Relating to the Revelation at Sinai

Next week, Jews throughout the world will be celebrating the Yom Tov of Shavuot. In part, it commemorates the historical event when our ancestors, approximately three million people strong, assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah directly from God, זמן מתן תורתנו. It was a once-in-humanity occurrence, never to be repeated.

But as our great Torah scholar Nachmanides, the Ramban, notes in his commentary: מתן תורה, the giving of the Torah, should not be looked at as a unique once and done moment. That it occurred long ago and now it is over. No! Matan Torah was meant to continue and reverberate like an echo throughout every generation as King David declares in Psalm 145, “Each generation will praise Your deeds to the next and of Your might, they will tell.  דור לדור ישבח מעשיך וגבורתך יגידו “

But we must ask, how exactly is this going to occur? How do we bring this requirement about? The answer lies when a person internalizes the chief difference between Judaism and all other religions. That uniqueness, beginning with our patriarch Abraham’s discovery of the existence of God, is the centrality Judaism places on living life based on knowledge.

Knowledge comes in two general forms: first firsthand knowledge by which we mean knowledge you experience directly with your mind and senses, and secondhand knowledge which means it is knowledge that is acquired indirectly from other knowledgeable people. So, for example, when you do a science experiment yourself, you acquire firsthand knowledge of the phenomena. But when you accept the scientific conclusions of previous research and scholarship, then you have acquired secondhand knowledge, I suggest that the overwhelming amount of knowledge we possess is of the secondhand variety.

Judaism wants every person to operate on the basis of these two types of knowledge. When it comes to firsthand knowledge, Judaism declares very succinctly, תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם, “the study of Torah outweighs all the other mitzvot” or said another way, “the study of Torah is the backdrop of all the other mitzvot.” Every person can have firsthand knowledge of the wisdom and truth of Torah by engaging actively in its study.

But you will ask, but how does one gain knowledge of the veracity of the Revelation at Sinai? That event took place thousands of years ago! To the issue of secondhand knowledge, the Torah mandates, “and you will make them known to your children and your children’s children,” והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך (Devorim 4:9) What exactly are you to make known to your children? The very next verse in the Torah states, “The day that you stood before Hashem your God at Chorev (Sinai),” יום אשר עמדת לפני השם בחרב  (Devorim 4:10) Notice that the Torah doesn’t say, “believe that you stood before God at Sinai.” The Torah’s words are exacting, “make them known!” Contrary to all other religions, not one of our 613 mitzvot involves belief.

The upshot of Judaism is that everyone must operate based on knowledge. We can choose to operate via firsthand knowledge, direct study, and investigation of each command, or we can operate by knowledge gained through an acceptance of secondhand knowledge.

 Applying either of these methods of acquiring knowledge leads to Ramban’s conclusion. The event of the Revelation at Sinai, מתן תורה, reverberates throughout all generations. It should be as real to us today as if we were firsthand recipients of מתן תורה standing with our ancestors thousands of years ago at the foot of Mount Sinai. Both firsthand and secondhand are knowledge. We can have both. There is then no difference for us today in so far as the event and consequences of מתן תורה are concerned. We today are equal to those long ago. Shavuot is זמן מתן תורתנו in every sense of the word for all those living today, tomorrow, and forever.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Rabbi Robert Kaplan

PS: I want to thank my rabbinic colleagues for their participation this past year by contributing their insightful and inspiring Divrei Torah in our Ram News.