It says in parsha Vo'eschanan that after the first two commandments, the Jews went to Moshe and said that it was too much and God said okay, (essentially,) "tell them to go to their tents and you Moshe come up and hear from me and relay to them".
So they went away from the mountain?
How long did the whole Ten Commandments ceremony take place and were there breaks in the middle of each one?
Rashi on Bereshis 20:1 (and Ramban also states) that Hashem said all 10 commandments in one utterance and then started repeating them
This statement (that God spake all these words) tells us that the Holy One, blessed be He, said all these words in one utterance, something that is impossible to a human being to do — to speak in this manner. Now if this be so, why does Scripture again say the first two Commandments, אנכי and לא יהיה לך? But the explanation is that He repeated and expressly uttered each of these two commandments by itself (Mekhilta).
Rambam in Moreh Nevichim II:32 states that Jewish people directly heard fron G-d only the first two commandments.
Gemara Makkos 23b-24a says in the that the Jewish people heard 2 commandments directly from G-d:
Rabbi Simlai taught: There were 613 mitzvot stated to Moses in the Torah, consisting of 365 prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot corresponding to the number of a person’s limbs. Rav Hamnuna said: What is the verse that alludes to this? It is written: “Moses commanded to us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4). The word Torah, in terms of its numerical value [gimatriyya], is 611, the number of mitzvot that were received and taught by Moses our teacher. In addition, there are two mitzvot: “I am the Lord your God” and: “You shall have no other gods” (Exodus 20:2, 3), the first two of the Ten Commandments, that we heard from the mouth of the Almighty, for a total of 613.
Based on midrash Shir haShirim Rabbah 5:16, the commandments were said one by one as a prophetic experience, about which we can learn in Yimiyahu 23:29 and discussed here. Since prophecy draws a person in, his or her senses act in unison, hence description they saw the sounds Shemos 20:15, which is discussed in many places. Unfortunately, the souls of the Jewish people departed after each commandment and the people had to be revived. That is why they distanced themselves from the mount Sinai and delegated Moshe rabbeinu to accept all of the Torah for them.
The whole experience is also given in Gemara Shabbos 86a-88b:
With regard to the revelation at Sinai, Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The Lord gives the word; the women that proclaim the tidings are a great host” (Psalms 68:12)? It means that each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Almighty divided into seventy languages, a great host.
And, similarly, the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught with regard to the verse: “Behold, is My word not like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29). Just as this hammer breaks a stone into several fragments, so too, each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, divided into seventy languages.
And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs, his lips are lilies dripping with flowing myrrh” (Song of Songs 5:13)? It is interpreted homiletically: From each and every utterance that emerged from His cheeks, i.e., the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, the entire world was filled with fragrant spices. And since the world was already filled by the first utterance, where was there room for the spices of the second utterance to go? The Holy One, Blessed be He, brought forth wind from His treasuries and made the spices pass one at a time, leaving room for the consequences of the next utterance. As it is stated: “His lips are lilies [shoshanim] dripping with flowing myrrh.” Each and every utterance resulted in flowing myrrh. Do not read the word in the verse as shoshanim; rather, read it as sheshonim, meaning repeat. Each repeat utterance produced its own fragrance.
And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: From each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, the souls of the Jewish people left their bodies, as it is stated: “My soul departed when he spoke” (Song of Songs 5:6). And since their souls left their bodies from the first utterance, how did they receive the second utterance? Rather, God rained the dew upon them that, in the future, will revive the dead, and He revived them, as it is stated: “You, God, poured down a bountiful rain; when Your inheritance was weary You sustained it” (Psalms 68:10).
And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: With each and every utterance that emerged from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He, the Jewish people retreated in fear twelve mil, and the ministering angels walked them back toward the mountain, as it is stated: “The hosts of angels will scatter [yidodun]” (Psalms 68:13). Do not read the word as yidodun, meaning scattered; rather, read it as yedadun, they walked them.
Maimonides states that the Torah “in our hands today is the Torah which was given through Moses and that it is all of divine origin. This means that it all reached him from God in a manner that we metaphorically call ‘speech.’ The exact quality of that communication is only known to Moses”[1]
What did Maimonides mean when he said that we only “metaphorically” call it speech? Could he mean that Moses actually heard nothing, but was “inspired” to write what he wrote? We simply have no idea how "revelation" went down.
[1] (translation by Fred Rosner, Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah, Tractate Sanhedrin, emphasis added).
