Keys for Receiving the Torah

History Repeats Itself 

The holy Torah is not a history book; rather, it’s a book of hora’a – instructions for life in this world. The holy Torah contains not only mitzvahs and halachas (laws), but also stories and descriptions – all of which are instructions for life! 

We are in the middle of the days of Sefirat HaOmer (the counting between Pesach and Shavuot), in fact we’re getting close to the end. Towards what are we counting? Where do we want to get to? To the festival of the Giving of the Torah! The counting is the preparation for receiving the Torah.  

Kabbalat HaTorah (Receiving the Torah) was not a one-time event; rather, it’s an event that is renewed every year – and even every day. Every new understanding we reach, and every deepening of our study, every spiritual advancement, every new daat (understanding) we acquire – every such thing is a miniature Kabbalat HaTorah. 

Therefore, everything that the Torah tells us about the original Matan Torah must reappear whenever we want to acquire daat and a new understanding of Torah, whenever we experience a personal Matan Torah. 

In the first Matan Torah, as is well known, it says regarding the Jewish people that vayichan – “they camped (in the singular), facing the mountain.”¹ Rashi explains: “Like one man, with one heart.” That means that the entire event of receiving the Torah at Sinai was dependent on all Jews being completely united during those great days. 

This continues today as well in every type of Kabbalat HaTorah. And so, if we wish to merit receiving the Torah, personally and communally, we must strengthen the unity among us. Every increase in true ahavat Yisrael (Love of fellow Jews), in viewing people favorably, in judging them favorably – constructs vessels for the receiving of Torah, in other words, prepares the way for us to receive some new insight, some new opinion, or clearer emuna (faith). 

Love Makes One Wiser 

According to this, it is easy to understand Rabbi Nachman’s statement that the segula for learning Torah diligently is not to say anything bad about any Jew. You might ask, What’s the connection? But according to our introduction here it is clear: Ahavat Yisrael is always the introduction to receiving the Torah. Only when you are connected to all other Jews with love, can you connect yourself to the Torah with love, and thus receive the Torah, gain fresh depths in it and new daat. 

And so, the connection between the days of the Sefira and the mourning over Rabbi Akiva’s students is also easily understood. Because the purpose of all the days of Sefira is to prepare us to receive the Torah, level by level; and since the receiving of the Torah depends on ahavat Yisrael, the days of the sefira are the days of mourning over Rabbi Akiva’s students, who had a fault on their own high level in the matter of loving their fellows. By mourning over them we rectify the midah (trait) of ahavat Yisrael, and so prepare ourselves to receive the Torah, because that is the main way to prepare for Matan Torah.  

According to this, we can view the great day, Lag B’Omer, in a new light. Not for nothing do we note the hillula (yahrzeit, day of passing) of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai specifically during these holy days. For who is a greater source of new insights in the Torah and conduit of Torah than Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who revealed awesome secrets and limitless depths in the holy Torah. It is really a new Torah! 

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai himself reveals to us how he merited such a Matan Torah, and says to the holy group around him: “We, however, depend upon love” – all our matters, in other words, all the revelations and renewal of the wonderful Torah, upon which depends the Geula – depend on chavivut – in other words, on the love between us. 

And so, in the holy hillula of Rabbi Shimon one can really feel the Jewish People’s love and unity around the light of the tzaddik, and therefore Lag B’Omer is our springboard towards Matan Torah, a springboard of ahavat Yisrael. 

Always Love Every Jew 

We have spoken before about ahavat Yisrael, and we have written about it endlessly. And now that we see that the sweet and wonderful song, “Hashem Yitbarach Always Loves Me” (Hebrew-English are in  Closed Captions) is being eagerly accepted among all Jews – these ideas get a double and triple meaning. Because the key to everything good in life, to all pure emuna, to mental health, to all the abundance, is the clear knowledge that Hashem loves every Jew and loves you personally even though you might be the worst of the worst. 

And just as this is true about you, so it is true for every Jew: Just like you know and believe and understand that Hashem loves you, so you will know that Hashem loves every Jew and Jewess! And then, naturally, your attitude towards every Jew is one of love, because just like you are loved and important to Hashem, so too every Jew is loved and important and dear to Hashem.  

When you view any Jew, any friend or neighbor, anyone who prays in the same synagogue as you do, and also the Jew who is furthest away, the central thought you should be having is: I know Hashem loves him, I know that he is important and very dear to Hashem, I know that he too causes pleasure to Hashem, and that Hashem wants things to be only good for him and wishes to do him only good, and even more good and even better.  

When you look like that at every Jew, you immediately begin to love him.  

And so, the knowledge that Hashem yitbarach always loves me is a central key to ahavat Yisrael. Since all receiving of the Torah depends on being connected to all Jewish people and on unity and ahavat Yisrael, as we said above, the clear knowledge that Hashem loves me is the key to Kabbalat HaTorah!

Every Jew is Absolute Good 

In a previous column we wrote that our song has an extension: Hashem yitbarach knows that I’m good and that I want to do only good, and even better and even better.  

These, too, are words that are very important to repeat. These are words that express knowledge no less important than the knowledge that Hashem loves you, and the truth is that these two pieces of knowledge complement each other, as we have written.  

And this knowledge contains within it the true healer of self-persecution, low self-image, the feeling that you are worthless, and the despair that you may be feeling – despair of yourself. And in this knowledge, we find the secret of self-confidence and belief in oneself, the power to do teshuva and to move forward in life.  

For our purposes, this knowledge, too, brings the person to love Jews. Because just as you believe that Hashem yitbarach knows that you are good, so you should believe that Hashem yitbarach knows that your fellow Jew is good, and that every Jew is good and wishes to do good, and that Hashem sees only the good in him and no bad at all. And when you know this, you too, when you look upon him, see that he’s good and see all the good that is in him.  

And when everyone around you is good, you love everyone and increase your ahavat Yisrael. 

And so, the knowledge that Hashem yitbarach knows that I am good and always want to do only good, that too is a key to achieving ahavat Yisrael, and therefore it is also a key for Kabbalat HaTorah.  

Tzaddikim of Love 

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a disciple of Rabbi Akiva, and it is he who teaches us: “Love you fellow like yourself², that is a great rule in the Torah.”³ And now we understand this with a new depth: What does it mean that ahavat Yisrael is a great rule in the Torah? It means that it is the condition for receiving the Torah, growing in Torah, succeeding in Torah, and acquiring true understanding of the Torah. Not for nothing did Rabbi Akiva merit becoming the greatest person in Torah in all generations. 

And all the tzaddikim who brought into the world a deep and wonderful Torah – ahavat Yisrael was their guiding light. That is why the Ari Hakadosh added a statement to be made before praying: “I hereby take upon myself the positive mitzvah of ‘Love your fellow like yourself.’” And the motto of the holy Baal Shem Tov and all Chassidic teachings is ahavat Yisrael and the endless importance of every Jew.  

We will conclude with an amazing saying of the Tzemach Tzedek: “Whoever helps a Jew to earn seventy kopekas in trading calves [In other words, even a very small amount in such an earthly pursuit] – all the gates of the upper chambers open for him.” Let us increase our ahavat Yisrael in the spirit and the power of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and in that merit, we will be able to receive the Torah and the tzaddik’s promise will be fulfilled for us: With this book, which is the book of the Zohar, they will leave the galut with mercy. 

Editor’s Notes:

¹ Shemot (Exodus) 19:2 

² Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:18 

³ Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4:2-4