CHAPTER FIVE
THE GIVING OF TORAH AT MT. SINAI.
THE RESULTS OF EVERY HOUR A JEW LEARNS THE
HOLY TORAH, AND FEELINGS OF CLOSENESS TO
HASHEM RESULTING FROM TORAH STUDY
[INCLUDING SOME ASPECTS OF BELIEF IN HASHEM]
- The giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai is described at length in
the Torah in parshat Yitro – see the text inside for full detail. It is
impossible to elaborate here about this; however we will, with
Hashem’s help, explain one point of the Mt. Sinai event focused
upon in many of our holy books. We will also bring what there is
to learn from it regarding the study of Torah, and in general in
the service of Hashem - The purpose of this book is not to bring proofs about belief
in Hashem, rather to explicate ways of coming close to serving
Hashem. Still the topic of this chapter is about the Mt. Sinai
event, so we will elucidate here a little of what there is to say on
this happening, together with some points of belief in Hashem.
There is a fundamental difference between the Jewish religion
and other religions. They are based on revelations experienced
by one man or a group of individuals. This being the case, each
religion is dependant upon the agreement to believe those
people that they are not lying. Whoever is familiar with the
details of the stories of these religions, knows that ordinary
logic cannot accept their report. It is difficult to elaborate here
and bring their mistakes and show the awesome incongruity
within them. We can however bring how the Jewish religion and
the incredible revelation at Sinai are reported clearly in the
Torah. It happened in front of millions of people! It is written
that it was before about six hundred thousand males over the
age of twenty, which together with their wives is approximately
one million two hundred thousand people, and together with
those under the age of twenty this comes to more than two
million, plus the mixed multitude who joined the Jews when
they left Egypt. One simply cannot fabricate such a story. If one
were to come and say that he had witnessed a creature which
has never been seen or heard of before, whoever wants to
believe him can and whoever doesn’t want to believe him
doesn’t. On the other hand was this individual to claim that he
saw this creature together with millions of other people who
also saw it, the listener will then ask where these millions of
people are hiding! If it is true and millions say that they did see
this creature then it proves that they all saw correctly, since why
would millions of people lie? And especially about something as
obligating as the yoke of Torah and mitzvot. - This is the reason why the biggest religions all based
themselves on the Mt. Sinai event and on Judaism. They just
changed later events to produce a new religion, using
intelligence-insulting lies. It is surprising why they chose to use
the Jewish religion to build upon. It is something which creates
the most questions about their religions, since if they agree that
at the beginning Judaism was the true religion, how can a
change be justified with their illogical reasoning? [This also
explains the great hatred that they have for the Jewish nation.
The very existence of a Jewish nation invalidates their religion.
The intellect cannot accept such a huge adjustment.] They built
upon Judaism rationalizing that at least the first stage of their
religion should be based on something that logic obligates one
to accept. The Torah of Israel, where the Sinai revelation was in
front of millions of people, is irrefutable and therefore the only
way to start off with something absolutely true. - One cannot therefore question why there are so many
amongst the scholars of the wisdom of the world who don’t hold
of Torah. It’s not really a problem since we see with our own
eyes that there are learned people who nowadays try to disprove
the holocaust, even though the denials stand against all logic.
Whenever someone has a personal agenda about something he
can speak completely irrational things, all in the name of
science. His agenda causes him to speak differently to what he
really knows to be true. Sometimes his personal desires will
even change the way he thinks. A person can have many
different types of agenda. In our case, it could be that it is hard
for him to change his behavior. There are many other reasons
too; lack of place does not permit elaboration here. We can
however note the verse, “Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and
makes crooked the words of the righteous.” The following
questions are brought in the name of the Goan; 1) What is the
double expression here – ‘it blinds the eyes of the wise’ and
‘makes crooked the words of the righteous’?, 2) How can we
understand the change in expression here? The first speaks
about ‘blinding eyes’ and the second about ‘making words
crooked’ and 3) Why is it that the first time the verse refers to
‘the wise’ and the second to ‘righteous’? He explains that when
there is a judgment, the success of the judges to decide the
matter properly is dependant on two things. The first is to
thoroughly understand the reality of what happened. The
second is to clarify the halachic ruling in such a situation. The
verse says that bribes change both of these things; how one
perceives the entire reality of an occurrence. This explains the
use of the expression, ‘blinding of eyes’, and also the expression
of ‘wise’ since it is not relevant what his level in Torah is. Bribery
also changes one’s understanding of the halachic rulings for the
pertinent situation. This explains the use of the expression,
‘making crooked’; it refers to the words and tongues of
righteous people whose knowledge of Torah is their
righteousness. This is so true in our case. A private agenda can
transform logic, even having actually seen an event. When it
comes to understanding the final outcome one must take from
the strength of the reality. - In general, it is worthwhile to know that in every field of
worldly wisdom there are two types of wisdom; theoretic
science, which includes all the philosophical topics, etc., and
practical science which includes physical topics e.g. physics, etc.
In one university it is possible to find many different professors
teaching practical sciences. One professor teaches according to
one belief, and one professor teaches according to another. One
teaches atheism in one way and another teaches it in another
way. When one thinks carefully about this, it turns out that even
without knowing as we do that only Judaism is true, that all
their words are meaningless. We see it from their very own
words! It must be that no more than one of them can be correct
and all the others are completely mistaken. If so how can it be
that all of them are professors? It must be that a high position in
theoretical sciences is not dependant on the degree of
correctness of a person’s words, rather on the way that he can
present his opinion. Rather he is judged whether he gives over
the subject in an interesting way and in a way that the students
will be able to repeat over his words. [There are topics in science
that are compiled partly of theoretical science and partly of
practical science, meaning that the first part of the proof to
their opinion is based on experiments and part is based on their
own reasoning. Much of what they say about nature is of this
type. Therefore regarding faith, their words have no more
strength than theoretical science. No factory owner will agree to
invest money in an expensive but risky production since it is not
normal to invest in something that is doubtful, only something
certain. A person would only agree to invest if he was presented
with proofs that are from start to finish based on experiments. - There is much more to prove and clarify in various aspects of
belief, for which there is no place here to elaborate. Perhaps
with the help of Hashem, I will be able to write about this in
greater length in another place. Here we have deviated to this
only in order to illustrate some of what there is to learn from
the Mt. Sinai event to help in the service of Hashem.
For the Service of Hashem
Part two - Let us return to our topic, what there is to take from
knowing of the details of the occurrences at Mt. Sinai (apart
from all the revelations enumerated in the verses in Parshat
Yitro) to aid one’s service of Hashem and learning Torah. The
Holy One Blessed Be He showed the Jews something amazing.
They actually felt how everything that in the world is all rooted
in Hashem and a continuation of Him. There is nothing apart
from Hashem that has its own existence. In fact, at every
moment everything in the world is maintained by the Creator
and nourished from Him. This point is brought also in the
Nefesh Hachaim in shaar 3: chapter 11. [Some of which is
brought here in chapter 3.] See what is written there in the
Nefesh Hachaim, hinting to this from the words of the verse –
this is not the place to elaborate on it. - We can explain with a parable. Reuven came and claimed to
Shimon that their friend Levi is not a person at all, rather he is a
robot activated by spies from another country. Shimon will
bring hundreds of proofs why this just doesn’t make sense etc.
etc. However were Reuven to come and speak to Shimon himself
about Shimon, that Reuven has found out about him that he is
not a person, rather a robot, Shimon needs not to bring any proof
that this is not true, since Shimon knows who and what he is. He
knows that he is a person with a soul etc. etc. So too with the
Mt. Sinai event. Every person felt complete, with his own
feelings, knowledge, and perception, how his entire existence
and being is something coming from Hashem, in a most
undeniable way. - In truth even without being at Mt. Sinai, if a person were to
merit really knowing his own soul, he would automatically know
with an absolute knowledge that he is created by the Creator of
the world, and drawn entirely from Him. He would see clearly
that the whole entity of his soul is something nurtured from the
Creator Himself and is a continuation from Him. [This refers to
everything, not just the soul, but with the soul, it is more direct.] - There are many people who have this feeling or at any rate
something of it in a small measure. Fortunate is the one who
merits to this. This feeling can bring a person to have a great
attachment to Hashem. It is still true that someone who does
not merit this feeling can still attain incredible levels of being
attached to Hashem. [In truth, even those who claim to have not
experienced this feeling, most of them have in some measure
had it. It just was not the strength that they wanted, so they
missed out on the feeling.] In short, not everyone feels this
reality in a strong and definite way, and this is part of the
concealment of the soul by the body in this world. - One who has not previously merited to this feeling can merit
it via various methods. One of these ways is through the study
of the holy Torah. There are many reasons why studying Torah
brings this. One is [the following is partly based on the book of
R’ Shmuel Rossovsky Zatzal, on massechet Makot at the end of
the new edition] that the intensity of this feeling in its fullness
was experienced by the whole Jewish nation at Mt. Sinai. The
Nefesh Hachaim writes in shaar 4: chapter 14 on the topic of
learning Torah (slightly adapted) that every moment one is busy
with and bonded to Torah as he should, the words rejoice as
they did when they were given at Sinai. It says in the Zohar at
the beginning of parshat Chukat [in the Targum] that whoever
puts effort into Torah it is as if he stands every day at Mt. Sinai,
ready to accept the Torah. [Note that the expression is ‘whoever
puts effort into Torah’ – perhaps it is hinting that even if the
learning was not as successful as he wanted, he still was busy
with Torah and tried to study it]. Just as at the time of that holy
event they were joined, to the word of Hashem, so to speak, so
too at this moment. Every single time a person is busy with
Torah and toils over it; he connects to the word of Hashem. It is
all from the mouth of Hashem. The entirety of what he told
Moshe at Sinai came out of His mouth. Even what a small pupil
would in the future ask his teacher was said at Sinai. Now when
a person is busy with the words of Torah, each word leaps from
the mouth of Hashem becoming a flame of fire, so to speak.
[This does not mean physical fire, rather a holy spiritual reality.
So when it writes ‘the mouth of Hashem’ it is obviously an
illustrative expression]. It is considered as though these words
are received at this very moment from Sinai, from Hashem
Himself. Therefore Chazal say many times, “And the words will
bring joy like when they were given at Mt. Sinai and then the
rays of blessing will spread over all the worlds from their lofty
source. The earth will also be illuminated with its light and will
be blessed with its glory. It will bring many good things and
outpourings of bounty to the world.” The essence of the words
of the Nefesh Hachaim is that the inspiration that there was at
the time of the giving of the Torah is repeated every time that a
Jew busies himself with the study of Torah. As is understood,
this is to a much lesser degree than at the time of the giving of
the Torah, but it is of the same type. Therefore, through
studying Torah, a person can merit in some way to the
aforementioned inner feeling, where the soul feels its absolute
connection to the Creator of the universe. - Here are some points of what has been discussed so far:
I) There is a level of closeness to Hashem that the soul can
feel with an inner intuition. It can feel its true existence; how
it is a spiritual offshoot from Hashem, a spark of Hashem
Himself. This is the way the soul feels a real connection with
the Creator of the world.*
II) At the time of the giving of the Torah, the entire Jewish
nation merited this level in its totality.
III) Even after the giving of the Torah, many merit to this.
The intensity and duration of the feeling depends on each
individual’s abilities.
IV) Even someone who has never experienced this feeling [it
is possible that he in actual fact has done, but in such a
smaller measure than he would like] there are ways to merit
it. The first way is to invest maximum efforts to be involved
with Torah.
V) Even without this inner feeling it is possible to believe in
Hashem with complete faith and to serve Him fervently and
faithfully. The way each person serves Hashem must be
according to his individual task in life, assigned to him by the
Creator of the world.
VI) Know that when many holy writings speak about the
topic of ‘simple faith’, they are referring to this very feeling.
One cannot ask if it is possible that the soul feel its existence,
that it is actually drawn from Hashem. Rather one should ask
how the soul can feel the verity of the Torah of Israel from its
very existence, and how the Torah is linked with one’s
identity. This is not a problem, as explained in chapter 2,
since the soul of every Jew is drawn from the Creator Himself
via the lights of the Torah. The soul will therefore have the
strength this.
CLOSENESS TO HASH
Yeshua Centered Judaism 