Shmoozing with Rabbi Moshe Zeldman

It's Not Just YOUR Torah!! (Shavuot 5786)

• Moshe Zeldman

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0:00 | 4:09
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Shavuot, it's called Zman Matan Torahinu, the time when Jewish people received the Torah. And the rabbis make a big deal out of this idea that we did it in unity. We did it together. Torah says, Vichan Sham Israel Negat Hahar, as if the Jewish people were one. Not we stood at Mount Sinai, ye stood at Mount Sinai. All of us together as one. And Rashi says, Ki ishachad, Belevachad, literally, like one person with one heart. What's interesting is that Rashi earlier in the Torah makes a similar comment. When the Jews flee Egypt, the Egyptians chase after them, the Pasuk similarly says, not the Egyptians chase after the Jews, Egypt chased after the Jews. And Rashi over there says something very similar, Belavekad, Ki ishekad, like one heart of one person. What's the difference between saying one person with one heart or one heart of one person? So when it says the Egyptians together had one heart, what it means is they had one collective mission. They all wanted to chase after the Jews, bring them back. They all wanted their slaves. They all wanted their goal. And they all agreed, let's do it together. Because their strength in numbers, we all have a common goal. But that's not really unity. That's just unity around a common purpose. It's like a basketball team. You know, we want to win the game. So somebody's got to play front guard, somebody's got to play rear guard. I don't know anything about basketball, but whatever. I can't do what you do. You're good at some things, I'm good at other things. Let's work together and win the game. But when the game is over and we all go home, I don't have any intrinsic connection to you. We have completely different lives. I do my thing, you do your thing. We get together and work very well, and we function well in synchronicity if we have a common goal. That's not ultimate unity. The real achdut of Am Israel is the idea of being echad, the idea of being one. The Talmud gives an example. If you're cutting a piece of fruit and by mistake your hand slips and it cuts your left hand, so your left hand doesn't take the knife and cut your right hand. That would be stupid. It's one body. It doesn't matter if it's left hand or right hand. I have one heart, I have one set of lungs, I got two arms, I got two legs. They're all pieces of a greater whole. The Jewish people at Mount Sinai saw themselves as pieces of a greater whole. The rabbis asked the question: why are we obligated in Torah the same way the Jews were thousands of years ago? Three thousand years ago, our ancestors stood at Mount Sinai and said, Na Sivanishma, we accept this covenant. But that was thousands of years ago. I didn't make that decision. And the answer is see yourself as part of a greater whole. You as an individual might not have been there, or maybe in some spiritual way you were, or whatever. But you as an individual didn't have to be there. We as a people experience Mount Sinai. We as a people experience coming out of Egypt. A good analogy would be: imagine if you lent somebody $1,000 and said, pay me back in 10 years. And 10 years you go to collect the money, and the guy says, I don't owe you anything. You say, What do you mean? There were witnesses, we shook hands on it, you owe me the $1,000. He says, You don't understand. My body is made of cells. Every day, 330 billion cells get replaced by new cells. Over the course of seven years, my entire body has been exchanged for a different bunch of cells. So he tries that argument in court. The judge laughs at him and says, I don't care about the cells. You are a person that's greater than the sum of the parts of your cells. The Jewish people are greater than the sum of the parts of the individuals. We stood at Mount Sinai. We came out of Egypt. We went through the sea. We as a people experience that. So unity is a prerequisite for accepting Torah because we as a people have a mission in the world. We're supposed to be a light unto the nations. We're supposed to be an example to the world of what morality and goodness and holiness looks like. If we don't see that we've got to do that together, if we don't see that we all have to be united, not just around that purpose, around that intrinsic oneness, we're all part of a greater whole. Then we're not really accepting Torah. Shavuot is not just Zman Matan Torah T, my Torah, my Ruchnias, my spirituality, my connection to God. It's about who we are as a people, what we stand for, what we do in the world. At Mount Sinai, God gave us our mission to the world. Our job is to understand that mission, see how much we need each other for that mission, and accomplish the job together. Khagzemeh.