Fiery Mountains

Tonight is Shavuos, anniversary of the giving of the Torah. It's been a long time. 3320 years. That's a lot of time. Yet we're still supposed to hear the words being spoken today. Just imagine, you're an average guy standing in front of a mountain, and suddenly you're not standing in front of that mountain anymore. That mountain is standing on top of you. Sounds crazy, eh? Soon you start seeing thunder, and before you can even say "Kevin" the sound of lightning begins to reverberate in your ears. I remember learning a Maamar, or maybe it was a Sicha, that dealt with the philosophical implications of audible lightning and visual thunder, but I really don't remember what it said. Suffice it to say that the people were trembling in their robes, or whatever it is they wore back then. The question is, which did they experience first? We see lightning before we hear thunder, because light travels faster than sound. Did they hear the lightning after they saw the thunder, or maybe it was the opposite way 'round? This is the type of question which will keep me up tonight. I hope. Last year I was saying the Tikkun in 770, but fell asleep, so I walked home and after reading four or five more pages fell asleep again. This year of course I'm in a position of responsibility and authority, so I daren't doze off for even a moment, lest my ego come crashing to the floor in a fiery embrace with itself.
Anyway, you've got all these pyrotechnics and shtuff going on, and then G-d gives the Torah to the Israelites, and then they're walking around with a couple of crowns on their heads eating cheesecake. Sounds pretty good to me. Where they got the graham cracker for the base I don't know. In fact, where did they get strawberries for the top from? These are more of the types of questions which keep people like me awake at night. No snotty comments about people like me, ok? Good.
So as I was saying, there's a whole host of questions that can be asked on Shavuos, known as Pentecost by all our Pope friends. Oh right, I forgot, I'm not allowed to write about them anymore.