SINAI REVISITED

   As we are about to celebrate the Yom Tov of Shavout, the time of the giving of our Torah on Mt. Sinai, it is well to realize, that even greater then receiving the Torah we, the Jewish People, were privileged to experience the Revelation of G-D. What an awesome experience in Jewish History, emblazoned in our hearts and minds for everlasting time. 

   A story so apropos to this ideal comes to mind.  It is about a child who prayed at bedtime,"G-D bless Daddy and Mommy and my friends," and then he paused. After a moment of quiet he added,  "And please, G-D, take care of yourself, for if something happens to you then we are all sunk!"

    This child, in his naive but cogent fashion, clearly expressed our universal reliance upon Hashem as the mainspring of life.

     Shavout reminds us of the creative way that Hashem continues to navigate our world and imbues in every one of us His spirit to help make our universe a better one in which to live.

    Too often we are so busy in all our undertakings and in our egocentric feelings, we need to refocus ourselves in Hashem's direction and realize that we are truly created in the image of G-D and to project that image in the way we live. 

   How meaningful is it that we read on Shavout that magnificent and beautiful poem, entitled Akdamot, written in the eleventh century by Meir Ben Issac Nehorsai:  

   "Could we with ink the ocean fill,

    Were every blade of grass a quill, 

    We're the world of parchment made,

    And every man a scribe by trade,

    To write the love of G-d above, 

    Would drain the ocean dry;

    Nor would the scroll contain the whole

    Though stretched from sky to sky."

   Our message of Shavout is that the center and soul of all religion is the belief in a personal G-D which is the pillar of our Jewish religion. 

  This leads us to an everlasting lesson; the authentic  progress of man does not consist of only moving forward, but equally consist of moving inward. The crucial message that accompanies the Revelation at Sinai was that the goal of man is self transcendence rather than transcending to the mountain peak. Progress is determined by what  occurs to our personal selves.

   Sinai placed man as one who was created in the image of G-D with a capacity of self authentication and self realization. Hashem asks man to engender a transcendental occurrence to his personality, to the "I" of man rather than a mere physical progress. 

    As we celebrate this awesome Yom Tov, let us ponder the thought that Judaism, with the Torah, and only with our Torah, places us on a higher level; on a plateau which we can ascend by lifting our personality and our world to a higher spiritual plateau, bringing about our true Geulah and the redemption of mankind.

     שבת שלום וחג שמח