2021/5781

It can be debated what has been the highest point in Jewish history, but among those points up for contention, one might just occur in this week’s Parashah under everyone’s nose. There is an epic series of moments during which the Jews are given what might contain within themselves all of Torah in a series of 10 statements.1 It would have made sense to give the Torah to the Jews as they left Mitzrayim or maybe after Shirat HaYam, but Hashem waits for a significant amount of time. As magnificent as the momentous occasion was, Matan Torah might not have been planned for any specific day, month, or year. In reality, Matan Torah might not have been really the high point that it appears to be.

The Netziv defines Sinat Chinam, baseless hatred, as not viewing each other as part of a larger consciousness called Bnai Yisrael, and, therefore, viewing a fellow Jew and all the ways in which he expresses himself as different. However, all Jews are part of a larger being that united is much more powerful. Upon making the journey to a new location and camping there, the Jews internalize this message. The Pasuk states “VaYichan Sham Yisrael,” “Israel camped there” (Shemot 19:2). Rashi famously points out the grammatical structure does not make sense; the word “VaYichan,” “they camped,” is singular, and really means “he camped”. Rashi states that there was a sense of unity among the Jews at this moment in time. It was not some instantaneous moment of connection, but a moment of true harmony, a moment of “Yachad Shivtei Yisrael,” “one united nation, the tribes of Yisrael” (Devarim 33:5).

Every individual has an obligation to do every mitzvah in the Torah, but it is physically impossible. Many answer that just like when one puts on tefillin on just his arm and head, the whole body is wearing Tefillin, when one person does a certain mitzvah, it is as if all of the Jews did it. However, there is one requirement for this to be true: the Jewish people must be united, but not in a shallow way, but as a moment in true unity. Perhaps the reason the Jews received the Torah at the moment they did was because it was a moment when the individual could fulfill his or her obligation to do every mitzvah. Perhaps the event in this moment of time is the unity of the Jewish people, and the Torah is a result of the unity. It would emerge that Matan Torah was not determined for a date, but for a moment when the Jews met certain conditions.

Division between Jews is an illusion that is too often viewed as an unfortunate reality. It destroyed the Beit HaMikdash and it prevents the return of the Jews to the Beit HaMikdash. To be the best individual, and the best person, a Jew must commit to the whole. Halachah expresses this in many forms: “BeRov Am Hadrat Melech,” “Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh La Zeh,” and countless other examples. The question is, Does the Jew internalize this, or practice it robotically?