Living Torah Archives

The Talmud quotes Rav Yosef who said about Shavuot: “If not for this day, how many Yosefs would wander the market?”

The Jewish people studied Torah and observed its precepts long before they actually became obligated in them at Sinai. Moreover, the Ten Commandments were composed largely of laws already commanded to the non-Jewish world. What, then, was so important about the giving of the Torah at Sinai?

When G-d told Moses how to prepare the Jewish people to receive the Torah on Shavuos, He instructed him to speak to the women first, for it was the women’s commitment that would inspire the rest of the Jewish people at the time of the giving of the Torah—and down through the ages.

As soon as a Jewish baby is born, what G-d declared at Sinai applies to him. All souls of all generations, this baby’s soul included, were present at Sinai when G-d addressed them – in the first person: “I am the Lord thy G-d, Who brought you out from the Land of Egypt.”

At the Giving of the Torah, G-d’s voice was heard throughout all of creation proclaiming, “I am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of Egypt.” Is this really G-d’s greatest accomplishment? Why didn’t He say, “I have created heaven and earth?”

In ancient Egypt, the study of wisdom was limited to an intellectual elite – the sorcerers and astrologers. Ordinary people had no independent access to wisdom. When the Jews left Egypt, however, G-d commanded them to journey to Sinai and receive the Torah. G-d revealed the Ten Commandments, which included the entire Torah, directly to three million Jewish men, women and children together.