Rabbi Marc D. Angel offers thoughts for discussion at your Shabbat table. Please visit this column each week, and invite your fa
On Shavuoth, we commemorate the awesome Revelation at Mount Sinai, when the Almighty presented the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. All of the Israelite men, women and children experienced that solemn moment, marking an everlasting covenant between God and the Israelite nation.
Let us imagine that God would invite us to a second Revelation at Sinai, asking all the Jews of the world to attend.
"And Joseph said to his brothers: I am Joseph. Does my father still live?"
In re-uniting with his brothers, Joseph asked if his father was still alive. Yet, the brothers had already told him that Jacob was alive. Indeed, the rest of Joseph's words make clear that he knew Jacob was alive. So what is the significance of his question "does my father still live?" We need to understand Joseph's dilemma.
When God first appointed Moses to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites to freedom, He used the word "lekh"--go. The word "go" is repeated a number of times during the early phases of Moses' work. Yet, once the plagues began to afflict the Egyptians, God ordered Moses with a different word, "bo"--come. This week's Torah portion opens with God telling Moses "bo el Par'oh", come to Pharaoh. What is the significance of the words "lekh" (go) and "bo" (come)?
The great Hassidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, taught: There are those who hear the Shofar on Rosh HaShana, and then continue to hear the Shofar every day of the year. But there are those, on an even higher level, who heard the Shofar at the Revelation at Mt. Sinai, and who continue to hear that Shofar every day of their lives.
A kabbalistic teaching has it that we come closer to God through the power of giving--giving love, charity, kindness. A truly religious person is characterized by an overwhelming desire to share with others, to act selflessly with purity of heart.
The Megillah pays close attention to what Mordecai wears. When he learns of the evil decree against the Jews, "Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry." Mordecai had been one of the regulars at the king's gate--but the king did not allow people dressed in sackcloth to enter the royal precincts. In her distress, Esther sent Mordecai a change of clothes, which Mordecai rejected.
The Me'am Lo'ez, the classic Ladino biblical commentary (Turkey, 18th century), draws on midrashic sources in describing the two sets of the Ten Commandments. The original Revelation on Mount Sinai was a highly dramatic episode. Moses ascended the mountain, as the people of Israel gathered below with great anticipation. The scene was marked by thunder and lightning and the sound of the shofar.The voice of God was heard by all.
Some years ago, my wife and I visited Rome. Among the historic sites we visited was the Arch of Titus--a monument to the Roman conquest of Judea in 70 C.E. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem, razed the Temple, killed and enslaved many thousands of Jews--and sent our people into an Exile that lasted until the rise of the State of Israel in 1948. On the inner wall of the Arch of Titus is a depiction of the Roman victory over the Jews, with the Romans carrying off the Menorah which had graced the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
The Talmud (Gittin 67A) reports a conversation between Rabbi Yehuda haNasi (the great compiler of the Mishna) and his son Rabbi Shimon. The rabbis had established a hierarchy of authorities; in case of disagreements, the opinions of certain sages were considered more authoritative than the opinons of their colleagues. The sage who usually prevailed was Rabbi Yosei. Rabbi Shimon asked his father: why do we rule according to Rabbi Yosei, when some of his colleagues were known to be more incisive?