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     This week on Shavuot we stand at Sinai to once again receive the Torah. What is the experience both for the individual and for the Jewish people meant to be?
      I have decided to change the weekly song format. Instead of songs related to the week's theme, I will choose less well known songs from my collection of Hasidic music. There is a vast number of songs from a variety of Hasidic groups that are mostly unknown outside the traditional Jewish world. I thought you might enjoy access to this treasury of Jewish spiritual music.
                                                                                  Michael (mjstrassfeld@gmail.com)
                                             
Intention/kavana for this week
The midrash says that each person standing at Sinai heard the Torah differently. Bible scholars explain the different versions of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus and Deuteronomy as originating from different authors. Mystics explain that God is capable of saying "remember the Sabbath day" and "keep the Sabbath day" simultaneously. For them, the different versions of the Ten Commandments are one and the same.

At Sinai, the Jewish people was as one even as they each remained a unique individual.
This week's practice is to focus on how each person can hold only their truths as self evident and yet be part of one collective whole. This has always been a challenging practice. Yet, it is America's motto enshrined in our seal. E pluribus unum--out of many, one. As individuals and as a nation, we must hold both parts together lest we break asunder. In this moment, it is symbolized by the masks we are to wear in public. We don't wear the mask to protect ourselves; we wear the mask to protect everyone else from our sneezes. Like a mezuzah or Shabbat candles, the mask is a sign of our deepest values ---I am one for the many and thereby together ---the many are one.
Song:

yehei ravah kadamakh
de-tiftah liba’e
be-oraita
ve-tashlim mishalin de-liba’e,
ve-liba de-khol amakh yisrael
le-tav u-le-hayyin
ve-lishlam
  
May it be your will to open our hearts in Torah
and fulfill the requests/questions
of my heart and the hearts of all Israel
for good, for life, for wholeness                
 (from berikh shemeh)
 
 
 

 
To listen to the song

 A word of Torah:

 A teaching for Shavuot
               In the traditional view, the Torah consists of two parts—the written Torah found in a scroll and the Oral Torah found in the Talmud, which was passed down orally for centuries until it was written down to ensure its preservation.
                The Hasidic master, the Sefat Emet, points out that the source for the reading of the book of Ruth on Shavuot is found in the Oral Torah. He says: The Holy One desires that the people of Israel, through their deeds, should add to the written Torah.
                This suggests that acts of kindness found in the story—when Ruth, the first “Jew by choice,” elects to stay with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and when Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi, elects to take Ruth under his wing, helped create the book of Ruth. In this understanding, the Oral Torah is an ongoing process that continues to be written by each generation through their good deeds. The Sefat Emet also suggests that, along with receiving the Torah at Sinai, the people of Israel were given the ability to find new meanings in it. This is what is meant in the second Torah blessing, said when being called up to the Torah for an Aliya, “who has … planted within us eternal life “(hayei olam nata be-tokheinu). The eternal life within us is the ability to interpret Torah and thereby continue the unfolding redemption of the world. One way to achieve eternal life is through the connections to the generations who came before and those who will follow us. Another is through our deeds, which add to the totality of the Oral Torah.
                At Sinai, the Torah says (Ex. 20:15) that “all the people saw the thunder and lightning….and when the people saw …” Why is it necessary to repeat the verb? The Sefat Emet suggests that seeing the Torah revealed, the people also saw their inner selves.  How does this happen in our everyday lives, far from the moment of Sinai? It happens panim el panim—face to face, when our lives are reflected in the faces of others. The best way to see ourselves is in the eyes of others and our interactions with them. In this way, we help shine Torah out into the darkening world. Despite the distracting noise of our daily lives, we are to see, not hear the noise, to see the task before us and notice all those standing at Sinai, straining to hear the small still voice that calls out God’s first and ultimately only question: Where are you/ayekha?
                 The Torah says that Israel encamped before the mountain (Ex. 19:20). The commentators point out all the other verbs referring to Israel are in the plural and yet here, the verb “encamped” in in the singular. They suggest that this is because at that moment Israel was united as one. Israel at Sinai encamped in singular oneness. On Shavuot we receive the Torah of oneness when we reflect the oneness of God. We strive for this sense of oneness both as Jews and Americans when we say:

Shema Yisrael--Hear O Israel, God is One.
Hear O United States--We are one and our name is one---E pluribus unum.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Click here for additional readings
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