Shavuot-Naso: Why TALK to G-d? Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel
Moment of Wisdom: "Free will from Sinai" https://youtu.be/VLnvFuSQYRg
Naso and Shavuot ?Download as PDF
?This coming Friday will be the holiday of Shavuot and the day after, on Shabbat (In Israel), we read the second Torah portion of the book of Numbers, Naso. (Outside of Israel, where there are two days of Shavuot, Naso is read the Shabbat after.)?
?One of the Eighteen commandments found in this week's reading "Naso" is to repent for sins. (Or in Jewish terms, to do t'shuva-- return).?
?According to Judaism, G-d forgives anyone who genuinely regrets past mistakes and resolves to improve the future. But strangely the Torah also requires there must be a VERBAL declaration to G-d of both.
?We find something similar regarding the holiday of Shavuot: ?before G-d gave the Torah to the Jews on Sinai they first had to verbally declare "Na'aseh V'nishma" that they would do what G-d wants."?
?Why is a verbal declaration necessary for repentance and to receive the Torah??Surely G-d knows if our hearts are genuine. What could saying it out loud add!?
?To understand this, here is a story:?
?Some one hundred and fifty years ago in Russia, in one of the forests near the town of Polotzk, worked a Chabad Chassid whom we will call Reb Shlomo.?
?Reb Shlomo was an accomplished Talmudic scholar but he was also a businessman. He bought sections of forests, brought workers to chop them down, and then sold the logs to lumberyards for a large profit. It was hard work being an overseer. The trees had to be felled properly, taken to the nearby river, and tied and readied for the coming thaw when they would be directed to the lumberyards far away.?
?It meant being away from home for a few months till the work was done.?
?His custom was to oversee the work while it was day, but return every evening to the nearby city or town where he rented lodgings and spend most of every evening learning Talmud into the night in one of the local synagogues usually with a learning partner?if he could find one.
?One year the forest he was working at was near the city of Polotzk Reb Shlomo, rented a room there and went to the synagogue each evening. Being a newcomer, he didn't yet have a learning partner (Torah is usually learned in groups) but it didn't bother him. He was an accomplished scholar and was well able to learn alone.?
?But there was also another scholar in the synagogue who also learned alone.?
?We will call him Reb Zundel. He was an impressive-looking Jew--tall and stately with a long white beard and was known as the town genius. He must have been in his sixties and was so thoroughly familiar with all the texts and on a different level from the others that he learned alone.?
?But as serious as he was, he was a good-hearted man and was always available to help others in their learning if they had questions.?
?So, it was inevitable that when he saw Shomo sitting alone he concluded that possibly he needed help and he approached him.?
?But when he discovered, to his pleasant surprise, that Shlomo was in fact very familiar with the complicated details of the Talmud, he suggested that they learn together.?
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The partnership worked well. Shlomo added a new life and enjoyment to the learning while Reb Zundel contributed deep scholarly insights.?
?But when the subject they were learning got around to anything dealing with G-d, as it occasionally did, Reb Zundel would always fall strangely silent while Reb Shlomo would do all the talking.?
?At first Reb Shlomo didn't think much of it but in the course of time as it continued, it became hard to ignore.?
?Then, late one night when the topic again came up, Reb Zundel really began to act strangely. He started mumbling and moaning and moving his head as though he wanted to say something but couldn't.?
?"What is it?" Shlomo asked. "Is everything okay? Are you feeling all right?"?
?Reb Zundel was strangely pale and sad and was looking silently at the floor.?
?Suddenly, he looked up and said, "I have doubts about G-d." His eyes filled with tears and he continued in an almost pleading tone.?
?"I have questions that I can't answer.... Many terrible questions about G-d - I mean, how can we really be sure that He exists? Maybe, it's our imagination. Or maybe He isn't infinite? I mean.... even if He exists and is infinite …. what does He care what we do? How can it be that He was before the world? What did he make the world from? And more, many more. Sometimes I feel I'm going crazy from these doubts! Can you help?"?
?Reb Shlomo told him that the teachings of Chassidut deal with these things and said he would do his best.?
?From that evening on, after everyone else was gone, Reb Zundel would ask one of his questions and they would discuss it.?
?Reb Zundel had found some solace from his confusion, he finally had someone that he felt understood him and he could open up to.?Although each answer brought more questions.
?Finally the spring approached, the river thawed, the logs were floated to their destination and Shlomo had finished overseeing his investment. He bade farewell to his learning partner and announced that he was returning home for Passover.?
?"But what will I do now?!" Reb Zundel asked. "Since you came, I feel I finally have someone to confide in. What will I do when you are gone? I'm already an old man. I can't leave here and follow you." And he wept.?
?"My suggestion to you," replied Shlomo, "is that you travel to the city of Lubavitch to speak to my Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad. He will answer all your questions."?
?Reb Zundel had heard of this Rebbe and his Chassidim but he had never been even the least interested. Although he definitely wasn't one of those who opposed the Chassidim, he simply had been so totally devoted to the Talmud that it didn't arouse his interest even now.
?They shook hands and parted. Shlomo said he would try to write and Rab Zundel was grateful that at least he had experienced a brief respite from his doubts.?
?That should have been the end of it but it wasn't.?
?A few months after Passover, Reb Shlomo got permission from his wife to visit the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, in Lubavitch for the holiday of Shavuot.?
?It was a journey of several days but it passed like moments and in no time ?he was walking the streets of Lubavitch again, saying hello to and embracing other Chassidim he hadn't seen for years.?
?Suddenly someone came from behind him, put his hands over his eyes, and said, "Guess who?"?
?Shlomo turned around to see none other than the serious, stately Reb Zundel with open arms and a genuine smile on his face.?
?They embraced and Reb Zundel told his story.?
?"Well, after you left, I thought about it and decided to take your advice about visiting your Rebbe.?
?After Pesach I left Polotzk and arrived here in Lubavitch. It took a few days of waiting but I was given an appointment to be alone with the Rebbe . . . you, that is . . . we . . . call it yechidut, right??
?"So I went into his office and told him that I have a lot of questions about G-d that make me confused and sad. I told him about our conversations but I admitted that I still had a lot of doubts.
?"The Rebbe looked at me and asked if I knew who Abaye and Rava were. What a question! If anyone else asked me I would have considered it to be an insult. Why, anyone who ever opened a Talmud knows the names Abaye and Rava. But something about the Rebbe overwhelmed me.?
?"I told him that Abaye and Rava were two of the greatest, wisest, and holiest Jews in history and their names are mentioned hundreds of times in the Talmud.?
"The Rebbe looked deep into my eyes and said,
?'So if they, in all their wisdom and holiness, didn't have any doubts, then why do you?'"?
?"Suddenly all my questions fell away as though a big veil had been lifted from my heart and . . . well . . . I feel like a totally new man!
?"The Rebbe answered all my questions. For the first time in years, I have no doubts or confusion. And he did it in just seconds!"?
?Since then, I have been learning the Chassidut of Chabad Rebbes day and night!"?
?This answers our questions why did receiving the Torah and repentance depend on VERBAL declaration.?
?The main message of Shavuot is "return" and "renewal."?
?When G-d gave the Torah He gave Himself as well. He, so to speak, changed His nature and 'returned' to the world as He was in the beginning of creation.
?But we must also change our natures, and return to G-d.?
?This is called teshuva returning to our origin and 'renewing' our connection to the Creator.?
?Like Reb Zundel in our story. He learned the Torah but he was far from the truth. His egotism covered the Holiness of the Torah and he was far from certainty.
?But The Rebbe dissolved all his doubts by simply returning him to the source of the Torah. Suddenly he was renewed and alive again.?
?But the power to do this--to be totally renewed and to return — is because G-d came 'down' on Sinai; G-d favors this PHYSICAL world over the spiritual.?
?That's why G-d gave the Torah and its commandments here in this world because only the physical, if used properly, has the power to evoke the highest levels of G-dliness.?
?And that is why accepting the Torah had to be verbally expressed and so to with repentance. Because speech, brings OUT (much more than thought) and reveals IN THE WORLD what is hidden. So to it evokes G-dly blessings, renewal in THIS world!?
?The ultimate revelation of this: revealing ALL that is hidden in the Torah, in our souls and in the world….. ?will be through Moshiach.?
?As the Zohar explains that the Moshiach, by revealing new meaning and blessing in the Torah, will reveal new meaning and blessing in every aspect of Creation. Moshiach will "return"?even the Tzadikim (the most holy and spiritual Jews) to a higher level (something like the Rebbe did to Reb Zundel). To the degree that it will be called a NEW Torah…i.e. filled with the constantly renewed revelation of Gd.
?But bringing Moshiach also depends on our verbal declarations.?As the Lubavitcher Rebbe said that we must declare "Y'Chi Melech HaMoshiach "Long Live the King Moshiach' Just as was done to kings David and Solomon.
?And not much is lacking to make it happen. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish suffering and unquestioning service of Gd. Now just one more good deed, word or even thought can make the change. ?
?May we receive the Torah this Shavuot with Joy and meaning and may G-d give us new blessings of renewal and return and …… the biggest blessing of all……
?Moshiach NOW!!
?Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
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