Perhaps the most central teaching of Judaism is that we are called to something higher. We are called to bring justice into the world, to create a world of kindness and a world of love.

This week’s Torah portion marks origin of that call. Our entire people stood at the base of Mt. Sinai, amidst the lightning and the thunder, and God’s voice called out, calling us to something higher than ourselves.

“What happened on Mt. Sinai?” Heschel asked. “What the Bible says is something that words can hardly bear: The Lord came down upon Mt. Sinai. No sentence in the world has ever said more: He who is beyond, hidden, and exalted above space and time was humbly there, for all Israel to sense. Thus the word of God entered the world of man; not an ‘ought to,’ an idea suspended between being and non-being, a shadow of the wind, a concession of the mind, but a perpetual event, a demand of God more real than a mountain, more powerful than all thunders.”

We Jews have been responding to that event ever since, struggling to understand that demand, aspiring to build communities where we can live God’s dream.

What happened on Mt. Sinai? It was an event so powerful, the Torah tells us, that all the people saw the voice. It’s an image, a metaphor, perhaps. What does it mean to “see” a voice? Sefat Emet interpreted it this way:

And all the people saw the voice. At the moment that the words came forth, “I am Adonai your God,” the people saw the root of life. They looked in each other’s eyes and saw God’s presence in each other’s souls. They did not have to believe the words; they only had to see the voice of God in each other.

What happened at Mt. Sinai? Heschel was right. It is more than words can bear. But its implications are simple. If your neighbor is hungry, feed him. If you neighbor is naked, clothe him. If your neighbor is suffering, comfort him.

There’s an old Yiddish poem that summarizes it all:

If you always assume
That the person sitting next to you is the Messiah
Waiting for some simple human kindness
You will soon come to weigh your words
And to watch your hands.
If he chooses not to reveal himself in your time
It will not matter

Perhaps, this is all that the Holy One ever said. Treat the person sitting next to you as if they were the Messiah, waiting for some simple human kindness. And if you do, the Messiah will come.