Tzvi Moshe Kantor On Shavuos - DEEP!

Let’s talk a little bit about the centrality of Torah and the deeper essence of Shavuos.
There is a famous Gemara in Messeches Shabbos that talks about Kabbalas HaTorah. The Gemara says there that at Matan Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu took Har Sinai and held it over the heads of the Jewish people. He laid down a threat, an ultimatum. He said to them, “If you accept the Torah – great; if not, I’ll crush you with this mountain.” We accepted.
In the Kuntres HaBechira, Rav Dessler gives a definition to what choice really is. I only have free will, Bechira Chafshis when the options I have are reasonably close to one another. If I would Chas V’Shalom tell my son, ‘Go to school or I’ll break your nose’ it’s not much of a choice for him to pick going to school. Even though both options are there, I have in effect taken away his free choice. Based on this definition, God clearly took away our choice in the matter of Kabbalas HaTorah.

Rav Kook in his explanation of the aforementioned Gemara presents us with another fundamental Jewish-philosophical approach to the nature of choice. When possibilities are laid out before me, I am free to choose between those options. Those choices are the playing field on which I have the opportunity to achieve self-improvement or God forbid the opposite. That being said there is one factor that will always remain our of my control: I must choose. No matter where I am holding, regardless of the situation, I am constantly making choices. I can’t make a single movement without that movement being based on a choice to do so. Even in a moment where I decide to take the back seat and let others make the choices for me - that in itself was a choice!

He goes on to explain that in light of this concept, choice is intrinsic to the human experience. I didn’t enter life through my free choice; I didn’t choose to be here. I am here. At the exact same level of centrality I don’t have the ability to not choose, I must choose. I choose therefore I am. Bechira, my ability to make choices is Etzem HaChayim, it’s intrinsically part of my life. Inasmuch as I am alive, I am choosing.


The choices that I make and the results that they cause are exterior to me. Chocolate or vanilla (or neither) is a choice that is not intrinsic to my being and existence. That is because any time that I am choosing, I am choosing between factors that are outside of me. The fact that I choose is a must – that is me. The factors between which I am choosing are not me, they are my surroundings. The options are not nearly as relevant to me as the fact that I actually make the choice between them.

He develops the idea even further. The Torah is not an exterior factor to me. In the same way that we said that because they are so intrinsically part of me, life is above choice and even choice is beyond choice – so too Torah is equally essential and inherent to my being. Eitz Chayim Hi, inasmuch as I am connected to Torah, I’m connected to life itself! Torah is the central point around which my whole life surrounds. V’Chayeh Olam Nata B’Socheinu. My existence is predicated on the Torah, and the more I connect, the more I justify and concretize my life!
The opposite is also true. When I go against the Torah and Ratzon Hashem I am acting out of my nature. I am extending outside of my instinctive spirit. A lack of connection to Torah is a deficit in my connection to myself! A flaw in my relationship to Torah is an intrinsic flaw in me.
This is why Hashem took away the free choice when it came to accepting the Torah. Because if Torah acceptance remained at a level of free choice then it automatically remains at a level that is exterior to the recipients (those recipients being the Jewish people.) Hashem gave the Torah in a way that superseded exterior choices to illustrate the point that Torah is intrinsic to my life in the same way that my ability to choose is, and therefore (based on the formula above) Torah is as intrinsic to my life as life itself!

The Ramchal explains that at Har Sinai, more that getting the Torah, the Jewish people received their unique power to send shockwaves through the universe. The actions of a Jewish Neshama send very consequential ripples throughout the entirety of the created order. Our choices have powerful meaning. We’ll come back to this.

The Arizal famously says that the man is a mini, microcosmic world, and the world at large is really a big, macrocosmic man. Thus, what we say about man also applies to the universe as a whole. Putting all this together we can achieve a new, even more profound approach to the abovementioned.

There is another Gemara later on that explains another threat that Hashem gave the Jewish people, “If you accept the Torah, great. If not, I’ll return the world back to nothingness.” What’s the meaning here? Maybe we can suggest the same concepts apply here. There is a famous line in the Zohar that says “Istakel B’Oraisa V’Bara Alma” – Hashem looked into the Torah, and from it created the world. The Torah is the blueprint; it is the very fabric of reality. In the same way that negating the Torah is negating a central aspect of myself, so too, if the Torah on the whole is rejected, then by the power of the Jewish people the universal consciousness looses it’s innermost point as well! Take that out of the picture and the world automatically collapses on itself and returns to nothingness! A rejection of the Torah renders a personal and universal end!
What does this entire concept boil down to? My connection to Torah is not extending outside of myself, quite the opposite actually. My connection to Torah is a return to self. My relationship with Hashem and my connection with His Torah are central, intrinsic factors to who I am as a person. They are a part of me as much as my life is! Torah is the focal point of the universe and of my life. The more I connect to that, the more I give the world it’s centrality and the more I give my life meaning.

This is really the underlying theme of the Chag HaShavuos. Hashem is trying to convey to us exactly how important my relationship to Him is. This is it. It doesn’t get anymore important or central than this. My relationship to Torah and Ratzon Hashemare the central peg upon which my existence and the existence of the whole universe balances upon! The more I connect to Torah and through that to Hashem, automatically I am weaving together myself an the universe in total harmony.

To take this message even more down to earth: This whole spirituality thing is my life. It's just not something I associate with, rather it is something much deeper, it is the definition of who I am. So if someone or something comes along and tires to make me compromise that, they are trying to take my life from me! I am a vessel of Ratzon Hashem, and the whole universe is relying on me, so how can anything cause me to compromise that? This is my life! This is who I am!


B’Ezras Hashem we should be Zocheh to such a lofty outlook. We should come to realize exactly how crucial my Avodas Hashem is. It’s not something outside of me, exterior to me. It is me. It is the very makeup of the universe and my soul. The more we come in tune with such a perspective the more we come to harmonize everything. If we can do that there is no doubt we will live lives of meaning, fulfillment and happiness, moving to closer to the Creator and through that to the redemption!