Shavuot: “How to see the thunder...”
These divrei torah are dedicated in memory of Mrs. Harriet Strosberg, a’h. Though I was not a biological relative, “Grandma” always made me and so many others feel welcome and a part of her extended family....
Each year on Shavuot, we recall the experience of Maamad Har Sinai - the revelation at Sinai. There is a long standing tradition that we stay up throughout the night, in order to prepare ourselves to relive the experience of Sinai, and read the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments.
In the verse that immediately follows the Aseret HaDibrot, we find a powerful yet confusing depiction of this seminal moment in world history. The Torah states:
“V’chol ham roim et hakolot v’et halapidim, v’et kol hashofar, v’et hahar ashein, Vayar haAm vayanuu, vayaamdu merachok.”
“And the entire people saw the thunder and lightning, and the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain, and when they saw all this they retreated and stood from afar...”
The obvious question to be asked is what does it mean that the Jewish people saw thunder, that they saw the sound of the shofar?
Many commentators have interpreted this verse to mean that they simply witnessed the entire experience, but the verse specifically uses the language “roim”- they saw. What does it mean that they saw the thunder, that they saw the sound of the shofar? What is the implication of this challenging use of language? What is the message for eternity, after all, we believe that the Torah is a Torat Chaim, a living eternal document? What does it really mean to see?
A number of years ago, when I was living in Albany, NY I had a neighbor who lived in the apartment across the hall from me who was blind. She was a very sweet, friendly woman who was always accompanied by her constant companion Lester, her seeing-eye dog. Each morning I would encounter Linda, she on her way to work, and me on my way to minyan. It became my routine to try to beat Linda to the front vestibule in order to help her with the heavy front door. We settled into a daily pattern where we would greet each other at 6:40 AM. I would say “Good morning Linda,” her daily reply “So nice to see you...” So what does it really mean to see?
The Sefat Emet, the Rebbe, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, explains our verse:
“And the entire people saw the thunder. The meaning of ‘the entire people’ is each person in their entirety. Each member of the Jewish people sensed the revelation of Torah with every limb and every organ, with their entire body and soul ...”
What lesson can we learn, what practical message are we to learn from this interesting clarification of the concept of sight?
There is a fascinating halacha (law) in Maimonides’ Code, the Mishneh Torah, most specifically in the opening chapter of the laws of Yesodei HaTorah- literally the foundations of Torah, the laws governing the fundamentals of Jewish thought. In the second law of the second chapter, Maimonides writes:
“V’haeich hi haderech l’ahavato v’yirato? B’shaa sheyitbonein HaAdam b’maasav haniflaim hagedolim, veyeraeh mehein chachmato she’ein la eirech, v’lo keitz, meyad hu ohaiv umshavach, umefoar, umetaaveh taaveh gedola l’eda Hashem hagadol.”
“And what is the way for us to fully realize our love and awe for G-d? During those moments when a person contemplates G-d’s creations and wondrous acts, and sees within these creations the Divine wisdom which is endless and has no bounds, immediately he is moved to love G-d, to praise G-d’s glory, and longs with all his desire to know G-d’s great name.”
It’s important to note that this is the Rambam’s legal code, and not an entry from his great philosophical work the Guide to the Perplexed. Maimonides is giving a legal ruling, that there is a requirement for one to set aside time and contemplate the wonders that exist naturally in the world around us, to take note of G-d’s presence in the very things we often take for granted. When a person conditions himself to be more contemplative, says Maimonides, one can’t help but be completely in awe of the divinity present in every person, in every creature, in every thing.
We, as busy individuals tend to take so much for granted. Here in New York City, you could walk through Grand Central Station with tens of thousands of other individuals on any given day, and not remember one face you passed by on your way to the train!
Just two summers ago a tremendous electrical outage shut down most of the East coast, and completely crippled the “city that never sleeps.” I recall walking that evening from Lincoln Square Synagogue at 69th Street all the way home to my apartment in Washington Heights on 186th Street. The entire city was basically pitch black with millions of people walking aimlessly throughout the streets. Yet in the pitch black darkness, the most incredible thing was happening. People actually took the time to acknowledge and greet one another, offered the wandering masses water to drink, or rides to many of the elderly and weak! Suddenly, the entire culture of ambivalence for our fellow human being had been temporarily transformed- people began to “see” one another, to connect with each other, to show compassion for one another. Even against the backdrop of darkness, suddenly we “saw” each other so, so clearly.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, zt’l, writes in his important work on morality, Midot HaRayah, that whenever we as human beings are attracted to another person, another object, another creature, whenever we are drawn to something or someone else in this world, it is not that we are drawn solely by their appearance as seen by just our eyes, rather that our soul recognizes and sees and is drawn to the divine sparks contained within each individual, within each place, within each of G-d’s creations. Rav Kook explains that one who truly seeks to be an ethical, moral person will constantly work to recognize and see the divinity within every person, every creature, and every thing.
There is another verse in the Torah where this concept of reiyah- of sight is used in a strange manner. In fact an entire portion in Devarim begins with this verse:
“Re’ay Anochi notein Lifneichem Hayom bracha uklala.”
“See, I give before you today a blessing and a curse.”
Rabbi Kalonimos Kalman Shapira zt’l, the Rebbe of Piascezne, in his incredibly moving work on the Torah and Holidays- Aish Kodesh wrote the following words regarding this verse:
“When we suffer, we often feel that G-d is hiding his face from us. However when a person is able to recognize and perceive the hand of G-d even within his suffering and judgment, he pushes aside the concealment, he reveals G-d, even out of the hiddenness and pain. Then as the concealment begins to dissipate, it becomes loving kindness, which reveals the Divine Light that is the presence of G-d...
...This is the meaning of the verse, ‘See, I set before you today, a blessing and a curse.’ The blessing is the ability to see, that G-d (I) has revealed himself, has given himself to us so to speak. The awareness that G-d has revealed himself to us, continues to reveal himself to us Hayom- today, each day-this is the blessing of the verse...”
The Rebbe, from the depths of the Warsaw Ghetto, where he ministered to so many amidst the devastation of the ghetto, is teaching us that the greatest gift we have is the ability to sense G-d’s presence in all aspects of our lives, even when we feel pain and suffering, we are not alone. However the curse described in the verse, is the possibility of going through life oblivious of the tell-tale signs of G-d’s presence, kindness and love. So, says the Aish Kodesh, what greater blessing could we ask for than to be able to see the divinity in our fellow human beings, in trying times, even in the sound of thunder. And what greater tragedy, what greater curse could there be, then to go through life alone, to feel that G-d has abandoned us, to ignore the Divine “DNA” evidence that becomes so clear when we take the time, to step back and contemplate G-d’s wondrous works.
So on Shavuot as we recall the experience of standing together as one at Sinai, we have the opportunity to once again “see the thunder,” to begin again to condition ourselves to see G-d’s presence, to feel the power of revelation with every fiber of our being, and with each of our senses.
Unfortunately we live in terribly challenging and trying times. There is so much confusion and pain in our world-it’s so hard to make sense of the daily headlines, and news broadcasts.
May the rejuvenation and clarity we feel as we symbolically return to the experience of Sinai, inspire each of us to be more contemplative, to seek the tell-tale signs of G-d’s presence in our lives, and together may we one day soon stand together again as one nation, with one heart…
Chag Sameach...Rabbi Sam Shor