How will we reconcile the current Pasuk - which compares the fire on Har Sinai to the fire of a furnace, with the Pasuk in Parshas Va'eschanan (Devarim 4:11), which describes the fire on Har Sinai as "a burning fire that reached the heart of the Heaven"?
Rashi: The Pasuk in Devarim teaches us that, in reality, the Fire was much greater than that of a furnace, and the reason that the Pasuk plays it down here is because it is the way of the Torah to describe Divine actions in human terms 1 so that we should be able to connect to it.
Rashi: Like we find in Hoshe'a 11:10, where the Navi describes Hashem as a roaring lion, even though He is the one who enables the lion to roar in the first place.
If the burning fire that reached the heart of the Heaven', why does the Torah describe it here compare it to a furnace?
Rashi and R. Bachye: Because such is the way of the Torah to describe supernatural things in human terms, so that we can relate to them. Hence it writes "ke'Aryeh Yish'ag - Oshea 11:10 and 'Kolo ke'Kol Mayim Rabim' - Yechezkel 43:2, even though Hashem created the lion and He gave the sound to the multitude of water. 1
See also R. Bachye who gives additional examples and concludes that that is what Chazal meant when theysaid - in B'rachoos 31b - 'Dibrah Torah ki'Leshon B'nei Adam'.
What are the ramifications of the statement, "va'Yecherad Kol ha'Har Me'od"?
Bearing in mind that Heavenly fire does not generally produce smoke - as the Gemara states in Yoma 21b, what is the significance of the "Eshen ha'Kivshan"?
R. Bachye: The smoke came, not from the fire, but from the mountain.
Moshav Zekenim #1 (citing R. Yeshayah): The smoke was to frighten Yisrael.
Moshav Zekenim #2 (citing R. Yehudah ha'Chasid): Wherever the Shechinah is, there is smoke.
