BS”D
Shira Smiles
Shiur – May 25, 2009/Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5769
Summarized by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Heard in Person by over 300 women and live by another 100 over video feed
Live in person at Ramat Eskol, Katamon and Ramat Beit Shemesh ,
Video feed in the following places -Clanton Park
Synagogue 11 Lowesmoor Avenue Downsview,
Ontario ( Toronto ) 10 am
Yeshiva
Beth Yehuda 15751
W Lincoln rd,
Providence, Rhode Island -
Providence Hebrew Day School 450 Elmgrove Ave ,
Providence, RI 02906
Young
Young
Young
Bnai
Young
Congregation Shaaray
Tefila in
We celebrate Shovuos as zman matan Torahteinu, the
time the Torah was given, on the sixth of Sivan. Yet the Gemorrah states that
the day Moshe actually brought the Torah down to us was not the fiftieth day
after leaving
In order to understand both Moshe’s motivation and our own calendar, we must explore both the significance of the numbers involved and the timeline of that first Shovuos.
The command reads: “You shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat (Yom Tov), from the day when you bring the omer … , seven complete weeks. Until the morrow of the seventh week … fifty days.” The relevant numbers here are seven, the number of days in a week, seven times seven weeks, forty-nine, and eight, seven of each week, plus one, for a total of fifty.
Seven always represents the world as it was created, the physical and mundane. But it also includes the Shabbat, the ability and objective to raise the mundane to the spirituality embodied in Shabbat. We were commanded to count seven full weeks, make them not just whole, but holy. Then add one more day, an eighth, to signify the supranatural, the immanence of God not only in the world but in our very essence. It was with this mindset that we were to accept the Torah, making Torah an integral part of our lives.
We say “Torah” as an all-inclusive term, but Torah has two major components. It naturally includes all the commandments, both the positive and the negative, the details of our lives as Jews. But a Torah life must encompass much more than even strict adherence to all the commandments. A Torah life must be clothed with the spiritual, as clothing that befits the children of Hashem. Torah must transform us so that every one of our actions, every one of our characteristics, is ennobled. We become ba’alei chesed not only in strict obeisance to a command, but in every opportunity presented to us; we study Torah not only to learn the exact and proper way to do a mitzvah, for example the exact measurements required for blessings and such, but also because studying Torah creates a bond between ourselves and Hakodosh boruch Hu. If we have a choice between sleeping in a room with a mezuzah or one without, pick the one with the mezuzah, even if we are not specifically commanded to do so. Keep Hashem’s presence foremost in our lives.
The mitzvoth represent the forty-nine, the details of life on earth. Fifty, on the other hand, represents the spirituality of Torah, bringing the World of Truth, the World of Eternity, into the mundane, physical world. At matan Torah, we got both worlds, the detail oriented world of the mitzvoth and the totally enveloping world of Torah. Moshe brought the Torah from the heavens down to us, but we also raised ourselves up toward heaven to receive it.
Moshe would not simply have added a day if there were not
also some compelling practical argument to do so. Moshe reasoned that Hashem
commanded us to receive the Torah after forty-nine full days, fifty if you
count the first day of Passover as day one (as a bris is performed on the
eighth day, when the baby is one week old). But, Moshe reasoned, we were not
redeemed from
Nevertheless, we still celebrate Shovuos on the sixth of
Sivan. We are not contradicting our history. Matan Torah actually began on the
sixth of Sivan, not just with the articulation of na’aseh v’nishma, we will do
and we will listen, but especially with the internal work required to fully
receive the Torah and incorporate its essence into our lives. While the
generation that came out of
While we may also want the extra time to prepare for the holiness of the day, we have no excuse. We must start preparing ourselves to be vessels of holiness from the beginning of the count. We must each prepare ourselves with our personal na’aseh v’nishma. We must choose to do those things that we know are right even if they make us uncomfortable, like making that overdue apology. And we must listen to our inner voice that often tells us what we need to hear even when we don’t want to hear it. If we are honest with ourselves in our struggle to maintain a spiritual life, Hashem will help us succeed. When we celebrate Shovuos, we must do more than remember and rejoice that Hashem gave us the Torah. We must reenact the preparation process, the struggle to make ourselves worthy of the Torah. Pick one area to work on personally. Then, think and feel like a Jew in addition to acting like one. Know that the struggle is difficult, there will be failure along the way, but if you are sincere and ask Hashem for His help often, He will provide it. Life is a process we must go through to achieve success in our spiritual lives.
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Thank you for reading and be blessed.
Download audio of class at http://download.613.org/smiles/videos/5768-9-36-shavuos-expanding-reality.mp3
Download source sheets at http://www.613.org/smiles/sources/pdf/5768-9-36-shavuos-expanding-reality.pdf
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