Sleeping at the Foot of Sinai

In modern Shavuot celebrations, it is customary to stay up late and to study Torah into the morning hours. Why? Many rabbis would say that we follow this custom because when Hashem decided to give Israel the mitzvot (commandments), they were asleep at the foot of Sinai. They were not fully alert and ready to receive the Torah. Hashem continues to speak to his people even today, and if we want to be worthy in our generation to hear from him, we have to be ready to receive. How we demonstrate our readiness is by engaging with the very words the Almighty has already given us, i.e., studying Torah on the eve of Shavuot. Tikkun Leil Shavuot is a custom of correcting the mistakes of the past.

The puzzling part is, however, if you read through the narrative about how Israel received the commandments, the Torah itself does not say that our ancestors were asleep. That is a bit of a spiritual take on the situation and interpretation of the story, and to see it, one has to read between the lines. Exodus 19:16 says that "on the third day, it was morning," possibly very early morning, there was "thunder and lightning, and thick clouds over the mountain." So, it might have felt like a thunderstorm at Sinai, and setting aside the shofar sound, one can imagine how this can be conducive to sleeping. Though tradition hints at spiritual lethargy, not necessarily physical sleep.

If anything, people were afraid of divine manifestation, "and all the people in the camp trembled" (vayeche'rad kol-haam asher bamachaneh; וַיֶּחֱרַד כָּל־הָעָם אֲשֶׁר בַּמַּחֲנֶה). Fear often results in staying put and feeling almost paralyzed, but not necessarily napping. Yet if one cannot rest because of ongoing fear for too long, one becomes exhausted and eventually sleepy. Why was the shofar heard on that morning? One could assume, similar to why we use it today, to awaken people (spiritually and sometimes even physically).

Here is one traditional explanation of what might have occurred...