This week’s music https://youtu.be/wEQYpCcnmnE

The tragedy that our friends at Moshav Meor Mevo Modiim have experienced strikes me as one which brings with it a great awakening for all of Israel and the world. What other group of people could simultaneously suffer the loss of their homes and immediately realize the blessing being sent to them by Hashem. “The outpouring of “chessed,” loving kindness , has been tremendous,” one of the members said upon greeting us last week. “What a nation of loving people.” he said to me, “One nation in the Land.” These people were obviously prepared to be strong enough to ensure this emotional tragedy while at the same time being open to receiving blessing that they may only have dreamed of in their lives. These are students of Reb Shlomo Calrebach.

When the world, all of us included, is seeing more and more separation and dissidence, Shlomo’s students are once again uniting us to love and support each other, regardless of our opinions and perspectives on life. Why? Simply because it is on the level of no choice. We get to a point in life where we realize that there are situations where our free choice is to accept our reality in the moment and instead of fighting it we go with it to and create a vessel to be able to receive the ultimate blessing.

So often the question is asked, why was the Holy Torah given, “Bamidbar,” in the desert? Reb Leibele Eiger, in his sefer, “Torat Emet” teaches that being in “the desert teaches us the absolute need to nullify our feelings of personal strength and the notion of any help from human actions.” Look at the desert! There is absolutely no sign that human beings had anything to do with the formation of this space. I walk in to the desert and I have no Amina, that any human could have anything to do with what I am seeing before my eyes. “There is no preparation, plowing, planting or harvesting which has ever taken place there which might give us a sense that the desert appeared as a result of the strength of human hands. It is only all sourced in the roots of the entire world emanating from the hands of our Creator. Therefore, the beginning of the revelation of the Geulah,” total redemption, took place there. Therefore it is only in that Place that the words were spoken, “I am the Lord thy God”, “I am Hashem your God.” I am left with the sense that there is no other force in the world outside of Hashem.”

I saw the vastness and the emptiness for the supernal desert and I realize that only there can we receive the Holy Torah which like the desert is all only God. So I need to make myself a “Midbar,” a desert of humility, emptying my ego to be able to receive the highness of the Torah.
Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev adds that the holiday of Shavuot represents the concept that it all comes down to desire. It’s a time of awakening to get me to shake up my desire to want to be connected to the source.

It is with that awareness, that Hashem is everywhere and in everything and space, that all of the souls of Israel then entered into Eretz Yisrael, carrying with them the task and the knowledge to lift up and awaken the sparks of holiness in The Land.
Now it is our turn. On Shavuo night we are not simply commemorating the giving and receiving of the Torah from Sinai 3,600 years ago. We are celebrating the gift of our receiving The Holy Torah once again. We have prepared ourselves spiritually and ethically over the past 7 weeks to cleanse and purify so that we can merit to receive the Torah again from the purest most loving place possible. We are preparing to receive The Holy Torah on a level of no choice. This is how Adam and Chavah lived .Before they got to the place where they were judging what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, all they knew was truth or lies. When I can look at something and clearly know if it is truth or lie than of course I only want the truth. In order to do that I need to also tap into the other name of Shavout, Atzret. To stop! Stop now! Look, listen, breath, take it all in and see clearly who I really am.

May we all be blessed to raise up to this level together this Shavout, to stop and appreciate everyone that we meet, every gift that we receive without judging it’s value beyond knowing that it is all a gift from Hashem.

Shabbat Shalom V’Chag Sameach,
Yehudah