Pearls of Wisdom from the Parshah
Every Jewish holiday has the power to draw down from Heaven its own special quality. The yearly cycle brings a person back to the same spiritual place that existed once upon a time, when the miracle occurred, when the special event took place that gave rise to the holiday. Pesach is thus zeman cheiruseinu, the time of our freedom. When Pesach comes, the quality of freedom renews itself, and we go once again from slavery to freedom.
Shavuos is zeman matan Toraseinu. The time when our Torah was given. So we would expect that just like on Pesach, when the quality of freedom renews itself, so on Shavu’os, the quality of the Giving of the Torah renews itself. But it’s not so. Because regarding giving Torah, every Jew who sits and learns is receiving it at that very moment from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
So what’s special about Shavu’os, then?
Shavu’os is when we acquire the ability to do it all year long. It enables us to receive Torah from Hakadosh Baruch Hu whenever we sit and learn.
ה' יתן חכמה מפיו דעת ותבונה – Hashem gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Chazal explain this pasuk to mean that whenever a person learns Torah, the Shechinah is across from him. When a Jew sits and learns, he receives Torah from Ha she m’s mouth. This is why we say, in the blessing over Torah learning, המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל – “He teaches Torah to His people Yisrael.” Hashem is actually teaching it to each and every Jew who studies it. If it weren’t that Hashem was the Teacher, we would not succeed in understanding and knowing the Torah of Hashem. Because Torah is not like other fields of knowledge, which any studious person can learn and understand. The Torah Hakedoshah is above human comprehension. Only because Hashem Himself is teaching it to us are we able to understand it.
Chazal recount that R. Eliezer and R. Yehoshua were at the bris of Elisha ben Avuyah, and they engaged in Torah learning. They went from Chumash to Neviim, and from Neviim to Kesuvim, and the words were joyous like when they were given at Sinai, and fire came down from Heaven and encompassed the house. Avuyah, the father, was afraid they would burn down his house. They answered that just as the Torah was given in fire, thunder and lightning at Har Sinai, so it is any time when a person engages in proper Torah study, it’s like Har Sinai all over again, with holy fire from Heaven. That’s how Torah learning is; it won’t burn down the house.
Anyone who engages in Torah learning with deveikus and pleasantness can make the thunder and lightning come back, with all the power of Maamad Har Sinai.
Rise Above Limitations
We need to understand why it is this way. Why did Hashem make Torah to be above and beyond human understanding, and only by Him coming and teaching it every time we sit and learn, are we able to grasp it? Why not just give the Torah completely to the Jewish people, once and for all, so they can learn it and understand it without the need for it to be given and taught again at every moment by Hashem? Why not just make Torah available and accessible?
If we think about it, we will realize that it’s not like this just with Torah. It’s the same way with a person’s battle with the Yetzer Hara.
ה' יתוִמֲהַ לׁשֵּקַבְמּיק וִּדַּצַע לָׁשָה רֶפֹ צוֹדוָיְּבּונֶבְזַעַא יֹל – The evil one looks at the righteous one and seeks to kill him; Hashem will not abandon the righteous one to his hand.”
Chazal say that this pasuk is talking about the Yetzer Hara. It wants to get the tzaddik, to make him stumble into sin. And not just one sin, but to turn him into a rasha – “to kill him.” And if it weren’t that Hashem helps the tzaddik, the tzaddik could not prevail over the Yetzer Hara. The spiritual powers even of a tzaddik gamur are not sufficient to hold up against the Yetzer Yara. Without help from Heaven, a person won’t be able to stand up to the pressure.
2 Tehillim 37:32.
3 Sukkah 52b.
This shows that the spiritual state of every Jew is dependent on Ha she m’s help. Hashem teaches us Torah, and He also assists us in the morning to daven and put on tefillin. Without Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we would not understand what we learn, and we would not succeed in even getting out of bed in the morning, because of the enticements of the Yetzer Hara.
Why didn’t Hashem create the powers of good and evil evenly balanced, so we are drawn equally to good and to evil, thus enabling every person to stand up to his Yetzer Yara? Why were we placed in a situation where we stand no chance to win, where we are unable to succeed, and only with help from Hashem can we be rescued from the Yetzer?
Simply speaking, it’s because Hashem is the Master of the World. He runs everything. Torah and mitzvos belong to Hashem. They are His, and He gives a person the ability to learn Torah and keep it.
But there is more to it. Since we constantly need Ha she m’s help, we are always engaging with Ha she m’s Torah, with its greatness, depth and quality. It’s not human-size Torah, dumbed down to our level of comprehension. It’s Torah from Hashem. Only He can teach such a subject and enable us to grasp it.
If the Torah would be totally given to us, we would only be able to understand it according to our limited, human capacity. This is why the Torah did not descend to our level. Instead, we raise ourselves up to it, and learn Ha she m’s Torah from the mouth of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Heavenly Teacher.
Also Mitzvos
It works this way also with mitzvos. When we do a mitzvah, we recite the blessing אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על – “He sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us....” The mitzvos belong to Hashem; they are “His mitzvos.” They have His quality, so to speak. In order for it to be like this, Hashem set it up such that we can keep mitzvos and avoid aveiros only with His help and power.
In His Hands
The idea of everything being in Heaven’s hands is not just regarding Torah and mitzvos. It is also in parnassah. Everyone wants Hakadosh Baruch Hu to grant him abundant parnassah. Everyone wants to feed and support his family and supply all their needs. So why do so many people, especially those who devote themselves to Torah study, need to break their heads to figure out how to just get through the month, and can’t imagine any possible way to marry off their children?
Parnassah is something that Hashem retains control over. Every month, a new miracle is performed, and drops of parnassah drip into the world. It is as we say in Birkas Hamazon: ונא אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם – “Please don’t make us dependent on the gifts of flesh and blood.” What we are saying in this line, on a deeper level, is that we don’t want to receive our parnassah by means of people, and not just because of the shame it might engender, but also as regards ourselves, personally. We, too, are “flesh and blood,” and we ask Hashem that we should not need to receive gifts even from ourselves.
We want to depend only on כי אם לידך – “Your hand alone.” Just like the generation of the Midbar was privileged to eat Man that fell fresh from Heaven every day, straight from Ha she m’s hand, so we want to receive our parnassah in a similar way, from מידך הפתוחה הקדושה והרחבה – “Your open and expansive holy hand.” We want parnassah from Heaven. Not limited human income, but income in Ha she m’s terms, in Ha she m’s ways.
Every month, Hashem opens His hand and provides sustenance. Every marriage of a child, we feel that we are not marrying them off, but Hashem is marrying them off, it is from His hand. This is why “poverty is befitting to Jews.” It’s so they will feel Ha she m’s closeness and His open hand providing and sustaining at every moment.
This makes a big difference. Since we receive Torah, mitzvos and parnassah only from Ha she m’s hand, and, so to speak, it is with His quality, therefore we need to make only a certain hishtadlus to attain our parnassah. There is only so much we need to do. Similarly, in Torah and mitzvos, we only do what we are able to do. And if we do that, we will receive endlessly from Ha she m’s hands.
Shavu’os Night
Every year, when Shavu’os night comes, people stay up and learn Torah. Some delve into a sug ya, some cover a few blat of Gemara. Some follow the ancient minhag to recite Tikkun Leil Shavu’os.
The Tikkun is arranged so that you say three verses from the beginning of each parshah in the Torah, and three verses from the end of the parshah. And so with Neviim and Kesuvim. And according to the Shlah Hakadosh, one recites also the beginning and end in the six orders of the Mishnah, and recites also the list of the 613 mitzvos.
The idea of the Tikkun, with the pesukim so arranged, is to make us feel that we are asking Hashem to give us Torah according His qualities and abilities. If we would be in charge of Kabbalas Hatorah, we would receive according to our own abilities. But the proper way is to ask Hashem to give us Torah according to His standards and qualifications, so to speak. We ask to be granted Ha she m’s entire Torah from beginning to end.
Hashem is able to place the whole Jewish people, 600,000 of them, in the space between the two poles of the Aron Hakodesh, thus putting a lot into a little. In the same way, He Who can do anything is able to put the entire giant Torah, which is longer than the land and wider than the sea, into our heads.
אתה חונן לאדם דעת – “You grant knowledge to people.” Hashem can grant knowledge even to a human being made from soil. He can freely bestow on him the gift of knowledge.
Matan Torah is thus not limited by our abilities. It is from Ha she m’s unlimited hands.
We pray ותן בלבנו להבין ולהשכיל, לשמוע ללמוד וללמד לשמור ולעשות, את כל דברי תלמוד תורתך באהבה – “Place in our hearts to understand and conceptualize, to grasp and learn and teach and observe and keep, all the words of Your Torah, with love.” We don’t make do with just asking for a modest amount of Torah knowledge. We want to attain full depth of understanding of the entire Torah. And it’s not a prayer in vain, but rather a tefilah for Matan Torah according to the ability of He Who can do anything.
This is why Tikkun Leil Shavu’os was instituted. By reciting it, a person expresses his inability to learn the whole Torah. All he can do is recite three pesukim from every parshah. On the other hand, he is thereby expressing his great aspiration to learn and know the entire Torah, all the 613 mitzvos, and all the hidden secrets of the Torah as well (the Tikkun contains selected texts also from that).
By reciting Tikkun, we plant little seeds, and the power of growth bestowed on them by Hakadosh Baruch Hu can bring out a great harvest of Torah knowledge. Every farmer needs a good portion of emunah.
והיה אמונת – “The faith of ” – refers to Seder Zera’im, the order of the Mishnah that deals with agricultural halachos. These words relate to this order of the Mishnah because the farmer “believes in the Life of the Worlds, and sows his seeds.”
Without emunah, the farmer would not waste all those seeds by casting them in the ground.
In the same way, someone who engages in Torah learning needs a good amount of emunah. He needs to believe in his ability to attain knowledge of all the Torah, above and beyond his limited powers of comprehension. On Shavu’os night we sow seeds. It’s not a regular learning session like during the rest of the year. This night tests the aspirations of the learner.
Each person needs to arouse within himself a tremendous aspiration to know the entire Torah from beginning to end. To believe that if we do our part and try to the best of our abilities, the Giver of the Torah will assist us. The One Who teaches Torah to His people Yisrael will open His generous hands and give it to us.
4 Shabbos 31a, Tosafos ad loc citing the Yerushalmi.
