Rabbi's Chayva's Chat

“Why was the Torah given in the desert?” asks the midrash. One might think that the Torah, the wellspring of Jewish tradition, should have sprung from a place less…desiccated, perhaps. The midrash, of course, answers its own question. “To teach you that if a person does not hold themselves as unpossessed as the desert, they do not become worthy of the words of the Torah; and that, as the desert has no end, so there is no end to the words of Torah.”

We think a lot about the giving of Torah as the holiday of Shavuot approaches next week. But what does it mean to hold oneself as unpossessed as the desert? The desert brings our vulnerability into focus - our lack of control before the elements. In the lives we conduct in our normal environs, we often try to exert a high amount of control. We try to be productive, and to aim our activities and the pieces of our lives towards our goals. What if, for Shavuot, we released those goals? What if our only goal of this pilgrimage holiday, when tradition says we received the Torah, and history says we brought the barley harvest to the temple in Jerusalem, what if for this holiday our only goal was to be open? Perhaps with this openness, we will merit whatever learning we discover.

We will have several opportunities to open ourselves up to the journey. First, a night of open Torah study with rabbis from across the city, hosted by Congregation Beth Sholom. There will be no end to our words of Torah (until cheesecake at 11 pm). I hope to see many of you there! 

The following evening, we will have a creative Yizkor service; instead of a service, we will have a discussion guided by Donna Neumark and the prompts of the program Death over Dinner. This program helps guide conversations about end of life and death, including our reflections on death, remembering those we have lost, and finding others who are also on a journey of grief. 

Finally, we will conclude with a traditional, second day Shavuot service, with Ner Tamid in their sanctuary.

And if none of these steps in the journey work for you, and though we would never find it in the desert, please just eat some cheesecake. B’tei avon, enjoy it, and chag sameach!