It is customary for the Jewish family to hear the Ten Commandments in the synagogue on the first day of Shavuot. Experience this special moment with your children this holiday!
These ten commands range from the highest and most refined concepts of the belief in the oneness of G-d, to the most basic laws which every society has found necessary to enforce, i.e. no killing, no stealing.
1. I am the Lord your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt.
2. You shall have no other gods before Me.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord your G-d in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Do not commit murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not covet what your neighbor has.
The Best Guarantors
Before G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, he demanded guarantors who would ensure its preservation. The Jews suggested many great people, but their proposals were all rejected by G-d. Finally, they declared, “Our children will be our guarantors”—the generations to come would continue to observe and cherish the Torah. G-d immediately accepted these guarantors and agreed to give the Torah to the Jewish people.
Indeed, we see that throughout history our people’s connection to the Torah has been dependent upon the Jewish children. The enemies of our people understood this concept well, and they sought to prevent Jewish children from receiving a Torah education in their attempts to destroy our faith. As we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, we must reaffirm our commitment to providing a true Torah education for our children—our only guarantors.
A Pivotal Moment in History
Our sages tell us that the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai was a defining moment in the history of humanity.
What really happened on the sixth day of Sivan, 2448?
And why is it so significant in our everyday lives today?
“The heavens belong to the Lord,” says King David in the Psalms, “but the earth, He gave to humankind.” With these words, King David describes the original human condition in a nutshell.
We live in a down-to-earth, mundane, material world. The spiritual essence of things is hidden from us. We go through life, trying to do the best we can with that which we are given, but without knowing the true heavenly purpose of our existence, we often stumble, and sometimes fall.
With the revelation at Sinai, that reality began to change. For the very first time, heaven touched down upon earth, and earthly beings acquired the ability to lift themselves up above the mundane, to unite with the Divine. And the sages explain that now, ever since the giving of the Torah, this breakthrough event is re-enacted each time we perform a Divine commandment. The mitzvot are our every day practical means of bringing heaven down to earth, and elevating this material world back up to its spiritual source.
Preparing for perfection
Had the almighty desired to establish an instantaneous spiritual paradise on earth, surely He could have done so. Clearly, this was not His plan. Even after Sinai, it takes effort and dedication on our part to bring heaven and earth together. We must exert ourselves to do the mitzvot. Each mitzvah we perform (the very word “mitzvah” comes from the Hebrew “tzavta,” or “connection”) connects the physical with the spiritual.
The rewards of a mitzvah are immeasurable: our actions can bring about a powerful revelation of Godliness in this everyday world, and enable us to actually experience our oneness with G-d.
When, for example, we take physical ink and parchment, write a Mezuzah, and place it on the doorpost in accordance with the Torah commandment, we bring heavenly revelation into the home, and raise up those physical objects to a higher spiritual plane. Or when we eat kosher food, and say the appropriate blessings over the food, we elevate the mundane act of eating with holy purpose, and bring spirituality into our inner lives.
So too, with the mitzvot of human interaction. With every Torah-inspired act of kindness we perform, we bring Divine loving-kindness down into this world and make our own human character traits that much more Divine.
The cumulative effect of all these mitzvot is to prepare the world for the ultimate unification of the physical and material, with the coming of the true and complete redemption of Moshiach. Then, there will no longer be barriers between heaven and earth. We will be able to see the very essence of spiritual reality with our mortal eyes, and we will live together, in peace and harmony, amidst material and spiritual abundance. May it occur speedily, immediately, in our days!
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Rabbi David Laine is the director of Chabad Vocational Schools.
