Shavuot

Parasha Thoughts

By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov

Shavout is the fiftieth day after the Exodus from Egypt. On this day the nation of the sons of Yaakov became Jewish by accepting the Torah. The whole purpose of Hashem taking Beni Israel out of Egypt was to give them the Torah.

The midrash says G-d also offered the Torah to all other nations but each one asked, “What is written in the Torah? ”G-d answered, “You shall not kill, nor steal, nor do adultery…”
They answered, “Sorry we can not accept. Stealing is our job and adultery is our fun and killing is our nature.”

However, the Jews never asked what was written in the Torah and they said, “Na’aseh ve nishma,” meaning we will accept and do the mitzvot and then we will educate ourselves. The Almighty was very happy with us and we became his chosen nation.

There is one question regarding all the other nations. How could they refuse to accept the Torah based on those few cardinal sins? All the nations are obligated to keep all of the seven mitzvot of Noah which include those mitzvot. They are already obligated not to steal, kill, and commit adultery!!!

The answer is that the other nations told G-d that they might not commit those sins, but they couldn’t stop themselves from wanting to do them. Beni Israel told Hashem, “Not only will we not commit those sins, but we don’t even want to do those sins.”

On Shavuot we became the chosen nation. Let’s keep it up by renewing our obligation to Hashem and acting like his beloved children; then the Almighty will also have mercy on us and save us from all difficult situations. On behalf of the Yachad Kollel rabbis, I would like to wish you a healthy and meaningful Shavuot.