I will share with you a very strange story from the Talmud. The Sages encoded deep ideas into such stories. This story conveys a profound truth about who we are, what Torah is, and why we were given the Torah.
When Moses ascended to Heaven to get the Torah, the ministering angels said to the Holy One, praised be He, "Sovereign of the universe, what is one born of a woman doing among us?" In other words, what is this imperfect human being doing among perfect beings? How could mortal man ascend to the level of angels?
"He has come to receive the Torah," responded God. "He's not staying. He just came to pick something up -- the Torah."
The angels were even more upset. "What?! Are You about to bestow upon frail man such a cherished treasure? How can You give human beings your holy Torah? Keep it in heaven. Give it to us!"
Accepting the Torah means you are accepting a Divine mission.
People often say that the Torah is a manual for living from God. But it is really more than that. It is an assignment from God. The Torah is a mission from God to be performed on God's behalf. That's why the Torah was in the angelic realm. An angel is an agent for God appointed to perform a divine mission. Man also has the opportunity to perform a mission on behalf of God. Accepting the Torah means you are accepting a Divine mission. You become a Divine agent. According to Jewish law, if you appoint someone to be your agent, he is equipotent to yourself. You have given him your power of attorney, to act on your behalf. This is the amazing power, responsibility, and privilege entrusted to us through Torah.
The angels did not know what was in the Torah. All they knew was that God must really cherish this mission if He had been holding on to it for so long time and had not yet appointed anyone to perform it. When Moses showed up to receive the Torah, they were in absolute shock. All this time, they had heard about this incredible, lofty, exalted mission, and who does God finally chose to entrust it to? A human! This is absurd. Humans are such lowly creatures, filled with base inclinations and evil deeds. Humans are going to act on God's behalf?!
God says to Moses, "You have to respond to these angels' complaints." In other words, you have to understand why you deserve this mission. What are your qualifications?
Most people think that the theme of Torah is about believing in God. That's only half the story. Torah is also about believing in yourself. To accept Torah, you must have a tremendous amount of self-esteem. You must believe that you are worthy to be God's agent on Earth -- you were sent here to fulfill a sacred mission.
The message of Shavuot is: You are important and significant to God. You have been given the opportunity to represent the Almighty. You have been entrusted with His power of attorney to act on his behalf.
Arguing with the Angels
God says to Moses, "I cannot answer for you. Unless you realize for yourself what your qualifications are, you can't be entrusted with the mission."
Moses holds on to the Holy Throne, and is charged with amazing confidence to face the angels. In their presence, he asks God, "What's in Your Torah?"
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt."
Moses then challenges the angels, "Did you go to Egypt and serve Pharaoh? What relevance is the Torah to you?" In other words, Moses argues, "Did you have to serve Pharaoh? Were you oppressed slaves for 210 years?"
The angels concede. They had lived only a perfect blissful life in heaven.
Moses continues to make his case, "God, what else is written in Your Torah?"
"Thou shalt not have other gods."
Moses confronts the angels, "Are you living among nations who worship idols?"
To really understand Moses' question you need to appreciate what idolatry was really all about. Idolatry was a lot of fun. Most idolatrous practices revolved around sexual promiscuity. The idolaters believed that orgies were a service to their gods. Therefore Moses' point to the angels was, "Do you live in a society which challenges you daily with constant allurements and seductions?"
The angels say, "Nahh, we're angels!"
Moses continues, "God, what else is in the Torah?"
"Keep the Shabbat. Honor your father and mother. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal."
"Angels," Moses challenges, "do you work hard? Do you need rest? Do you have fathers and mothers that you have to honor? Does jealousy exist among you? Do you have an evil inclination?"
These are the qualifications Moses presented to merit the mission of Torah for humankind: We live in a materialistic society filled with daily seductions. That's why we should get the Torah! We qualify for this mission because we make so many mistakes. We are inundated with problems and challenges from within and without. We are perfect for this job, because we are so imperfect! So the next time you call us "born of a woman," say it with respect.
The angels are indeed impressed. They even want to befriend humankind, and give Moses useful secrets to help humans in their difficult mission.
Human Goodness Inc
What is the mission of Torah? It is to overcome negative and destructive urges and choose goodness. Goodness that has been chosen is the highest form of goodness. We are highly qualified for this mission because we are inclined to the allurements and seductions. We are able to fail, but also to succeed. We are able to destroy, but also to build. We are able to choose to do great evil, but also to choose to do amazing good.
Angels are perfect; they have no negative inclination. They have no free choice. They can't struggle. They can't fail. They cannot choose goodness.
Our mission, if we're willing to accept it, is to choose goodness. This is how we serve God. Angels sing God's praises in a perfect heavenly world. However, human praises surpass those of the angels because we praise God from Earth, soiled with imperfections, problems, and challenges. This is our greatness.
A person can stand in Torah only after he has failed at it.
God does not expect us to be perfect. In fact, if we were perfect, we could not have qualified for the mission of Torah. The Talmud teaches that a person can stand in Torah only after he has failed at it. In other words, part of the mission of Torah is to fail, regret, resolve, change, choose goodness, and succeed. We humans are the perfect candidates for the job.
When the angels understood this, they gave Moses gifts -- useful secrets. They wanted to invest in the human enterprise. They wanted to be shareholders in Human Goodness Inc. If you can't work for the company, at least invest in it, and enjoy dividends as a shareholder.
God is the major investor in Human Goodness Inc. God invested a spark of the Divine Self in human beings in order to participate in this world. This is the meaning of the mystical tradition that teaches that God desires to be in this world. God lives and participates in this world through you and me -- if we accept the mission. This is the real meaning of God creating man in His image.
Every human being has the potential to be an agent and vehicle for God. Everything we do can be for God's sake. This is the greatest honor and pleasure a person could experience. To live for myself is no great honor, but to live for God, to choose goodness for God's sake -- this is Heaven on Earth.
(13) Neicee, May 24, 2015 3:23 PM
Rabbi David Aaron
As always, Rabbi Aaron knocks it out of the ballpark. I have many of his books and they've inspired me to always keep a prayer in my heart and try to live up to what G-d expects us to do. After all, ours is such a short life we should be able to hold it together until that great day of judgement. Please Aish, feature more of Rabbi Aaron's work. Thank you, this is so enlightening, and uplifting, followed by a great sense of humor.
(12) Angel, June 3, 2014 4:24 AM
Ty
Teacher David...thanks from my heart!
(11) Anonymous, November 3, 2010 3:07 PM
R. David Aaron writings lifts you up into the realm of God. His message here is for all year around. Would like to see more writings on Aish by R. David Aaron. Such simple words with great gains. Chaim Elimeliah has the gift of writing from personal experience, enjoyed your piece.
(10) betzelel galut, May 28, 2009 10:42 AM
wow that was an awesome article
wow that was an awesome article. very much needed encouragement for where i am at in life. todah rabbah!!! and chagg simach!!
(9) esther, June 8, 2008 1:01 AM
thank you
thank you, very inspiring and definitley an important reminder to people like me who have perfectionist personalities.
chag samaech
(8) Anonymous, June 5, 2008 10:47 AM
wow
completely inspring and so interesting
(7) Anonymous, May 23, 2007 3:07 PM
WOW
Incredibly inspiring. Thanks.
(6) Anonymous, May 13, 2007 9:42 AM
very good
Rabbi David Aaron is a very wise the way he portrait the Kabbalah , i enjoy very much his
book all my friend bouth it.
(5) Chaim Elimeliah, June 1, 2006 12:00 AM
Shavuot - Harvest Season
I often times like to think about and study where we get our various traditions for holidays and mitzvot, and when these holidays and miztvot were officially “branded” so to say. Shevuot is one holiday that gets me thinking about what exactly it is all about...
Most of us live in a very complex world where we need certain signs or mnemonic devices and digital devices to help us remember or experience the essence of something we are involved in. Our world consists of such great detail and precision that it is sometimes hard to make sense of it all in a big picture point of view. We can tend to get caught up in details of details of detail and simply miss the whole point of whatever it is we are trying to accomplish. We all have various devices clipped to our belts that help us remember times, appointments, schedules, emails, sports scores, who won American Idol, stocks, and so on, yet based on the sad state of our great nation we seem to forget what is really important in life. Perhaps we need a mitzvah Blackberry that has the names and profiles of all those that are dear to us and to schedule in life events, tragedies, mitzvot, and appointments to speak nicely and to treat others with respect, to make sure your friend has what to eat or your distant cousin 5 times removed has a job, maybe that guy on the train you see every morning would like to learn a bit of Torah from 181st to 59th street? These are all small little details that we overlook in our observant lives.
I work in a very competitive and creative industry, we go over every single tiny detail possible when doing business, we also make it our business to know all the various roles of a project or business deal, how people feel, what kind of stresses they have, how it impacts our projects and the overall emotional state of our co-workers. Why? Because we want money! I find that within our communities we fail miserably in doing what we do at work. Professionalism needs to be practiced within Judaism as well; we all need to be professional Jews. What does it mean to be a professional Jew? Well I am a huge basketball fan, I love the game! I love the drama and all the players. These men are mostly from under privileged homes who have all worked very hard to be where they are today, not only have they worked hard to get where they are at but they also need to maintain a certain professional attitude and composure or they get kicked out of the league and lose millions of potential dollars. They must dress properly, they must respect their fellow competitors, they must follow strict rules and they have the entire world making sure they are doing it too! Now that pressure.
As Jews we were given a set of rules, these rules were given to us by God in order to serve as his personal nation of priests to the rest of the world. He chose us to be the moral elite and to shine a light into the darkest places and emanate his greatness throughout the world. Mitzvot are our slam dunks, our behind the back passes and our alley oops, they are our ways to showboat our abilities and our God given talents to be moral and loving, understanding and intelligent human beings. They are meant to be what conditions us as people to act properly when situations call for us to act, to make the right decisions and to make sure that everyone involved is treated with respect and fair judgment. They are the regular season where we grind it out and try our best to make the playoffs and eventually win the championship! Unfortunately we haven’t won a championship in centuries, but the Clippers got close so that gives me hope that redemption is on its way.
This may all sound very strange to some of you, and many may be asking “What the heck does this have to do with Shevuot?” Well I will tell you. Shevuot literally means WEEKS and is the time when we harvest our crops and gather our offerings to our Temple and our priests. It is also the time when we as a nation were “harvested” literally by God and taken on a spiritual journey to ultimately be given the Torah. As Jews we love our symbols, we have Matzah on Passover, we have the Shofar on Rosh Hashana, we have the Menorah on Chanuka, but Shevuot is kind of blurred. Some people have flowers, other may eat cheesecake, others learn Torah all night. There seems to be no specific theme that entirely encompasses Shevuot, and even those who do have a theme are not as strict about it as say Passover. I never see anyone rushing out and spending hundreds of dollars on flowers, then checking them, arranging them perfectly, nor do I ever see kiosks and stores and tables outside lined with cheesecake, people battling to get the perfect one like they would an etrog and lulav. So what is Shevuot all about?
So here is my take on the whole thing. Shevuot is a convergence of spiritual and physical rewards. Yes rewards. We as a nation traversed the wilderness; we went through trials and tribulations and finally made it to Sinai only to sin a few more times literally minutes before we got our ultimate reward, the Torah. But our reward is not a vacation in paradise, it is not a nice bonus and it’s definitely not a gold watch. Our reward is a set of rules, a playbook to follow and a script to base our decisions against. It requires responsibility, seriousness and control. It expects us to give 110% of ourselves all the time and wants us to achieve our maximum potential and ultimately it will help us to become whole, healthy and happy people who have insight and understanding of the world and our Creator. That’s one side of Shevuot, the flip side is the physical reward, the harvest! Shevuot in the time of the Bet Hamikdash was a totally different holiday, it was when we would harvest our crops and make the long trek to Jerusalem to see our old friends, to eat and to talk, to bring korbanot and to bring ourselves closer to Hashem through repentance and to our fellow man through camaraderie and sharing in this great festival. It was a grand ol’ time, if you think your Memorial Day BBQ was good, this would put any Texas BBQ to shame. Fresh meat and vegetables, holy people, live music, Hashem’s presence, what more could a Jew want?
Shevuot is the culmination of the spiritual and physical rewards in this world. It represents the fruits of our labor. The wonderful deeds our mitzvoth accomplish as well as the wonderful fruits our fields yield. Just like our fields bring fourth food and goodness so do we as people bring fourth goodness, we grow our deeds within us and on Shevuot we should harvest them, take inventory of who we are and what we want to do with our lives. We should think about how Hashem literally “grew” us from Adam until Moshe and then harvested us at Sinai and made us his own. We too should follow in the path of Hashem and grow our deeds, our mitzvoth and then harvest them, bring them up to Hashem and look at all the hard work we have done all year and enjoy our rewards, our Torah, our parnassah and yes even our cheesecake and flowers!
CHAG SOMAYACH!!!!!!!!!
Chaim Elimeliah
(4) Andrey Priger, May 30, 2006 12:00 AM
A useful reminding
This essay written in plain simple words expresses the main ideas that we have to understand and constantly be thinking of.
I express my gratitude to Rabbi David Aaron and further will be your thankful reader.
(3) Alex Talkar, May 29, 2006 12:00 AM
Amaziing Article
Thank you Rabbi David Aaron for such a wonderful & inspiring insights of Torah.
(2) Jerald Gould, May 28, 2006 12:00 AM
Boruch Hashem--From Everlasting To Everlasting --There Is No Other
Dear Rabbi David Aaron : I enjoyed your little story , even though in parts it sounded somewhat like a fairy-tale ? Of course aside from that, I do fully agree that we were given the Torah to help us with our imperfections & to realize that through communication with Boruch Hashem, & He with us, we were not only given free will that even the Angels do not possess, but were imbued with His Consciousness, to determine right from wrong & good from bad & therefore received a small slice of His Divinity. Why did G-D call out to Abram & Moses ? I believe He needed messengers here on earth to impart His Torah , His Divine & Holy Commandments that are truly Man's only Roadmap To Peace , if we but follow Him . It is indeed a Mitzvah above all Mitzvahs for which we give continual thanks upon awakening & retiring. In this present world of chaos & unbeleivable inhumainity, we must come even closer to G-D for our everyday survival .
What say you ?
Respectfully---Jerald Gould .
(1) Denise, May 28, 2006 12:00 AM
A great reminder
I am so disappointed when I don't live up to the standards I set for myself. This was a wonderful reminder that we are not perfect by nature and also a new twist on the explanation of why we were granted the Torah.