Shavuot-The Giving of the Torah and Eretz Yisraelby Rav Moshe Lichtman
Insights For the Festival of Shavuot (Pentecost)by Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen
Thoughts To Ponder: Shavouth and Combustibility by Rabbi Dr. Natan T. Lopes Cardozo

Shavuot-The Giving of the Torah and Eretz Yisrael

By Rav Moshe Lichtman

We have elaborated many times upon the strong relationship that exists between Torah and the Land of Israel. There are numerous statements of Chazal (not to mention explicit verses in the Torah) to the effect that all of our mitzvot are more complete and meaningful when performed in G-d's Chosen Land. Chazal also underscore the primacy of Torah-study in Eretz Yisrael over that of Chutz LaAretz.

Based on this premise, we can ask a formidable question: If Torah and Eretz Yisrael are so closely related and interdependent, why wasn't the Torah given in the Holy Land? Wouldn't it have made more sense for HaShem to give it in the place where He intended it to be kept? Allow me to present two answers to this question, one proposed by a great Torah authority and one, my own idea (truthfully, I probably saw it somewhere else, but I can't remember where).

The Mabit (R. Moshe Tirani, a colleague of R. Yosef Cairo) addresses this issue in his work Beit Elokim (Sha'ar HaYisodot, chap. 32): Chazal already commented on this, that had the Torah been given in Eretz Yisrael [the Jews] would have said to the nations of the world, "You have no portion in it." Therefore, it was given in the desert, an ownerless place, [to indicate] that whoever wants to receive it may come and receive it. However, based on what we said, that the main perfection and fulfillment of the Torah is in Eretz Yisrael, this is insufficient. It should have been given in the most fitting place, and then, if the nations come [to join us], we should accept them. Moreover, G-d already revealed Himself to all the nations, [asking them] if they wanted to accept the Torah, and they refused. Thus, it certainly should have been given in Eretz Yisrael, after which the Jews could say to them, "You have no portion in it, because you refused to accept it."

At this point the Mabit explains the famous Midrash which states that HaShem offered the Torah to all the nations of the world. What would have happened - he asks - had they accepted it? Would we, the Children of Israel, have lost out? How can that be? The Torah was created specifically for us. G-d even gave certain aspects of the Torah to our Patriarchs. Furthermore, the language of the Torah proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was meant for the Jewish people. For example: I am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt; The L-rd spoke to Moshe saying, speak to the Children of Israel... etc.

The Mabit explains that the nations were not offered to accept the Torah in place of the Jewish people. Rather, they were given the opportunity to elevate themselves to a level close to that of the Jews by embracing all 613 mitzvot (not just the seven). Nonetheless, they would have remained subordinate to us, for the Torah was really created for G-d's chosen people, the Children of Israel. After clarifying this Midrash the Mabit returns to our question:

Had G-d (may He be blessed) given Israel the Torah in Eretz Yisrael, two factors would have come together enabling the Jews to say to the nations of the world, "You have no part in it." [These two factors are]: the fact that the entire Torah speaks exclusively to the Jewish people and the fact that it was given in Eretz Yisrael, which was designated for them. [The Jews could have excluded the Gentiles] not only at the time of the giving of the Torah, but also after it was given. When descendants of the gentile nations who did not want to accept the Torah would have come to find shelter under the wings of the Shechinah and convert, the Jews would have been able to say to them, "You have no part in the Torah, since it refers to us and was given to us in Eretz Yisrael." However, now that it was given in the desert - an ownerless place, indicating that whoever wants to come and accept it may do so - even though the entire Torah refers to Israel and speaks to them, they cannot say to the original or subsequent generations of Gentiles, "You have no part in it." For even though it refers specifically to them, and even though Eretz Yisrael is designated for the Jewish people and not for the other nations, nonetheless, they too can take upon themselves the fulfillment of all the mitzvot, in a secondary capacity to the Jews. This is why we accept converts throughout the generations... They fulfill the mitzvot just as we do, but they are not like us in terms of leadership roles and in terms of receiving a portion in the Land...

In short, the Torah really should have been given in Eretz Yisrael, its natural habitat, if not for the fact that G-d wanted to make it accessible to the entire world.

However, I believe that there is a much simpler answer to the question, one that sheds much light on the true purpose of living in Eretz Yisrael. Simply put: Torah is a prerequisite for entering the Land. We cannot exist here for even a moment without the Torah. Furthermore, our entire claim to the Land is based on the Torah and dependent on our fulfilling its commandments. Thus, we could not have approached our territorial inheritance before receiving our spiritual inheritance. Therefore, G-d gave us the Torah in the desert, in order to provide us with the necessary "tools" with which to survive in His Land. Put differently: before entering the Palace of the King we had to be told how we were expected to act there.

Every year on the holiday of Shavuot, we have an opportunity to reaffirm and strengthen our commitment to Torah and mitzvot. Thank G-d, our generation is privileged to be able to do so in the place where the Torah really belongs. For some of us, it may be a little too late for this year, but let us hope that next year we will all re-receive the Torah together in the rebuilt Jerusalem. Amen.

Chag Samei'ach from the Torah's natural home

INSIGHTS FOR THE FESTIVAL OF SHAVUOT (PENTECOST)

Introductory Note:

The Festival of Shavuos commemorates the giving of the Torah -- the Divine Teaching of the Unifying One. The Festival begins this year on Tuesday evening, May 25th. (In the Land of Israel, Shavuos is celebrated for one day, and in the Diaspora, it is celebrated for two days). On the night of Shavuos, we increase our Torah study, and for those who have the strength, there is a custom to study Torah until dawn. The following teachings and insights can give us a deeper appreciation of the approaching Festival:

1. When we were still enslaved in Egypt, the Shechinah -- Divine Presence -- appeared to Moshe at the Burning Bush on Mount Sinai, when he was tending Jethro's flocks. As the Midrash teaches: "The Shechinah came down and spoke to him from the bush" [Exodus Rabbah 2:5]. The Shechinah proclaimed to him, "When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve the Just One on this mountain" [Shemot/Exodus 3:12]. The people therefore became aware that a spiritual vision was awaiting them at the Mountain.

2. The People of Israel were willing to enter the wilderness in order to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. Their faith and courage is remembered in the following Divine proclamation to Israel during the days of Jeremiah: "Thus said the Compassionate One: I recall for you the loving kindness of your youth, the love of your bridal state, when you followed Me into the wilderness, into a unsown land" [Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 2:2].

3. In the era of Maimonides, there was tremendous pressure on the Jews of Yemen to convert to Islam. In a letter to the Jews of Yemen, Maimonides encouraged them to maintain their loyalty to the Covenant of Torah, and he reminded them that our entire nation stood at Mount Sinai when the Torah was given: He wrote: "The greatness of this thing, actually seen and attested to by the choicest of witnesses, the like of which never was nor shall be seen, is that a whole nation heard the words of the Holy One and beheld His glory with its own eyes".

4. According to Jewish tradition, the souls of all the members of our people throughout the generations were present at Mount Sinai. The source for this tradition is found in the following message which Moshe proclaimed to our people: "Not with you alone do I seal this covenant and this oath, but with whoever is here standing with us today before the Compassionate One, our God, and with whoever is not here with us today" [Devarim/Deuteronomy 29:13]. The Midrash Tanchuma, in its explanation of the words, "with whoever is not here with us today", states that when the Torah was given, "all the future generations were there at that hour". The Midrash then adds, "Their souls were there, although their bodies were not yet created". According to the Talmud, the words, "with whoever is not here with us today", also includes the souls of all the sincere converts in future generations. The Talmud states, "Their mazel -- the highest level of their soul -- was present" [Babylonian Talmud/Tractate Shabbos 146a].

5. "When the People of Israel sit and occupy themselves with the joy of the Torah, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, stands and says to His inner chamber: 'See! See, my beloved children, who forget about their sorrows and who occupy themselves with My delight!'" (A Teaching from the Holy Zohar which is sung on the Festival).

6. According to tradition, King David, the ancestor of the Messiah, was born on the Festival of Shavuos, and his soul left this world on the Festival of Shavuos. King David's great-grandmother was the convert, Ruth, and we read the Book of Ruth on this Festival.

7. There is a universal moral code -- the Noahide Covenant and Seven Noahide Laws -- within the Torah for all humankind. The Talmud teaches that a non-Jew who studies the Torah in order to understand and fulfill the universal code is like a Kohen Gadol -- a High Priest [Babylonian Talmud/Tractate Sanhedrin 59a]. At the dawn of the messianic age, the peoples of the earth will make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to study the universal code of the Torah, as it is written, "Many peoples will go and say, 'Come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Compassionate One, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths'. For From Zion will come forth Torah, and the Word of the Compassionate One from Jerusalem" [Yeshayahu/Isaiah 2:3].

8. A major theme of Shavuos is that all law needs to be anchored in a higher truth -- the Divine Teaching of the Unifying One. In this way, humankind will be able to establish a united society based on sacred and eternal values.

Shavua Tov (Have a Good Week) and Chag Sameach (Happy Festival of Shavuot/Pentecost) from Liberated Yerushaliyim,

Mr. Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen

Thoughts To Ponder: Shavouth and Combustibility

by Rabbi Dr. Natan T. Lopes Cardozo

One of the most challenging aspects of religious life is how to relate to the concept of revelation. The uncompromising claim by Judaism that the Torah is not a book which was written by man but the result of a revelation of God's will to man requires a formidable amount of faith in the face of so much skepticism and secularity.

Over the last few hundred years, a major argument has erupted concerning the divinity of the text of the Torah. Since the days of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico Politicus (17th century) we have witnessed a great number of Bible scholars who have dissected the Torah in every way possible, concluding that the Jewish claim of its divinity is unfounded and farfetched.

Religious scholars over the many years have, of course, responded with heavy artillery. Profound papers have been written in which it has been shown that Spinoza's and others' arguments were mistaken and often lacked intellectual objectivity (1). In our days, a sincere but problematic attempt has been made by some mathematicians and Jewish outreach programs to prove the Torah's divinity with the introduction of the "Torah codes" which presumably are found within the biblical text.

Still, the question needs to be raised if this is the right approach. If, as Judaism maintains, the Torah is indeed the ultimate divine word, is it at all possible or even advisable to take a somehow "academic" approach to verify its divinity? Would not the fact that it is divine make it totally unreceptive to academic scrutiny and proof? Is this not similar to trying to study organic matter with the accepted criteria used by scientists when studying inorganic phenomena? On top of this, scholars and outreach programs should ask themselves if they are not violating the prohibition not to "try the Lord" when they look for definite proofs (please see Shemoth/Exodus 17:7).

So how, we should ask, should we deal with the claim that this text is indeed of divine origin? If, indeed, it is beyond the capacity of proof, what then are the ways to grasp its divinity? Why are we not as convinced as our forefathers were? Is this due to the fact that we are more intellectually sophisticated than they were? Many of us may have opted for this opinion, but we should ask ourselves if we are not guilty of self-deception.

Rabbi Yacov Zvi of Mecklenburg (1785-1865), in his monumental work "Ha-Ketav ve-Ha-Kabbalah", seems to touch on this problem. Commenting on the quality of the revelation at Sinai and quoting the verse: "And the appearance of the glory of God was like a consuming fire (Aish Ocheleth) on the summit of the mountain before the eyes of the Children of Israel" [Shemoth/Exodus 24:17], the venerable rabbi asks what is meant by the expression "a consuming fire?" Does this not indicate a destructive force? Why not just say that God is like fire?

Reminding us of the fact that at Sinai, the whole of Israel had risen to the level of prophecy just after they had lived in misery and spiritual slavery, he continues: "The truth is that the people of Israel were not all equal in their spiritual level. And they did not see or perceive the same kind of revelation at Sinai. Rather, each one was only able to receive this revelational experience in accordance with the spiritual condition of his soul. Every Jew saw something, but what he experienced was directly proportional to the preparation he had put into it. When a person was less prepared he only experienced a minimal level of revelation at Sinai. And the one who prepared more received more". This is the meaning of a "consuming fire".

He goes on, "The perception of God's greatness is exactly the same as the way fire takes holds of various objects. There are items which are by nature combustible. And when you touch them with a flame they produce an enormous fire. But, there are other items which when you put a flame to them nothing will happen, they remain immune. Just like nature has made certain materials receptive to fire, so it is with the Sinai revelation".

A flame grows higher or lower depending on the combustibility of the fuel. So it is with the Jew and with all people. The receptivity of the Jew towards the divinity of Torah is proportional to the preparation he put into it. We would suggest that the reason why we are confronted with so much skepticism concerning the Torah's divinity in our days is not at all dependent on intellectual sophistication but on the lack of the receptivity, acquired through spiritual labor, to see it as such.

This may seem like a comfortable escape when dealing with the issue at hand, but, in truth, it touches on the very essence of man's spiritual condition. Like music and art, the Torah cannot be approached from the perspective of academic learning. It is the soul's language which is at stake. Fire is not able to penetrate where no potential fire burns. Or as the English expression goes: "Like only finds like".

"The slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of the highest things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge of lesser things", said Aristotle (2). It would be wise for all parties concerned to stop trying to disprove or affirm the Torah's divinity and, first of all, ask ourselves: Are we or are we not made of material which is combustible to the inner world of the divinity of Torah? Once we have transformed ourselves and our souls into spiritual fire, all questions concerning the Torah's divinity will be settled (3).

Shavua Tov (Have a Good Week) and Chag Sameach (Happy Festival of Shavuot/Pentecost) from Yerushaliyim,

Rabbi Dr. Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo

NOTES:

1. For a comprehensive treatment of the academic approach towards the Torah, please see my books: "Between Silence and Speech", Chapter 10 and "The Written and Oral Torah", pages 201-233. Both books were published by Jason Aronson.

2. Quoted by Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologica" (1:1:5 ad 1)

3. For another approach see "Revelation and Learning." (Holidays/Shavuoth)