Mindful Torah...and more

I just posted an original poem which drew on the traditional rabbinic midrash/commentary that the Israelites accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai sight unseen, at least in part, because God had lifted the mountain over their heads. The people were told that they had the freedom to accept or reject the Torah. However, if they were to reject the Torah then this place would be their grave.  This midrash makes it clear that, in the ancient rabbinic mind, God knew that the people needed some persuasion, perhaps because they were reluctant to give up any of their freedoms after having been slaves for so long. But with liberty comes rules and responsibility. And responsibility for the greater good of the nation and the world often means relinquishing some of your personal freedoms. Or at least our privileges. I wrote about this in last week’s Torah commentary in response to those who were protesting about giving up some of their privileges, such as being able to go wherever they want and not...

The Israelites did not accept the Torah until the Blessed Holy One held the mountain over them like a vessel, as it is said: And they stood beneath the mountain (Exod. 19:17). R.  Dimi the son of Hama stated that the Blessed Holy One told Israel: “If you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, your grave will be there….As soon as God [finally] asked them, “Will you accept the Torah?” they all responded, “We will do and hear,” - Midrash Tanhuma In this midrash the rabbis implied that the people’s response to God “we will do and we will hear” (Exodus 24:7) was not so simple, as the mountain was being held over their head at the time. Still they could have decided that death was better than becoming slaves to a new master, even though this master would be God and not Pharaoh.  This midrash reminds us that, even when the right choice may seem clear, sometimes the situation in which we find ourselves can cloud our ability to see clearly. That is the essence of this midrashic ...

In the Jewish calendar we begin counting 7 weeks from the second day of Passover. After the 7 weeks have ended, on the 50 th day, we celebrate the festival of Shavuot (weeks). In the Torah this festival is simply considered one of the three Pilgrimage Festivals, along with Pesakh /Passover and Sukkot . However, in later Rabbinic times, it became associated with the giving of the Ten Commandments, as this seminal mythic event had no festival of its own. However, it was not just the giving of the Ten Commandments that occurred at Sinai. For according to the rabbis of old, the entire Torah and all of its subsequent interpretations (referred to as the “oral Torah”) were also given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. In other words, all that ever was and ever will be said was given by God at that auspicious moment at Sinai.This year, the festival of Shavuot began at sundown on Saturday and either ended tonight at sundown or will continue through tomorrow at sundown, depending on one's cus...