Reb Noson of Breslov committed himself to writing down new Torah insights every day. One time he couldn't think of anything new to say, but somehow he managed to write something down. He said later, "I squeezed a chidush out of my little finger."
The Beis Halevi points out that according to one opinion, the day we celebrate as Shavuot was actually one day before Matan Torah. So what are we celebrating on the 6th of Sivan? We are celebrating the fact that Hashem agreed to Moshe's initiative, which was to add an extra day of purification for Bnei Yisrael before the receiving of the Torah. We are celebrating that God left room for a human being to expand on and shape the Torah as it comes into our lives. By doing this, Moshe paved the way for all students of wisdom of all generations to be "m'chadesh", to find new insights in the Torah, and this is one of the meanings of Chazal's statement that "Every future Torah insight was given to Moshe at Sinai".
The Rabbis tell an amazing story about the giving of the Torah: when Moshe was on Mount Sinai, he saw God tying crowns to the letters. He asked Hashem what they were for, and Hashem answered, "In the future there will be a man -Akiva ben Yosef by name - who will dig mounds and mounds of teachings from each one of these crowns." Moshe asked to see this man, and God told him to turn around. But when Moshe found himself in Rabbi Akiva's future yeshiva he couldn't understand a word that was being said there. He was starting to get upset - imagine Moshe Rabbenu not understanding the Gemara class - when he heard Rabbi Akiva say "this Law was given to Moshe at Sinai", and he was pacified. So the Torah is one (as Rabbi Akiva himself said about the halacha that Moshe didn't understand), but in terms of Moshe's experience, it was a different Torah.
The beginning of Jewish pluralism is the knowledge that God purposefully created an incredible diversity of souls, ways of thinking, and innate characteristics, and that He expects us to use those unique qualities to ensure the growth of the Torah. We are meant to be gardeners of the Tree of Life. This is also the beginning of machloket, creative dispute, which is the basis for all of the Talmud and Halacha as we know it. The Ba'al Shem Tov said that MoSH"E is an acronym of "machloket Shammai v'Hillel", the disputes of Shammai and Hillel which form the basis of the Talmud. In other words, God gave Moshe all the different ways of seeing things in Torah - all at once - in potential, and thus left room for human creativity and initiative. Moshe received these future Torah teachings, sub- or pre-consciously, so Moshe had Rabbi Akiva's insight in him, but he couldn't access it. Moshe Rabbenu needs Rabbi Akiva - and us - to give the Torah to him again.
The Oral Torah, the Gemara, the one they learn in the Mir, in Yeshiva University, at JTS, in Bat Ayin, and in so many yeshivot and homes around the world, the one that kept our people alive through centuries of struggle, the one that our enemies always wanted to burn because they saw its power, was built on the lessons that
1) it is a religious obligation to argue - for each person to express her or his unique perspective - for the sake of Heaven;
2)if we do not respect our opponents we will not survive. And this Jewish way of learning is built on a tremendous appreciation of diversity. On Rosh Chodesh Sivan we came to the Sinai desert, and the preparations for Shavuot began. Each day comes closer to the Torah, but on the 5th of Sivan I am still who I am, a freed slave with a slave mentality, who has seen God's wonders and can still only think about where to get a good quailburger. The 7th of Sivan is the day of The Torah, the Written Torah, God's own Truth, in the light of which our free choice is nullified. But the 6th of Sivan, the day we celebrate as Shavuot, is the day of our Torah, every chidush that you or I will ever come up with. This is the day where Hashem shows us to ourselves as we really are, and in the face of that we die and are reborn with every utterance, we are blown back 12,000 miles and need angels to help us back to our feet until the next word, and we receive 2 crowns each from the hands of the angels. What Hashem shows us on Shavuot is who we can be in Torah, that the Torah is so close to you, and you have a unique destiny not only in life but in Torah, and if you don't express your chidush, then that aspect of what Moshe received at Sinai will never be expressed. Our Sages teach that before we are born, each of us takes an oath that we will live rightly. The holiday's name, Shavuot, evokes another, almost identical-sounding word, Shevu'ot, which means Oaths, and I believe that in order to be born we must promise to bring our unique Torah to fruition. This is why Reb Noson worked so hard to squeeze a chidush out of his pinky, because he knew beyond a doubt that he was obligated to express a new aspect of Torah every single day of his life. We have a responsibility to contemplate Torah, to develop our own insights, and to share them. The recipe is simple: take a slice of Torah, add a handful of what you're going through right now in life, pray for truth, mix well, and let it cook until ready to serve.
Rav Ariel Burger
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Rav Ariel Burger received his ordination from Yeshivat Bat Ayin in 2003. He is currently completing his doctoral work at Boston University, where he studies under Professor Elie Weisel. Ariel lives in Sharon, Massachusetts with his wife and four children. |