ספר דברים

It is possible, however, to interpret our verse by keeping in ‎mind that Moses’ quality of prophetic visions was superior to ‎that of other prophets. This expressed itself in the rule that ‎whereas other prophets were duty bound to relate the messages ‎they had received in accordance with the way in which they had ‎understood it from G’d without adding, detracting, or changing ‎one iota. People who had heard the message delivered by the ‎prophets were not allowed to alter any part of it. Moses, on the ‎other hand, seeing that G’d’s voice was uttered by his throat, ‎‎(Zohar III 232) so that people hearing it actually heard ‎G’d’s voice, were understood by the people according to the ‎intellectual capacity of each individual. The word ‎וירד‎, “He (G’d) ‎descended”, should therefore be translated as “it descended,” i.e. ‎when G’d’s voice was received by the people who “heard” it from ‎Moses’ throat it underwent a “descent,” i.e. it was understood by ‎each individual according to his perceptive powers.‎When we understand our verse in this manner the question ‎raised by Tossaphot in B’rachot 45 on the words: ‎‎(Exodus 19,19) ‎משה ידבר והאלוקים יעננו בקול‎, usually translated as ‎‎“Moses would speak and G’d would respond audibly,” can be ‎answered.[The Talmud there had used this verse to ‎‎”prove” that the person who translated every word read by the ‎Reader from the Torah in Hebrew must not raise his voice to a ‎level louder than that of the reader. Assuming our translation of ‎that verse was correct, Tossaphot argue that we should ‎derive the very opposite from this, namely that the Reader ‎should not raise his voice above the level of the translator! ‎‎Tossaphot, based on Alfassi, attempt some forced ‎explanation. Ed.]‎Our author translates the verse simply as telling us that ‎although it appeared to the listener that Moses was speaking, ‎actually seeing that G’d’s voice was speaking through his throat, ‎he was in the position of the translator, i.e. communicating what ‎G’d had already initiated.‎