"Yisro — Part III — Sinai as Public Reality: The Anti-Metaphor Parsha"

3.2 — The Shofar That Grew Stronger: Sound as Proof

A Sound That Defies Nature

Among the many phenomena at Sinai, one detail stands out for its quiet defiance of the natural order:
[וְקוֹל שׁוֹפָר… הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד — “the shofar sound… grew exceedingly strong”].
Sounds, by their nature, fade. Breath weakens. Echoes diminish. Sinai presents the opposite: intensification over time.

This was not poetic license. It was evidence.

Why the Torah Emphasizes Sound

Sight can deceive. Vision is shaped by imagination, lighting, distance. Sound is less cooperative. It obeys physics. It weakens with duration. By choosing sound—and by describing it as growing stronger—the Torah blocks one of the most common escape routes: natural explanation.

The shofar at Sinai behaves in a way that human breath cannot.

Abarbanel: The Shofar as Anti-Hallucination

Abarbanel notes that the shofar blast serves a distinct epistemic function. Unlike fire or cloud, sound cannot be localized to a single observer. It fills space. It presses upon everyone equally. If it intensifies rather than fades, it cannot be attributed to:

• human lungs,
• atmospheric effect,
• emotional crescendo,
• or collective imagination.

The shofar’s growth negates the claim that Sinai was internally generated.

Why “Grew Stronger” Matters

Had the Torah written that the shofar was “very loud,” skepticism could survive. But growth over time introduces a contradiction to nature itself.

Nature predicts:

• fatigue,
• entropy,
• dissipation.

Sinai presents:

• endurance,
• amplification,
• escalation.

This inversion is the proof. The event does not merely transcend nature; it contradicts its expectations.

Sound Without a Source

Rashi emphasizes that the shofar was not blown by human hand. No blower is described because none existed. The sound is detached from mechanism. This matters deeply. A sound without a visible source resists reduction to metaphor or symbolism.

The people do not hear meaning. They hear pressure—sound that asserts presence.

Why the Shofar Precedes Speech

The shofar sounds before Hashem speaks. This ordering is intentional. Before commandments can be delivered, certainty must be established. The shofar prepares the epistemic ground by announcing: this is not human.

Only once doubt is silenced can law be heard.

Public Sound, Public Truth

Unlike private visions or inner voices, the shofar is collective. Everyone hears it. There is no privileged listener. This denies elitism and mysticism alike. Sinai’s truth is democratic—not in authorship, but in access.

Revelation is not for the few; it is imposed upon the many.

Chassidic Insight: Sound That Breaks the Self

Chassidic thought sees sound as penetrating where sight cannot. Sight allows distance. Sound invades. The intensifying shofar overwhelms the ego, leaving no room for internal narration. In that silence, commandment can enter.

The shofar does not persuade. It clears.

Why This Cannot Be Metaphor

Metaphors do not grow stronger with time. Emotions do not defy biology. Human performance does not invert entropy. The Torah insists on detail here because the detail is the argument.

Sinai does not ask to be believed. It insists on being acknowledged.

Application for Today

Modern spirituality often seeks gentle resonance and inner meaning. Sinai offers something sterner: certainty. The shofar teaches that truth sometimes announces itself without asking permission—and that not all reality is reducible to interpretation.

The question is not whether we can hear such a sound again, but whether we live as if we already have.

📖 Sources

• Full sources available on the Mitzvah Minute Parshas Yisro page under insights and commentaries.