Witnesses at the Mount
Now, it’s important to know that we’re talking here not about just the facts; that we happen to know the truth because of our traditions and therefore we are able to testify to the truth. No; it’s more than that – it’s an obligation. The Navi tells us what Hashem says: ׳אתם עדי נאום ה – You are My witnesses, says Hashem (Yeshayah 43:10). Maamad Har Sinai, the Giving of the Torah to the nation, was a set-up; it was an orchestrated show in order to make a nation of witnesses.
We saw it with our own eyes! We heard with our own ears! We witnessed it! Our nation, on that day, became witnesses forever. From now on, the Am Hashem testifies forever and ever to what their forefathers saw at Sinai.
A Second Job
Every Jew, that’s his job – to make known in the world that we received the Torah from Hashem; that we received from Him the ideals and principles and attitudes of how to live in this world. “You can be a plumber,” Hashem says, “You can be a storekeeper. You can be a physician or an accountant. But whatever you are, that’s only your ways and means of paying your bills. But your career in this world is atem eidai, you are My witnesses.”
A Jew has to know, he goes out into the world as a witness to Matan Torah. Every man and woman, boy and girl, is a witness to revelation at Sinail an eid neeman, a trustworthy witness to the ideals that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants His holy nation to accept.
Subpoenaed to Testify
Now, even though this tradition, this truth of Maamad Har Sinai, is the most believable thing, but because it’s the most important event in the history of the world it’s not left to chance. This eidus is the עמוד שהאמונה סובבת עליו – the pillar upon which the whole emunah turns (Rambam, Igeres Teiman) it’s a command, a mitzvah, to think about it and talk about it always. Not just to know it once, to know it happened and that’s it. No; the Torah wants that it should be part of your mindset always. That’s included in Kabolas HaTorah – the obligation to never forget what happened on that day.
That’s what the Torah says: רק השמר לך – be on guard, ושמור נפשך מאד – and guard yourself exceedingly. What is all this guarding? Guard and guard exceedingly? What’s the treasure here?
A picture! A scene! A memory! Guard that picture of Matan Torah in your mind, פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך – lest you will forget the things that your eyes saw, ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך – and lest they depart from your mind all the days of your life.
You hear that? All the days of your life you must continue to see what happened at Har Sinai. It’s not talking about believing, knowing it happened, because for that, who needs such a guarding? I accept that it happened and finished. No, that’s not enough. It’s a matter of living with the picture; the picture of Matan Torah shouldn’t yasuru milvavecha, it shouldn’t depart from your mind.
Making it Real
You’re walking outside? You’re going to the store or to the shul? Think about Har Sinai. At least two million people were standing there and they all heard the Voice of Hashem. נפשי יצאה בדברו – when He spoke, they fainted from happiness. They were delirious. They fell down on the floor in happiness. They had to be revived. They got up; they were groggy, they were intoxicated with happiness.
That tremendous scene should be replayed again and again in your head. Of course, if your head is empty so it’s not so easy. You have to learn things. You have to study the story in the Chumash, you have to study the maamarei Chazal. You have to make pictures in your mind. And then you have to spend time thinking about those pictures. That’s how you guard something; you’re not מסיח דעת from it.
And not merely give lip service; that’s nothing. It’s not enough. You know what happens when it’s superficial, when it’s lip service? Here, I’ll tell you.
Who Needs Zechus Avos?
A frum man in this neighborhood was telling me that years ago, when he was in Eretz Yisroel, he was pursued by a Mohamedan who tried to convert him. This Arab was talking to him and cajoling him with all types of sevaras and this person said that he was almost converted. He said that it was only the merit of his ancestors that rescued him. “It was zechus Avos,” he told me.
Zechus Avos?! Had he followed this mitzvah of the Torah he wouldn’t need zechus Avos – maybe for other things yes, but for this surely not. Because a frum Jew means a Jew who is imbued with the picture of what happened that day. He sees before him always the whole Am Yisroel gathered at the foot of the mountain.
The truth is – all he needed was a little seichel. In the Koran it says that when Pharaoh in Mitzrayim was thinking of making decrees against the Jews in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu he called in a person to help him make the decrees. You know whom he called in? Haman! That’s in the Koran! Pharaoh called in Haman! Now you know what a scholar Mohamed was!
And if you think it was an error, maybe it was a slip of the tongue, a few pages later it says again; when Pharaoh needed more help again he called in Haman!
What a Loser
They’re all the same. Christianity is also one big fraud. A little seichel is all you need. Listen to what’s written in the New Testament. JC told his followers, “Before you perish, before you pass out of this world, you’ll see all of my words will come true.”
Well, he perished and they perished and nothing came true. He made a lot of claims. He said he’s going to reign from sea to sea. But he didn’t reign over his own person. They took him and they strung him up. He couldn’t even save his own life. So they have nothing there; there’s nothing to testify to. It’s not difficult at all, with just a little bit of seichel, to see the sheker of all the religions and to acquire more and more emunah.
But the strongest proof to the emunah is that our entire nation was together at Har Sinai. We saw it! We heard it! And therefore that’s the picture we want to think about and talk about most. וגדלו המעמד ההוא על כל גדולה – And you should make that scene more important than any scene in your life or in the entire history of the world (Rambam ibid.).
Generating Witnesses
Not only for yourself. For all the generations! You’re a link in the eternal chain. That’s why the Rambam continues, וראוי לכם אחינו – and it is fitting for you, our brothers, שתגדלו בניכם על המעמד ההוא הגדול – that you should bring up your children on that great scene. It means you should raise them on that like you raise your children on vitamins and you raise them on food. You need to raise them up with a picture of Har Sinai. It should get into their blood and into their bones.
וציונו ללמד אותו לבנינו – Hashem commanded us to teach our children about the giving of the Torah to our children, כדי שיגדלו על תלמודו – so that the next generation too should grow up thinking and learning about Matan Torah. It shouldn’t be just once a year before they go to camp, there’s a yomtov of Shavuos. What took place then should be taught so much to children that they should grow up with this idea always in their minds. They have to grow up on that.
Of course, you have to do more. You have to send your children to Torah schools. You have to keep them there until they’re married. You have to din the words of Torah into their ears by day and by night, the ideals of the Torah, the principles that the Torah wants us feel and to practice. All good ways of living, all righteous attitudes, the technical laws of the Torah, all the dinim, chukim and mishpatim; that’s our job to give over to our children.
But the Torah tells us about something else. You should tell them about ֵׁ םָּ לִפְנֵי הַשּיוֹם אֲ שֶׁ ר עָמַ דְ תְ ח ֹ רֵ בּ בָקֶ ךֹאֱ ל – the day that you stood before Hashem in Chorev. K’pshuto it means you should make known to your children what happened at Har Sinai. They’re not so interested? They have other things they like to talk about? So be a chochom; find ways and means of bringing up the subject. It’s more important than vitamins and food so one way or another you’ll have to find a way.
Accepting the Torah Now
ולבני בניך – And you should tell it to your grandchildren too (ibid.). You hear that zeides, what you have to talk about with your grandchildren? So next time a grandchild comes, put on the face of a hypocrite – even though you don’t feel fit to do it – and tell him what happened at Har Sinai. It’s a good hypocrite to be.
At least once in your life fulfill the peshuto shel mikra. Tell your grandchildren what happened; יום אשר עמדת לפני אלוקיך בחורב – about that day when we stood before Hashem at Har Sinai. Tell them about it.
So he says, ‘How do you know, Zeide?”
“Because my zeide told me. And he heard it from his zeide. All the way back.”
And by doing that, the Gemara says, it’s כאילו קיבלה מהר סיני – it’s like the child himself accepted the Torah from Har Sinai. Because it’s so real to him now, so true; it’s as if he was there.
