Saw the thunderings
And all the people saw the thunderings
And all the people saw the thunderings
GENESIS 1:29
The five Hebrew words describing the experience of receiving the Torah – וכל העם ראים את הקולת
(v'kol ha'am ro'im et ha'kolot) – fall in an ideal sequence to convey the transmission of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Increasing from a low wave-frequency red, through orange, yellow, green and green/blue. The spectral colour sequence beautifully suggests an increase in intensity, in perfect harmony with the build up towards this momentous occasion.
The release of energy from a storm cloud results in lightning, and lightning causes sound – ie thunder. Lightning is seen before you hear it due to light travelling nearly one million times faster than the speed of sound. We see light almost instantaneously (the speed of light), whereas it takes sound five seconds to travel each mile. In context, “saw the thunder” suggests that the seeing and the hearing were simultaneous – zero seconds between them – it occurred in the midst of the people. “And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:20).
The image combines light and sound (saw the thunderings). A series of colour light waves, with sound, represented by a musical stave (turned 90°). The light waves (lightning) are aligned with the sound (thunderings), reflecting the Torah and scientific sequence of “saw the thunderings” occurring simultaneously in the midst of the people – if the thunderings preceded the lightning (not simultaneous) it would not have been in the midst of the people. The colour swatches breaking into the top of the image represents the complete spectrum of energy in the cloud – descending from heaven to Mount Sinai.