B"H Parshath Yithro Yitzhak Kolakowski ------- "Blessed art Thou, O L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, Who has chosen us out of all the peoples and given us His Torah. Blessed art Thou, O L-rd, Giver of the Torah." (Blessings over the Torah) ---------- "Ashrenu! Mah tov helkenu! Mah na'im goralenu! Mah yafeh yerushathenu!" "We are happy! How good is our portion! How lovely is our lot! How beautiful is our inheritance!" (Morning liturgy) ---------- My dear and lovely friends, even though we say these words every morning, do we ever stop to think about how much Hashem loves us, even the entire world, in that He revealed His true living word to us. My dear brothers and sisters! There is no comparison between Hashem's Holy Torah which He gave us and, lehavdil elef havdaloth, the religions of the world. (so much so that it would be offensive to many Gedolim to call the Torah "religion". The Torah does not fit into any category. See the writings of Rav S.R. Hirsch) If you look at the false religions of the world, they all begin with one person receiving a prophecy from heaven, and going to people with miracles, the people accepted with blind faith the words of their 'prophet' and the religion just begins to spread. In all of the religions it was either one person or a small group receiving prophecy. On the other hand... "Behold! I come to you in a thick cloud, that THE PEOPLE MAY HEAR when I speak with you, and that they may BELIEVE YOU FOREVER!" (Our Parsha: Exodus 19:9) "And ALL THE PEOPLE saw the voices and the lightning, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking." (ibid. 20:15) "And HaShem said to Moshe, this is what you should say to Bnei Yisrael: 'YOU YOURSELVES HAVE SEEN THAT I TALKED TO YOU FROM HEAVEN!'" (ibid. v. 19) "Yisrael does not believe in Moshe Rabbenu just because of the miracles he did, because if we believed him on account of miracles it is possible that we may think he used science or magic to perform the miracle. Rather all the miracles Moshe Rabbenu performed were because they were neccessary... This is true with all of the miracles. If this is so, why then do we believe (in the Torah)? On account of the Revelation at Har Sinai, which our own eyes saw, and not those of a stranger, which our own ears heard, and not others. The fire, and the voices, and the lightnings... Before this there was no reason to accept this as fact..." (Rambam. Hilkoth Yesodei HaTorah 8:1) Just as there are so many witnesses for a baseball game, and thus it is ridiculous to say that there was one if there wasn't or that there wasn't if there indeed was, thus is the same with our Torah. All of our ancestors, millions of people, all heard the voice of the Living G-d say "I am HaShem your G-d who took you out of the land of Mitzrayim." We are all children of prophets. Indeed, "The Torah of HaShem is perfect, restoring the soul." (Psalms 19:8) Why did HaShem do this? Because He loves the world which He made, and He wanted to have a relationship with it. He loves us above all the nations, we are His "own treasure from among all the peoples" (Ex. 19:5). By giving us His true word, He made us, you and me and every Jew, a noble and exalted race, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (ibid. v. 6) to declare to the entire world that there is a G-d Who loves us and wants the best for us, Who knows better than us and had perscribed the ways of everlasting happiness. To let everyone know that "the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3). Indeed, in the words of the Noam Elimelech (Rebbe Elimelech of Lizensk), the entire Torah was only given so that the world would know those words He said to us, "I am HaShem YOUR G-d." (Ibid 20:2) May Hashem take the fire of the Torah, the ultimate truth, and "Cleanse our heart to serve Him, with Truth." i.e. cleanse us with that very Truth which is a cleansing fire to bring us to His service, even to the purpose for all of Creation. With love of HaShem, Israel, and Torah, I wish you all a very Gut Shabbos!