Selected and Adapted by Rabbi Dov Karoll Quote from the Rosh Yeshiva The well-known Gemara (Shabbat 88a) tells us that God coerced the Jewish people into accepting the Torah by suspending Mt. Sinai over them "like a cask." Why was this necessary? After all, they themselves declared, "We shall do and we shall obey"! The Maharal explains that God forced them to accept the Torah because it is the foundation of the world; there is no world without Torah . For this reason, the Torah is a necessity and has to be imposed; without it, the world would revert to chaos ... People today do not sufficiently emphasize the element of obligation in relation to mitzvot. Instead, they prefer to fulfill the Torah's requirements out of a sense of "connection," rather than as an "obligation." The Maharal teaches us that there is no world without Torah, and therefore we observe the Torah because we must. We must not lose sight of the element of obligation and develop a sense of the ontological dependence of the world on the Torah . However, we may also offer another answer as to why God coerced the nation. Prior to their acceptance of the Torah, Bnei Yisrael were required to observe very few mitzvot, while after the revelation at Sinai they were suddenly obliged to follow all 613 - i.e., to live a life of Torah and mitzvot. Bnei Yisrael might have regretted their commitment when they understood how many laws would now govern every aspect of their lives. God had to coerce them so that the quantity of mitzvot would not prevent them from accepting the Torah, and so that they could not change their minds once they realized what they had taken upon themselves. -Harav Yehuda Am ital zt"I Shavuot - Matan Torah "Lest You Forget What You Have Seen" Based on a Sicha by Harav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"I Based on: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/lest-you-forget-what-you-have-seen-O Take heed to yourself, and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, but teach them to your children and your children's children: the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Chorev, when the Lord said to me, "Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children." (Dev. 4:9-13) According to the Ramban (Sefer Ha-mitzvot, added asei 2), the above verses describing the remembrance of ma'amad Har Sinai, the revelation at Sinai, constitute a positive commandment. In his Torah commentary on this passage, he expands this notion, explaining that this teaches that we must be extremely careful to remember the source of all the mitzvot. Additionally, we are charged to recall the experience of ma'amad Har Sinai, the thunder and lightning, the experience of "His glory and His greatness," hearing His words from the midst of the fire. We are charged to transmit this experience to our descendants throughout all future generations. Our remembrance of ma'amad Har Sinai takes place at 2 planes. First, there is the perpetuation of the memory of the event itself. This needs to take place both on the cognitive plane, recalling and understanding the events, as well as on the experiential, existential planes. It needs to penetrate to your innermost self. You need to re-experience the awe and power of ma'amad Har Sinai, feeling it in the depths of your personality. The description of ma'amad Har Sinai in Tehillim captures some of this power: "God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heaven dropped at the presence of God, even Sinai itself, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel." (68:8-9) Clearly, it was an overwhelming experience. Furthermore, the revelation at Sinai represented a high level of prophecy for Moshe at one level, and the nation as a whole rose to an extremely high level in their relationship with God upon accepting the Torah at another. This can be seen from the striking parallel between the Torah's descriptions of Moshe's level of prophecy - "whom God knew face to face" (Devarim 34:10) - and the people's experience at Sinai - "God spoke to you face to face in the mountain out of the fire" (Deva rim 5:4). Beyond the power of the experience itself, the receiving of the Torah was also a crucial formative stage for the Jewish people, enabling the very emergence of the Jewish people as a nation. Moshe refers to the day of ma 'amad Har Sinai as "Yorn ha-kahal, the day of the assembly" (Dev. 9:10, 10:4, 18:16). While this phrase could be taken to mean "a day on which the assembly was gathered," in context, it seems to mean far more. It was a day when the Jewish people grew into an assembly. God tells the people prior to ma 'amad Har Sinai, "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Sh . 19:6). Aside from the implications regarding the royal and priestly status of the nation, this verse indicates that the Jewish people will be regarded as a nation, a unit integrally connected to God. Ma'amad Har Sinai, therefore, serves as a crucial stage in the development of the Jewish people into a nation. The relationship between God and the Jewish people reached a climax at ma'amad Har Sinai. The Gemara (Ta'anit 26b), based on a verse in Shir Ha-shirim (3:11), portrays ma'amad Har Sinai as the "marriage day" between God and the Jewish people. In remembering the revelation at Sinai, we are called upon not only to re-experience the events of the revelation itself, but to attempt to attain greater closeness to God. Through the unbounded acceptance, and tireless studying, of the Torah, we can hope to achieve this goal in an ongoing way. We need to "take heed" and "guard" the experience of ma'amad Har Sinai, allowing it to pervade our personalities and our service of God, bringing us ever closer to Him . [This sicha was delivered on leil Shavu'ot, 5762 (2002). Adapted by Dov Karoll] Shavuot Redemption in Megillat Ruth By Harav Yaakov Medan Based on: https://www.etzion.org.il/en/redemption-megillat-ruth A challenge in studying Megillat Ruth is placing it in the context of Tanakh, in order that it not remain an isolated episode. Several verses in the Megilla hint at the connection, especially at the end when we read about the link between Ruth and King David. This, according to several Rishonim, is the reason that we read this Megilla on Shavu'ot, since on this day King David was born and died. It is clear, however, that there is room to expand on the connection between King David and the Megilla. In the last 2 chapters of Ruth, the word "ge'ula" (redemption) is repeated quite a few times. "For you are a redeeming kinsman ... I am a redeeming kinsman, there is another redeemer closer than I ... if he will act as a redeemer, good! Let him redeem . But if he does not want to act as redeemer for you, I will do so myself," and many other times. The word ge'ula hints at a connection to King David, as we will explain. The connection may exist not only at the end of the Megilla but also at the beginning, where we are told of the punishment of Elimelekh and his family. Although Elimelekh's sin is not explicitly recounted, his punishment is clear - he dies, and his sons die without bearing children. His wife is old and cannot have any more children. In other words, the family is cut off from the land of the living. All we know about Elimelekh is that he left his country during a famine; if we view this act in a historical context, we can gain insight into the reason he was punished. While Elimelekh and Naomi connect us to the family of Yehuda, the royal tribe of Israel, Ruth links us to the family of Moav, descended from Lot. Lot's story is similar to that of Elimelekh - during years of famine, when there was not enough food for Lot's and Avraham's livestock together, Lot left the land and traveled to Sodom, which was apparently located east of the Jordan River. If so, he traveled out of Israel. The location of Sodom is not fully known, but the city of Tzo'ar, one of Sodom's neighboring cities where Lot lived after the upheaval, appears in Yirmeyahu (48:34) in a prophecy on Moav. On this interpretation, Lot left Avraham's house for a land that became known as part of Moav. Lot's departure constituted not only a geographic exit from Israel but also a cultural and religious exit, from the Godly nation of Avraham to a foreign nation, from Avraham's way of life (which followed the path of God, a way of charity and justice) to its opposite, the Sodomite way. According to Chazal, Lot declared: "I do not want Avraham and his God." Elimelekh repeats the same act, and there is no doubt that it has the same significance; as Chazal say, "One who lives outside of Israel is like one who has no God." Elimelekh's sons marry non-Jewish women (according to Rashi and Ch azal , again st lbn Ezra).