RELEVANCE

“In the third month from the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt, on this day, they arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai.” So begins the narrative of ma’amad har Sinai, the assembly at Mt Sinai, the most transformative event in Jewish history. The Israelites arrived at the foot of the mountain on the first day of Sivan and heard the Ten Commandments six days later. Considering that the Torah is describing a once-off historical event, the wording seems incorrect. Scripture should not have stated bayom hazeh, “on this day”, but rather bayom hahu, “on that day.” “This day” seems to refer to today, the day on which the reader of this passage is studying the parsha. Rashi poses this question and offers a most remarkable answer. The Torah does indeed mean today and its intention is that “the words of Torah should be as new and beloved to you as if they were given today.” From this passage, it is clear that a Jew has an obligation to view the Torah as a new, exciting document. Moreover, he or she must discover how the words of the Torah are relevant to the current generation and how they apply in every era. How can we, who live in the 21st century, with all its technological advances, make the Torah relevant to our lives?

The content of the Torah is timeless and immutable, however, the way in which Torah is presented should be, and has been, varied from generation to generation. Consider, for example, the way in which Torah information has been transmitted in the past. Initially, most of Torah was an oral tradition. Later, parts of it were committed to writing. Each volume had to be painstakingly handwritten, making it unaffordable and beyond the reach of the average person. The invention of the printing press revolutionised Jewish learning. With the advent of modern printing methods, books became even cheaper and more freely available. Now, with the help of computers, a budding scholar can have thousands of volumes of Torah literature on a single flash drive. Perhaps the best of these is the Bar Ilan Responsa Project, a massive database of rabbinic literature with a powerful search engine.  The internet, if used properly, is also a wonderful repository of Torah knowledge and contains many wonderful websites catering for children, teenagers, laypeople and serious scholars.

We must seek out the relevance in whatever passage of Torah we are currently studying, even though it does not at first seem apparent. In his famous ethical letter to his son, Ramban writes: “Be very cautious to study Torah constantly so that you will be able to fulfill it and when you arise from the text you are studying, examine it carefully to see whether there is anything that you can put into practice.”  Rabbi Zvi Kushelevsky comments, “The above words… instruct us to search for the practical application of everything we learn in Torah. As lofty and essential as this goal is, however, it is one that often eludes us. We tend to perceive our Torah study as an intellectual pursuit, divorced from the reality of our lives. Even when we do try to relate what we study to everyday living, it is not always easy to do so. The concepts discussed do not seem to pertain to the modern world or be applicable to our daily lives.” The great 19th century German scholar Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch put it best when he wrote: “I intended to show that this full and authentic Judaism – Torat Hashem Temima – does not belong to an antiquated past but to the living, pulsating present; nay, that the whole future, with all its intellectual and social problems whose solution mankind expects of it, belongs to Judaism, the full and unabridged Judaism.”

Sometimes we must simply take the plunge – try a mitzvah and you will inevitably discover its relevance. Admittedly this is not always easy. There are many misconceptions about Torah and mitzvoth. Non-observant Jews may be afraid of the consequences of fulfilling mitzvoth because they do not adequately understand what is involved. They might have also heard inaccuracies or even completely false reports about how a particular mitzvah is observed. But the words of the Torah are indeed timeless. We need only embrace them and study them to discover their incredible relevance to our lives!

Lee, Chani Merryl and Naomi join me in wishing you a Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Rabbi Liebenberg

Shavuot YouTube message: https://youtu.be/Iu7eBy3ub44