A Shavuot Message (4)

Excerpts from a letter

By the Grace of G-d
Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 5724 [1964]
Brooklyn, NY

...It is worthy of note that the festival of Shavuoth has no independent date of its own, like any other festival, since no month or day is specified in the Torah as the time of its celebration, but only that it is the "Fiftieth Day" of the counting of the Omer; the counting which we begin on the second day of Pesach, on the day after the liberation from Egyptian bondage.

In this way the Torah emphasizes that the festival of Shavuoth is the goal of the festival of Pesach; that the Season of the Giving of Our Torah is the culmination of the Season of Our Freedom -- that the true and complete freedom, both for the individual as well as for the community, and both materially and spiritually, can be attained only through the acceptance of the Torah.

We live in a time and in a country where, notwithstanding external "freedom", the society in general, and the young generation in particular, are still largely "enslaved," and at a loss how to free themselves from the shackles of spiritual and mental confusion. The only hope that Jewish children should not be swept with this stream lies in a Torah education, where the golden chain of the Torah from Sinai is maintained; the Torah in all its sanctity, the Torah of Truth which must always remain intact, and cannot be subject to compromise or concession&

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