“...we have seen that G-d can speak to a person and [the person] will live. And now, why should we die...” (Devarim 5:21-22)
The logic here seems odd. The Jews witnessed the fire and grandeur of Hashem’s presence, and recognized that humans could be spoken to by Hashem and still live. Then why did they immediately say, “Why should we die...”, hearing Hashem would kill them?
We must understand the context. When the Jews stood at Sinai to receive the Torah, they expressed a desire to hear Hashem speak to them. Immediately, He displayed His glory and said, “Anochi Hashem Elokecha – I am the L-rd your G-d.” Upon hearing this, the souls of all the Jews left their bodies. Hashem returned them to life, and then at hearing the second of the utterances, they died again, and were revived again.
At this point, the Jews told Moshe, “Why should we die? You speak to us and tell us what Hashem commands.” That is what happened, and the rest of the Torah was taught to us by Moshe. Moshe was such a righteous person that he was able to withstand Hashem’s voice without dying. He was able to hear it directly and pass it along to everyone else.
The question is, if Hashem brought them back to life anyway, why not continuing listening to the Torah directly from Hashem? Why dilute the experience by having a middleman? Why were they afraid to keep hearing?
Some commentaries explain that the purpose of Hashem speaking to all of them was to prove that prophecy exists. They learned that it was possible for a human to hear Hashem’s word and continue to live on. However, once that was proven, Hashem might not continue to perform the miracle of reviving them.
Others explain that by hearing Hashem’s voice, and heeding His words, one becomes closer to Him. The closer a person comes to Hashem, the more he sheds the physical world. They were afraid that if they continued hearing Hashem speaking the Ten Commandments, they would completely cleave to him and leave this world permanently - and that would be a bad thing.
It was not that they had a desire for a physical existence, but rather because they desired to fulfill Hashem’s will that man live a spiritual life within a physical body. Unlike the angels, Man has the ability to bridge the gap between worlds and turn physicality into spirituality. By harnessing this world and directing it towards Hashem, we can achieve greater things than even the celestial beings of Heaven.
The Bais HaMikdash will one day come down from Shomayim, but it will be because we sent the building materials up from this world below.
