The Rebbe says:

1. In this week’s Torah portion the Jewish people stand at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) amidst thunder and lightning and receive the Ten Commandments from Hashem (G-d).

The Ten Commandments begin by saying, “Va’ye’da’ber Elokim Es Kol Hadvarim Ha’e’lah Lay’more - G-d spoke all these words, to say (“Lay’more”)”.

2. The Rebbe now questions this:

The word “Lay’more – To say” is used everywhere else in the Torah when Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) something in private and then instructs Moshe to repeat it over to the public. Here however, when the whole Jewish nation was standing at Har Sinai and hearing the Ten Commandments just like Moshe Rabbeinu, why does the Torah say, “G-d spoke all these words, to say (“Lay’more”)”?

The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Yisro

The Rebbe says:

1. In this week’s Torah portion the Jewish people stand at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) amidst thunder and lightning and receive the Ten Commandments from Hashem (G-d).

The Ten Commandments begin by saying, “Va’ye’da’ber Elokim Es Kol Hadvarim Ha’e’lah Lay’more – G-d spoke all these words, to say (“Lay’more”)”.

2. The Rebbe now questions this:

The word “Lay’more – To say” is used everywhere else in the Torah when Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) something in private and then instructs Moshe to repeat it over to the public. Here however, when the whole Jewish nation was standing at Har Sinai and hearing the Ten Commandments just like Moshe Rabbeinu, why does the Torah say, “G-d spoke all these words, to say (“Lay’more”)”?

3. The Rebbe now suggests a possible answer and then rejects it:

Maybe we can answer that when Hashem said, “Lay’more – To say”, He was telling Moshe Rabbeinu and the rest of the Jewish people to repeat His words to the future generations that were not there at Har Sinai.

However this is not a good answer because our Sages tell us that even the souls of all the future generations were present at the giving of the Torah.

Therefore we are back to our question- why does the Torah say “Lay’more – To say” if all the Jewish people were standing right there?

4. The Rebbe now answers the question:

The Magid of Mezritch explains that the idea of Matan Torah (the giving of the Torah) was to bring the Ten Commandments into the Ten Utterances with which the world was created. In other words, this physical world should be permeated with Torah- G-d’s will.
Now we can understand why the Torah says, “Va’ye’da’ber Elokim Es Kol Hadvarim Ha’e’lah Lay’more – G-d spoke all these words, to say (“Lay’more”)”, even though every Jewish Soul was right there:

The Hebrew word for (Ten) Commandments is “(Aseres Ha)Dibros”. The Hebrew word for (Ten) utterances “(Asarah) Mamoros”.

Therefore, if we take a closer look at the verse in question we will see that the verse is telling us that the “(Aseres Ha)Dibros” should permeate the “(Asarah) Mamoros; “Va’ye’da’ber Elokim Es Kol Hadvarim Ha’e’lah Lay’more – All of Hashem’s commandments should permeate his utterances which created the world”.

5. The Rebbe now tells us the lesson we can learn from this:

The obvious lesson that we all must learn from this is that the light of Torah must be felt throughout our entire day. It is not enough to feel G-dliness when we Daven (pray) and learn Torah, our Souls did not descend to this physical world to do this; our Souls could have stayed under the Throne of Glory and felt Holy naturally. What Hashem wants from us is to bring
Him into our every action; to connect to Him at every turn. This is why our Souls came down to this world- to elevate our bodies.

To be sure, we are not even discussing things which are not allowed according to the Torah law; that does not have to be mentioned. We mean here that even the things which we are permitted to be done should be infused with Torah and Holiness.

Translated and adapted by Rabbi Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume one, first Sicha.