Shabbat Parashat Naso 5785

Parashat Hashavua: On the Giving of the Torah, Light, Time, and Place

This week we celebrate Shavuot, commemorating the day the Torah was given to Israel at Sinai and passed on “from Sinai” (see Avot 1:1). The Torah is compared to light – “For a commandment is a candle, and Torah is light” (Mishlei 6:23). We will explore the Torah’s significance in terms of time and place and its connection to light.

Shavuot is the only Jewish holiday whose exact date is not found in the Torah. Indeed, it is observed on the “50^th day,” following seven full weeks of counting, starting with “the day after the shabbat” (Vayikra 23:16) i.e., the day after the first day of Pesach. Since fundamentally, Iyar and Sivan can each be either 29 or 30 days, the date of Shavuot is not set (prior to the setting of the calendar 16-17 centuries ago).

The Torah was given at Sinai, a region whose location we know, but the specific mountain is unclear. We do not find that Am Yisrael ever turned Mt. Sinai into a “holy site,” at which one should serve Hashem, or attributed special halachot to it.  

One can perform the Torah’s commandments only in a physical place (preferably, Eretz Yisrael), and while living under a framework of time. On the other hand, one can “break free” from the physical constraints of time and place – through Torah study!  When learning Torah, we try to separate ourselves from our physical place and connect to the Makom (play on word between place and a reference to Hashem) of the world. We should raise ourselves up to the Heavens, which is also a spiritual term, and is also called Makom (see last week’s d’var Torah). Torah study enables us to build lofty spiritual worlds, beyond the physical world, that are not governed by time.

Indeed, Torah study frees us from the bonds of time, because Tanach came to us from the Heavens, and the Heavens is a place that is not a place and does not have time. This is a reason that one of the principles of biblical exegesis is “there is no earlier and later in the Torah.” The Torah is a lesson in existence, which relates to all elements of time – past, present, and future. The thoughts that Torah evokes remove physical constraints to freedom – “there is no free person like one who studies Torah.”

The tablets given at Sinai were “produced by G-d, and the writing was the writing of G-d, charut (lit., engraved) on the tablets.” Pirkei Avot (6:2) instructs to read it as cheirut (freedom) on the tablets. (This connects us to Pesach and its companion holiday, Yom Ha’atzmaut.)

The Torah is compared to light. Light is at the edge of the material world; on its other side is energy. The speed of light is one of the material world’s boundaries, and it is part of the Einsteinian equation that connects physical mass to energy.

The Torah was given, starting with the Ten Commandments. The world was created with ten divine utterings (Avot 5:1), the first being “Let there be light” (Bereishit 1:3). This hints at the connection between light and Torah.

We pray that the light of the Torah will illuminate the world. Let all nations seek Torah in Jerusalem, the “light of the world.” May evil be destroyed, and goodness flourish. May the hostages return, the injured be healed, and consolation be felt in the houses of our dear fallen brethren. May unity lead us in our personal and national lives, on our way to full liberation.

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