We have finally arrived at one of the most important חגים of the year! That is the חג of שבואת. On this day we received the greatest “gift” (מתנה טובה) that we EVER have and will receive! This gift is the תורה.
That being said, there is one question that has been bothering me about this. The question is; why is the תורה called (or considered) a gift? Wouldn’t it be better it was considered a payment or a “perk” for all of the work that it took us (Jews) to get to the highest level of קדושה?
Here is an example of what I mean. A guy works in sales for a company. Being that he is a salesman he needs to drive around all day from prospective client to prospective client, day in and day out. Would his company make him drive his personal car for this? No, they would give him the company car. Now is this considered to be a gift? Again, no, it comes with the job, its part of the deal. So to here by the receiving of the תורה, the בני''י worked very hard to build themselves up to that 49th level of קדושה. All of their hard work in מצרים and all the work they have done so far in the desert was building them up to receive the תורה. They “deserved" the bonus or “company car”
There is an answer that I would like to suggest. There really is no amount of work a person can do that would ever earn them the תורה. The תורה really is something that ה' granted to His nation. The תורה is even more than just a gift. The Jewish people could not, and would not exist if we did not have the תורה. The real gift that we get is unlike ANY other nation; WE have the opportunity and the ability to live a REAL life of meaning and growth. We have the ability to gain real fulfillment and purpose in this world!
There is a common reality in American society called the “midlife crisis”. A midlife crisis is when one day a guy, usually in his late 30’s or 40’s wakes up and realizes, “whoa where has all the time gone? I really have not done anything with my life!!”. So what does he do? He starts going golfing, buys a sports car, drinks more with his buddies, yeah… he’s living the life man!! The truth is, usually he is still not satisfied. It is all so meaningless.
In TRUE Judaism, you won’t find this emptiness. We are always working on ourselves trying more and more to connect with ה' and the תורה. If you are constantly working on and bettering yourself, the truth is, you don’t have time to find that emptiness.
It is my ברכה that we all have the strength to keep working on ourselves as Jews and as people so that we may one day is able to feel that we really have lived our lives to the fullest! And become the best we could be!
Have a Great Yom Tov
Yoni Spigelman
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