Physical World, The

To us on earth, looking with the unaided eye and perhaps not thinking too much about the matter, the stars seem tiny and insignificant. Yet each is a powerful and unique force.

G-d certainly knew of the travel magazines’ “100 best locations to vacation,” of the beautiful beaches of Maui and the majestic Alps. Why, then, was the Torah given in a hot desert in middle of the summer?

Why did G-d marry the Jews in the desert? Could He not come up with any better place?

The desert is desolate, bare; where survival is chancy and death is a given.

It is not enough for G‑d to give us the Torah; we have to receive it.

There is something unique about the relationship of Jews to the Torah, the way we stand in its presence as if it were a king, dance with it as if it were a bride, listen to it telling our story and study it, as we say in our prayers, as “our life and the ...