Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5782

           ב״ה

ראש חדש סיון

Today is Rosh Chodesh Sivan and we are in the final days leading up to Shavuos, the time that ה׳ gave us the Torah.  In the days preceding the actual Giving of the Torah, the Torah relates the processing, the events that led up to it.  Interestingly, Shavuos is the only Yom Tov that the Torah gives us a day-by-day account of what the Jewish people did to prepare.   There is a message in each of the days leading up to Matan Torah and in all of them collectively.

What are we preparing for?  Actually, we have been preparing for Matan Torah since the second day of Pesach, i.e., counting Sefiras Haomer.  We are preparing for the revelation of ה׳ in a new and higher level than we have ever experienced.  ה׳, so to speak, revealed H-mself to us on Har Sinai and gave the Jewish people an entirely new ability to integrate materialism and spirituality.  During Pesach, in the month of Nissan, ה׳ did “all of the work”.  Miraculously, without human intervention, H- took us out of Egypt.  Since then, primarily in the month of Iyar, we have been doing all the work to better our midos, our attributes or emotions.  We even get a mitzvah every day for it.  Until Sivan, the two efforts are separate, and cannot join.  Finally, when we get to Sivan, and are preparing for Shavuos.  We are preparing for a greater revelation of G-dliness that could not come, neither from ה׳ making miracles for us, nor that we could produce by our own efforts, but by an effort that binds and elevates the two together.

The saying of our sages that:  גדול תלמוד שמביא לידי מעשה – Great is learning (Torah) that it leads to fulfilling Mitzvos, sums it all up.  Our Torah study merges the physical mitzvah with the powerful spirituality that it activates.

From the preparation that we expend towards an event, we can deduce the importance of that event.  May every bit of energy that we put into preparing for Shavuos is gathered with the rest of the efforts Klal Yisroel to bring us all a קבלת התורה בשמחה ובפנימיות.

Dr. Chavi Goldberg

And the CyberSem staff