Receiving Torah

D’var Torah from May 22, 2026

Shavuot

Part 1: Hard times

We’ve been wandering. 

Lost and confused, 

aimless and untethered. 

It feels like it’s been a long time since things made sense. 

We are hungry. 

Thirsty. 

We’ve been attacked. 

Led astray. 

There were times when we questioned it all. 

Please God, shine your face on me. 

God, look me in the eye. 

God, make it make sense. 

It’s been a while since I’ve heard from you. 

Part 2: God offers Her love 

“I was in the midst of the exile… [when] the heavens opened up, and I saw visions of God.” (Ezekiel 1:1)

And God said to us, “You are my treasure…You are a nation of priests, a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6)

God said “To Me, you are as ‘beautiful as the moon, [and as] radiant as the sun’” (Israel Najara, Ketubah L’shavuot)

“Wash your clothes, and get ready. 

Because I want to be yours and for you to be mine.”

Part 3: We aren’t ready

Hold on, wait. a. second!!!!

Gone was our so recent longing. 

We trembled (Exodus 19:16). 

Fell back and stood at a distance. (Exodus 20:15)

Wait. I’m not ready. 

I’m not ready to trust you again. 

We turned to Moses: you can speak to us and tell us what God wants, but for goodness sake ”do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:16). 

And Moses was kind and understanding. 

He remembered when it was his turn to be called and he tried to hide. 

Moses said, "It's okay, I will stand in between and mediate. 

However, it is not with me that God makes this gesture, but “with us, the living, every one of us who is here today” (Exodus 21:5). 

And thus, with Moses standing in between, we each “saw the root” of “our life-force” (S’fat Emet, “Yitro” 2:9)

Part 4: Torah

And then God gave us all a gift. Here – She said, as She “bent forward in love”, (Akdamut) here is the one thing that will make it all make sense. 

Here is Torah. 

Here is the derech (path) that you have been longing for. 

I gift you with this path which will be to you like a tree of life (Proverbs 4:2). 

We looked inside and it was filled with life and fairness and complexity. It gave us questions to ask and conversations to have that would never run dry. Everyone saw something different in it. It was like a mirror, but more than that. Every letter begged, “interpret me” (Rashi). Words of pain, heartbreak, passion, mistakes, freedom, and love. It burst at the seams with wisdom and with mystery. There was no end to the music and beauty that might spill out from any direction at any moment. And the flow tasted as “sweet as honey and milk” (Song of Songs 4:11). 

It was the most perfect gift we could ever ask for. 

Part 5: I do 

We felt a deep calm. 

So calm that we forgot we hadn’t yet responded. God was still sitting, waiting, vulnerable and patient for our answer to Her gesture. 

And we spoke, after our long silence, saying “I do.” (Exodus 24:3). 

Even those of us who had felt like strangers to God, we too claimed our love in this moment, saying “I do.”

And our mistrust and fear was still there. 

But we were also filled with a great love. 

And on, we wandered.