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The book of Exodus says that Israelites had 600,000 men of fighting age. And often it has paragraphs like this:

Exodus 35:4 (JPS):

And Moses spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: 'This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying:

There are many, many more examples like this. Sometimes, right after Moses says something, events happen that affect the whole community, suggesting that he was speaking everyone atthe same time:

Numbers 16 (JPS):

31 And it came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground did cleave asunder that was under them. 32 And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. 33 So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit; and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the assembly.

So, how was a community of at least 600,000 males able to hear Moses when he addressed them? That is thirty times more people than would fill Madison Square Garden.

And just a follow up question: if Moses actually spoke to the leaders, which passed things down to their respective tribes and groups, then doesn't Judaism actually become a religion handed down by a small group of people? At this point, the best argument for its authority is that God specifically set up this structure and said it was the best.

msh210
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Gregory Magarshak
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  • I don't understand the follow up question. If they are only hearing from Moses, how is that any better? – Yishai May 28 '14 at 15:50
  • Any better than what? – Gregory Magarshak May 28 '14 at 15:50
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    Any better than a small group of people. – Yishai May 28 '14 at 15:51
  • Ok I will explain what I meant by the follow up question. The argument that Moses says "You all heard" is normally used to show that the entire Israelite community heard something at once. But if we reason that there was no normal way to address all 600,000 males at once then Moses was only addressing the elders, perhaps in a tent. Which means "You all heard" might have not been a national experience but the what the elders were told. The Kuzari argument uses the desert and manna, perhaps for this exact reason. How is the national revelation argument affected if Moses spoke only to the elders? – Gregory Magarshak May 28 '14 at 15:53
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    The "you all heard" was at Mount Sinai, one time. Not all the other incidents. That was Korach's argument (Numbers 16) - we all heard Har Sinai, but we only have your word for anything said afterwards, and you got us stuck in the desert for 40 years. – Yishai May 28 '14 at 15:57
  • First of all I'm confident "you all heard" is used more than once in Torah. And secondly the same argument could apply to Mount Sinai. As for national experience, what it says is that the Jews all saw sounds. What does that mean?? – Gregory Magarshak May 28 '14 at 16:09
  • I don't understand what you are saying. The claim, as well documented in the Torah, in the Talmud, and further on (like the Kuzari) is that everyone was at Mount Sinai and directly experienced G-d (Exodus 24:17). I used "you all heard" to quote you, not a Possuk. It says the Jews saw - and then lists sounds and sights. Seeing means experiencing directly. All drashos are above that, and in such discussions it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the plain text is saying something too, but it is. – Yishai May 28 '14 at 16:21
  • This? "To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain." – Gregory Magarshak May 28 '14 at 16:23
  • @GregoryMagarshak we have a tradition (I seem to recall it's pretty explicit in Exodus, but am not looking it up right now, and that doesn't matter) that all the Jews there heard God's sound saying the Decalogue. ¶ I think the question about Moses's voice is a good one without the followup, which seems to rest on some assumptions of yours that the comments here are disputing, and I suggest that you ask that separately if you can formulate it better instead of including here as a not-very-well-formulated almost-aside. – msh210 May 28 '14 at 17:35
  • I once read in the name of Rav Kaduri that when the Ben Ish Chai gave his drasha, everyone would hear his words clearly, even those very far away from him – ray May 28 '14 at 17:47
  • If Charles Heston means anything to anyone, it was obvious to everyone that when Moses came down from the mountain, they saw that he was very angry, and they all heard him and watched him throw the tablets onto the golden calf. As a matter of fact, even all the people watching him on TV heard him :-) – DanF May 28 '14 at 18:00
  • Via a miracle.. – Fred May 28 '14 at 19:22
  • I would just like the answers to deal with the issue raised in the followup, rather than asking a completely separate question. After all, one depends on the other, and the two things are pretty interlinked. It's a composite question ... many of the proofs about oral Torah and written Torah kind of depend on how Moses transmitted this information. – Gregory Magarshak May 28 '14 at 19:58
  • Deuteronomy 5:18 These words the LORD spoke unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice, and it went on no more. And He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them unto me. 19 And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness... – gaagu May 28 '14 at 20:17
  • @GregoryMagarshak. Love the question. Love the insight. It is a really great point, considering the fact that some apologists use the idea of a "national revelation" to defend Judaism as though it is intrinsically a different category of revelation. However, although the argument is great, there is no way to prove it. However, personally, I figured these statements were shorthand and he probably had people "passing the word" back as he spoke. Not sure... – Yochanan Michael May 28 '14 at 22:38
  • Upvoting this question and commenting because I'd like to see some answers with sources. – Aaron May 12 '21 at 22:14

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Among the many other miracles that occurred in that period, there were times when the entire nation was simultaneously able to hear Moses speaking. This is how we understand when the verse says that the entire congregation of Israel assembled and was addressed. These miracles are known as המועט המחזיק את המרובה - the small that contains the many. This means that a place that regularly holds a small amount of people held many thousands of people. See for example Rashi's commentary on Leviticus 8:3 and Numbers 20:10 (Joshua 3:9).

There are times when the entire nation heard because the environment naturally amplified the sound; a natural amphitheater was utilized, like by the blessings and curses in Dueteronomy 27 and in Joshua 8 before entering the land of Israel.

gaagu
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