicitly state that it was smoke and it is only from Rashi that we learn that: “It was a kind of smoke” whereas in Parshas Yisro the Torah states: “The entire Mount Sinai was engulfed in smoke”?
BEIS
All of this will be better understood by prefacing an examination of the general concept of smoke: that is produced by something being incinerated.
When fire which is delicate and fine in nature attaches to a combustible substance which is neither as refined nor as delicate as fire, then that coarse substance will produce smoke, and that results from the diminution of the material particles of the item being incinerated.
Therefore, material objects which are less coarse, burn quicker and produce a finer smoke. Whereas by contrast, more coarse materials, even though the fire attaches itself to them too so that ultimately, they are also combustible, the smoke that they produce whilst burning and diminishing is a much ‘thicker’ and coarse smoke, due to the material being burned being much thicker and more coarse material.
So ultimately from the smoke one can perceive how coarse the material that is burning really is, and this is revealed in its expiration.
From this it is deduced that the same principle will apply within spirituality [with there being an equivalent] to the nullification and obliteration of material things down here below in order to elevate them to G-dliness [as will now be explained.]
The Hebrew word for smoke 'עָשָן' is an acronym for the words עולָם 'World' alluding to space which is existence. שָנָה 'Year' alluding to time. and נֶׁפֶׁש Soul alluding to man.
As is explained in the Kabbalistic books and in the Raavad’s explanation of the 'Sefer Yetzirah', these three terms refer to the Seder Hishtalshelus in ascending order that comes about due to a revelation of fire from above, (As the Possuk ...
