TORAH: Lessons from Mt Sinai

The Lesson of Mount Sinai

What does the name Sinai mean? The Talmudic interpretation is surprising — and somewhat shocking:

"What is Mount Sinai? The mountain that brought enmity (sin'ah) upon the nations of the world." (Shabbat 89b)

What is the nature of this animosity? What does it have to do with Mount Sinai?

Why Sinai?

Where would one expect that God would reveal His Torah to the Jewish people? The logical place would be on the holiest mountain in the world — Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, the site of the Binding of Isaac, Jacob's holy "gate to heaven" (Gen 28:17), the spot where both Temples stood. Why did the revelation of the Torah take place outside of the Land of Israel, in the middle of the desert?

The fact that the Torah was not given to the Jewish people in their own land, but rather in a desert, in no-man's land, is very significant. This indicates that the inner content of the Torah is relevant to all peoples. If receiving the Torah required the special holiness of the Jewish people, then the Torah should have been given in a place that reflects this holiness. Revelation on Mount Sinai attests to the Torah's universal nature.

This idea is corroborated by the Talmudic tradition that "God offered the Torah to every nation and every tongue, but none accepted it, until He came to Israel, who received it" (Avodah Zarah 2b). This Midrash is well known, but it contains an implication that is often overlooked. How could God offer the nations something that is beyond their spiritual level? It is only because the Torah is relevant to all peoples that their refusal to accept it reflects so harshly on them.

The Torah's revelation on Mount Sinai, as a neutral location belonging to none and thus belonging to all, emphasizes the disappointment and estrangement from God that the nations brought upon themselves by rejecting the Torah and its ethical teachings. It is for this reason Mount Sinai "brought enmity upon the nations of the world." 

In the future, however, the nations will recognize this mistake and correct it:

"In those days, it shall come to pass that ten men from all the languages of the nations will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" (Zachariah 8:23)

Rebuke the Torah portion: Bechukotai

REBUKE FROM THE TORAH PORTION: The Tochacha

In this week's Torah portion of Bechukotai we read about the dire consequences should we, G-d forbid, fail to observe the commandments and believe in God. Amongst these punishments are the destruction of the Holy Temple, famine, drought, poisonous snakes, financial failure and much more.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of "Tanya" and founder of the Chabad Chassidic movement, encapsulates the Chassidic train of thought regarding these severe punishments:

"In truth, these are nothing but BLESSINGS"

While openly these verses speak of severe and harsh punishments, we must realise that in all of them there is an inner, subconscious element of blessings. By studying the Torah and adhering to its' teachings, we are able to strip the ugly layer off these punishments and see their inner goodness, and thus fully appreciate their worth.

This concept however, of punishments consisting of blessings in disguise do not originate with Chassidic thought. We read about this in the Talmud, going back thousands of years. When Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai sent his son R' Elazar to receive blessings from two of the great Talmudic sages, they responded with the following:

"May it be in God's will that you will sow and not reap. May it also be that would you bring in will not go out and what you take out will not come in. Let your house be desolate, yet you will inhabit temporary lodgings. Your table will also be disturbed, and you will not see a new year."

I'm not sure about you, but when I first read those words, they don't sound much like blessings.

When R' Elazar came home, his blessing was interpreted by his father -Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, incidentally whose anniversary of passing was marked last week at the site of his tomb in the northern town of Meiron by the hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over Israel (including me!) and from across the globe. The day of R' Shimon bar Yochai's passing is a day of rejoicing for on that day he revealed the secrets of the Torah and much light was brought into the world.

This is what the blessings truly meant:

"you will sow and not reap" - you will "sow" - have children, and they will not "reap" - die.

"what you bring in will not go out" - this means you will bring in daughters-in-law and your sons will not die, in which case the daughters-in-law would "go out" of your home.

"what you take out will not come in" - your daughters will marry, and their husbands will not die prematurely , in which case they would have to come in to your home again.

"Let your house be desolate, yet you will inhabit temporary lodgings" - because this world is temporary lodgings, and should be seen as such. The next world is the real home.

"Your table will also be disturbed" - by the wonderful children you will merit to have.
"you will not see a new year" - this means your wife will not die prematurely and you will not need to see a new wife.

At first sight, these words yielded severe curses. But these blessings are in reality so lofty and sublime that these blessings could not be expressed in a simple, straight-forward manner.

So next time you hear it; believe it: Every cloud does have a silver lining.

Judaism 4 U
- Connecting you to your Judaism -

EMOR - Ethics from the Weekly Torah Portion

EMOR - ETHICS FROM THE WEEKLY PARSHA

“You should convoke on this very day – there should be a calling of holiness for yourselves” – Vayikra / Leviticus 23:21

The Mishna in the Ethics of the Fathers instructs us to set fixed times for Torah study. And our Sages tell us that one doesn’t lose out on anything during these times.

A Kollel is where men study Torah after their marriage. A member of the Kollel in Ramat Elchanan, Bnei Barak, Israel found this out after the following incident happened to him.

The members of his Kollel resolved to strengthen themselves particularly in the areas of punctuality and attendance. The morning after this resolution was made, after an inspiring speech by the Rosh Kollel (the dean of the Kollel), a member of the Kollel found himself suffering from excruciating pains as a result of a string of horrific headaches. He nevertheless was strengthened by the previous day’s speech, convincing himself that the headaches were a test to see if he would succumb to his evil inclination and not attend the Kollel that day; and pushed himself to go to Kollel nonetheless.

When he returned home that evening, he sensed there was a commotion inside his apartment, and this was only confirmed by his wife’s state of tenseness.

His wife began to recount that day’s events:

“A few minutes after you left the house, when you must have still been on the way to Kollel and therefore not contactable (before the era of mobile telecommunications), the baby swallowed a large nail that had unknowingly to us become detached and fallen to the floor. He began having such a bad coughing spell and couldn’t even breathe that the emergency paramedics declared his life was in danger and the next few minutes would prove fatal if the nail could not be extricated.”

The man listened with awe as his wife continued: “The paramedics tried, but there were unsuccessful. The nail could not be removed without an emergency operation. They had already called an ambulance to rush the baby to hospital to save his life. And then it happened.”

“What happened?” inquired the husband.

“At exactly 9:15am, the nail just flew out of the baby’s mouth and the baby began to breathe again. I don’t know why, but that’s what happened.”

“9:15am is the time I arrived in Kollel, opened up the page and started learning.”

Coincidence? Definitely. Not. 

Ethics from the Weekly Torah portion - WAKE UP!

In this week's Torah portions, we read about the laws regarding the festivals of the year; beginning with Rosh HaShanah - the jewish new year, and Yom Kippur - the day of atonement.

During these days we reach greater spiritual heights and through the prayers and atmosphere of the day we receive much inspiration.

However, unfortunately, this is not always internalised fully and thus becomes lost with time. After the period of the high holidays are over we simply continue as before. Imagine someone was fortunate enough to win £/$ 100,000,000! He wouldn't blow it al at once (which would prove quite difficult anyway) but would invest it and ensure it lasts for himself and future generations.

Very often we fail to internalise the message of these days because they're always talking about "someone else". We fail to realise that the messages of these days are a direct line to us. We fail to release the "tweet" from Heaven is aimed @you and not @him.

This leaves us satisfied that we have performed our duties and ready for another year of potential and opportunity. We focus on lofty goals - improving the world - through various lofty resolutions that are far beyond our means. But we fail to realise that in order the improve the world we must first improve ourselves. However, the bigger picture from a few feet/metres away means we do not see the fine detail.

On Rosh Hashanah, there is one special mitzvah on this day. This is Shofar- blowing the ram's horn. We use one shofar; and a shofar is not quite a Steinway Grand Piano or a Stradivarius violin. It is a plain, simple, horn of a ram.

We blow the Shofar, to remind us we need to focus on ourselves. Whilst the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Kol Nidrei would no doubt be very emotional and inspiring, it is the ram's horn that gives us the ultimate message. We bring holiness and sanctity and infuse it with our spirituality. We take our ram's horns and elevate them. The same way we elevate our very selves, and by improving ourselves, we can then improve the world.


Judaism 4 U
- Connecting you to your Judaism -

Why Ethics of our "Fathers"?

It would seem that the appropriate name for this tractate would be one along the lines of its common English name, "Ethics." What is the connection between Avot, "Fathers," and a code of ethics and morals?

Many reasons have been suggested for the curious name of this tractate. Here is a sampling:

While ethical teachings are imperative for all to learn and implement, they are particularly important for parents and educators. Not only to learn them and teach them to the next generation, but to be role models of the behaviors taught in this tractate. As Shammai said (Ethics 1:15): "Say little and do much."


Compressed in these six brief chapters is our entire moral code"Fathers" can also be translated to mean "general principles"; principles that contain myriads of sub-lessons. Compressed in these six brief chapters is our entire moral code. The more we study its passages, the more messages we will uncover. To use the words of Ben Bag Bag (Ethics 5:21): "Delve and delve into it, for all is in it..."

Indeed the hundreds, if not thousands, of works authored on this tractate demonstrate the truth of this idea.


The teachings expressed in this tractate are the "father" to -- i.e. they must precede -- all other Torah teachings. This idea is succinctly expressed by Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah (Ethics 3:17): "If there is no common decency, there is no Torah."

This is also the reason why it is customary to study Avot during the seven weeks of the Omer count: the teachings of this tractate are a necessary prerequisite to receiving the Torah on the holiday of Shavuot.


Teach someone an idea -- no matter how lofty or holy that idea may be -- while you have increased his or her knowledge, you have not effected a real change in that individual. If, however, you have successfully taught that person to be a mentsch, then you have transformed that person. You have "fathered" a new, refined human being.