Ben Manevitz shared a dvar torah with me. When Hashem offered the Torah to the nations of the world, each nation asked what was in it and He responded. When he offered it to the Jews, we said "we will do and we will listen and attempt to understand". But if we had asked what was in it, what would Hashem have responded? What is our national trait that we have to overcome to receive the Torah?
The answer is what the Torah brings just before giving us the Torah at Mt. Sinai. He commanded Moshe to command the bnai Yisroel "not to touch the mountain, not to approach the mountain, lest they will die".
Jews long for closeness with Hashem, just like others love murder and sexual perversion. We want to climb the mountain, but Hashem is warning us to follow his directions, to relate to Him His way, following His commands. When we do what we want to do, what we think is best, that is when we get into trouble.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
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