June 2000 - אִיָּר .. סִיוָן תש״ס Iyyar..Sivan 5760

Shavuot is the annual commemoration of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. There is a wonderful midrash about the giving of the Torah. According to rabbinic tradition all Jews, the generation of the Exodus, the generations that had already passed away, and the generations yet unborn were present when God gave us the Torah. But if God revealed the Torah directly to the Israelites, how much of God's direct Presence could anyone of us bear?

After all, the Torah says that no one can see God and live which means no one can stand in God's direct Presence and live. Four rabbis debated this question.

One rabbi declared that we stood in God's Presence long enough to hear the Ten Commandments read. (It takes about a minute and a half or two minutes to recite the Ten Commandments slowly.) If we heard the Ten Commandments we would know that we are obligated to all 613 commandments of the Torah and do them.

A second rabbi corrected the first. Two minutes of God's direct Presence would surely overwhelm all of the Israelites and kill us all. All that we heard at Mount Sinai was the first commandment: “I am the Eternal, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage.” (In Hebrew it takes about five seconds to recite the first commandment.) If we heard the first commandment, we would know that God acts in history, and cares enough about us as the Jewish people to save us from Egyptian slavery. If we knew that God acts in history, then we would understand that we are obligated to all 613 commandments of the Torah and do them.

The third rabbi objected and declared that even five seconds of God's direct Presence would overwhelm us and kill us. All that we heard at Mount Sinai was the first word of the first commandment: I. (It takes less than a second to say the Hebrew word Anokhi which means I.) If we heard God say “I”, we would know that God exists. If we knew that God exists, we would understand that God acts in history, and cares enough about us as the Jewish people to save us from Egyptian slavery. If we understand that God acts in history, then we would sense that we are obligated to all 613 commandments of the Torah and do them.

Finally the fourth rabbi spoke up. In modern parlance we would say a single second of God's direct Presence is like a single second in the presence of a nuclear explosion. Surely a second of God's Presence would overwhelm us and kill us. All that we heard at Mount Sinai was the first letter of the first word of the first commandment. The first letter of the first word is aleph, a silent letter. (Only God can utter an aleph.) If we perceived God utter an aleph, we would sense that God exists. If we sensed that God exists, we would believe that God acts in history, and cares enough about us as the Jewish people to save us from Egyptian slavery. If we believe that God acts in history, then we would feel obligated to all 613 commandments of the Torah and do them.

I believe that God is uttering these alephs all of the time. We have to listen with more than our ears. We have to open our hearts and souls to God's on-going revelation. This year on Shavuot, the thirty-second hundredth anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, let us commit to listening a little more carefully for God's messages. Let us open up our hearts and souls so when we stand before God's Presence again we will be ready to receive the Torah again, and then let us commit to doing God's mitzvot (commandments), on Shavuot and always.

—Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff, Ph.D.

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