Zman Matan Toratenu

The Time of the Giving of Our Torah

The day of a child's birth, when the mother and child both healthy, is a day filled with joy. It seems strange, since it is the onset of the most onerous task and the greatest of all challenges. Yet all of that is of little significance as we celebrate the beginning of a new life, rejoicing in the potential for love, joy and happiness. There is no comparison with the day of birth and the first day of school. Old enough to begin the process of education, the child starts down the road to the future, to adulthood, of self-determination. Certainly a great day, yet how many of us know, let alone celebrate that date?

After the beauty of the first Seder, we count 49 days, then on the 50th day, we celebrate Shavuot, barely remembered or observed by many Jews. Passover is like our birthday, Shavuot is like celebrating our first day of school, few actually do. When Israel left Egypt, we were like a newborn, all potential but no actual content. Like birth itself, the exodus is a powerful story and symbol. Ma-amad Har Sinai, standing at the base of Sinai and accepting the Torah, hardly compares to it.

Yet it is at Sinai that we become a people with a purpose. Had there been no Ma-amad Har Sinai, the freed slaves would have disappeared from the pages of history. They would have become part of the people among who they would have lived, the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who themselves disappeared from history long ago. We are the people chosen to live lives of Torah.

Though we remember and relive the story of the Exodus, we are not simply a people who were former slaves. We are a people who seek to find meaning in life. We are a people who bring sparks of holiness into the world. We are people who have a path of spiritual discipline.