Study Yoma folio 4B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
And that which is written: “And the cloud covered him,” means the cloud covered it, the mountain, and not him, Moses. “And He called to Moses”; Moses and all of the Jewish people were standing at the foot of the mountain and listening, and if God did not mean that Moses was to climb the mountain,
R' Matya ben Ḥarash says: The verse calling Moses into the cloud comes only to intimidate Moses, to instill in him a sense of awe of the Creator, so that the Torah would be delivered with reverence, with quaking and with trembling, as it is stated: “Serve YHWH with awe, and rejoice with trembling” (
§ Apropos the interpretation of the verse with regard to revelation, the Talmud asks: With regard to what do R' Yosei HaGelili and R' Akiva disagree? The Talmud explains that their dispute is parallel to the dispute between these other tanna’im, as it was taught in a baraita: On the 6th day of the
The Talmud proceeds to link the two disputes. R' Yosei HaGelili holds in accordance with the opinion of the first tanna in the baraita, who said that it was on the 6th of the month that the Torah was given; therefore, this incident occurred after the revelation of the 10 Commandments. That is why h
And R' Akiva holds in accordance with the opinion of R' Yosei, who said that on the 7th of the month the Torah was given to the Jewish people. That is why Moses was summoned on the 7th of the month immediately after the revelation of the 10 Commandments. The Talmud asks: Granted, according to the