Preparing for Kabbalat HaTorah

Parshat Bechukotai

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Every day we say in the last paragraph of our Shmoneh Esrei, 

“My God, guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceitfully. To those who curse me let my soul be silent. And let my soul be like dust to everyone. Open my heart to your Torah, then my soul will pursue Your commandments. As for all those who design evil against me, speedily nullify their counsel and disrupt their design. Act for Your Name’s sake; act for Your right hand’s sake; act for your sanctity’s sake; act for Your Torah’s sake. That your beloved ones may be given rest; let You, right hand save, and respond to me. 

 May the expressions of my mouth and thoughts of my heart find favor before You Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer 

He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace upon us, and upon all Israel. Now respond, Amen.” 

 The line Open my heart to your Torah, then my soul will pursue Your commandments is one which should be quite compelling at this time of year. After all, next Saturday night we will begin celebrating Shavuos, the holiday of מתן תורתינו, and therefore the gift that is the Torah. 

 Another line we say daily, this is in the final bracha before the morning recitation of Shema: 

“Our Father, the merciful Father, Who acts mercifully, have mercy upon us, instill in our hearts to understand and elucidate, to listen, to learn, to teach, to safeguard, perform and fulfill all the words of Your Torah’s teaching with love. Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah, attach our hearts to Your commandments, and unify our hearts to love and fear Your name…” 

 After the opening verses of the Parsha which speak of certain blessings which will come when we fulfill אם בחקתי תלכו, we read: 10 verses later, we heard the following (translation is from “The Living Torah”): [But this is what will happen] if you do not listen to Me, and do not keep all these commandments. If you come to denigrate My decrees, and grow tired of My laws, then you will not keep all My commandments, and you will have broken My covenant. I will then do the same to you. I will bring upon you feelings of anxiety, along with depression and excitement, destroying your outlook and making life hopeless. [26:14-16] 

 It seems very clear as to what will be causing the bad times. “You will thus be destroyed among the nations. The land of your enemies will consume you. The few of you who survive in your enemies' lands will [realize that] your survival is threatened as a result of your nonobservance. [These few] will also [realize] that their survival has been threatened because of the nonobservance of their fathers. They will then confess their sins and the sins of their fathers for being false and remaining indifferent to Me. [It was for this] that I also remained indifferent to them, and brought them into their enemies' land. But when the time finally comes that their stubborn spirit is humbled, I will forgive their sin. I will remember My covenant with Jacob as well as My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham. I will remember the land.” [26:38-42] 

These messages from the Torah can remind us that life almost has a very simple goal and formula. For each of us, our task is not to focus on others and what they do. Our goal is in making ourselves the best version of ourselves we can become. We can hopefully find answers to life’s most vexing questions if our focus is on our Avodas Hashem (service of God) and our engaging with His Torah. 

 Which leads to a very simple realization: We have one job. 

Our job is to try to weed out the noise, the distractions, and focus on our relationship with God.  Every single day. 

 This is very hard – after all, we want to be in touch with what’s going on in the world. We certainly don’t want to seem out of touch. But the more we engage with the things which distract us from our mission as עבדי ה', we have failed in our mission. 

 We can enjoy life! Of course we should! As a matter of fact, in Parshas Va’Eschanan, immediately after the Torah gives us the second accounting of the Aseres HaDibros, the version we do not read on Shavuos, Moshe recounts to the people what Hashem had told him at that time. 

 “If only their hearts would always remain this way, where they are in such awe of Me. They would then keep all My commandments for all time, so that it would go well with them and their children forever. 'Go tell them to return to their tents. You, however, must remain here with Me. I will declare to you all the rules and laws that you shall teach them, so they will keep them in the land that I am giving them to occupy.' (Devarim 5:26-28) 

 Netziv writes on the “return to their tents” passage: לחיי בשרים ותענוגות בני האדם כטבע האנושי. To your lives of fleshiness and the kind of pleasures of people, as is human nature. 

 Moshe continues and tells them that “through all that – do not forget to do all that God has commanded, don’t turn to the right or to the left.” (Devarim 5:29) 

 So yes - enjoy life. But also - keep the mitzvos. Don’t just be a decent Jew, or a good Jew, but be an incredible Jew. 

 We can certainly begin in one arena: There is a week before Shavuos. Anyone can start a small learning project and make a siyum on it in honor of Shavuos. 

 Pick an article or a book on Jewish thought. Or Jewish law. A musser book. 

Pick a parsha in the Torah to learn. 

 Read through 20 chapters of Tehillim a day over the next 8 days. 150 chapters. Finish Tehillim. 

 Pick a short mesechet of Mishnayot! The following mesechtot are either relatively easy or relatively shorter. Avot. Bikkurim – which is relevant to a mitzvah surrounding Shavuos. Beitzah. Horayot. Zavim. Chalah. TVul Yom. Yadayim. Megillah. Moed Katan. Makkos. Uktzin. Orlah. Kinnim. Rosh Hashana. Taanis. 

 Many of the books in Trei Asar – the last book of Navi – are short. 

 Yoel, OVadiah, Yonah, Nachum, Chabakuk, Zefaniah, Chaggai, Malachi.

The book of Ruth, which we’ll be reading on Shavuos, is 4 chapters, and it is mostly narrative. Study it with a commentary! 

 You can open Maimonides: The Rambam dedicates 3 chapters to the laws of Milah, 3 chapters to Hilchos Naarah Besulah, 4 chapters on Hilchos Sotah. 5 Chapters on laws of Avodas Yom HaKippurim, 3 chapters to the laws of Tzitzis. 4 chapters to the laws of Krias Shema. 

 Laws of Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav are 8 chapters – but broken down into each of those sections being 2 or 3 chapters. Tefillin Mezuzah and Sefer Torah has 10 chapters, but follows a similar formula in that each topic is presented separately for 3 or 4 chapters. The laws of Talmud Torah – another great topic to prepare for Shavuos! 

 This is what we pray for daily. This is what we pray for weekly.

Hopefully we all know how to enjoy life in the manner the Netziv was describing. שובו לכם לאהליכם. Return home! ENJOY! 

 But how many of us are prepared to follow the next instruction, “But you stand with me”? True that was given to Moshe. But shouldn’t we be doing the most we can to emulate Moshe? God’s message to him was “I will learn with you.”

 If we mean it when we ask God פתח לבי בתורתך ואחרי מצוותיך תרדף נפשי = Open my heart to your Torah, then my soul will pursue Your commandments and if we mean it when we say ותן בלבנו בינה להבין ולהשכיל לשמוע ללמד וללמד לשמור ולעשות וקיים את כל דברי תלמוד תורתיך באהבה. והאר עינינו בתורתיך ודבק לבנו במצותיך – instill in our hearts to understand and elucidate, to listen, to learn, to teach, to safeguard, perform and fulfill all the words of Your Torah’s teaching with love. Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah, attach our hearts to Your commandments - then we ought to stand by our words. 

 Sometimes we need a reminder. So this is it. 

 May we all take the bracha, and may we all merit to make a siyum on something. All Torah learning is good. Any project undertaken and completed is incredible 

 We have one more week to make a kinyan on Torah in preparation for Matan Torah. May we only be so worthy!