In this week’s Parsha, the Torah is finally given on Har Sinai, 2448 years after Creation. Good things can take a long time to get to. Chazal (Sotah 5A) teach that Har Sinai was a small mountain, and that the Torah was given there, rather than on a high peak (which would have otherwise been expected), because Hashem wanted to teach us the great importance of Anava, humility, in Torah study. An original thought or a finer understanding, for instance, does not simply fly into one’s head or even develop because you are a sharp person, but is, in reality, a gift from Hashem, and depends upon your effort, desire, and prayer. Similarly, one must at all times be ready, willing, and able to listen and learn from others--Rabbonim, Maggidei Shiur, friends, Chavrusas, and yes--even students and children--who are learning and spending more time and focus, on a particular Torah topic. In fact, Chazal (Ta’anis 7A) also teach that the reason Torah is compared to water is because just as water runs from high places down to lower places and valleys, so too does the Torah run to those who humble themselves--and go so low as to become a valley--in order to inculcate Torah into their very being.

 

A question, however, arises--and this question was posed to HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, Shlita. If the lesson from Har Sinai is that Anava is an absolute prerequisite for the true Torah Jew, why is it then that the Torah was not actually given in a valley--and a deep, deep valley at that? HaRav Kanievsky, Shlita, responded that there is indeed a great lesson here. That is, that we must first recognize the “mountain” that is given to us by Hashem--that we have great potential and capacities--but, in spite of all this, we must humble ourselves in any way that is necessary in order to receive the Torah and make the Torah a part of our being. As Chazal teach (Avos 2:6), “Lo HaBayshan Lomeid--the person who is ashamed, cannot learn.” A person must, then, recognize that he is actually a “small mountain”--neither an incapable valley nor a haughty peak.

 

The Vilna Goan (to Mishlei 4:13) writes that a person’s purpose in life is to break the inappropriate or negative Middos that he has, “and if he does not, why should he live?!” The person in the valley has nothing to work on and is working on nothing, and the person on the high peak has everything to work on--yet is not working on anything. The perfect place for one to grow is on that **low** **mountain**, Har Sinai.

 

This lesson is brought home dramatically by a story the Gemara relates (Ta’anis 25B). There was a great need for rain--a drought--and Rebbe Eliezer led the Tzibur in prayer, but was not answered. Rebbe Akiva followed, prayed briefly to Hashem and was answered forthwith. The Gemara explains that Rebbe Akiva was not greater than Rebbe Eliezer--it was just that Rebbe Akiva was Ma’avir Al Midosuv--he overcame his negative character traits, and Rebbe Eliezer apparently was not on par. In explaining this Gemara, the Mabit in the Beis Elokim writes that Rebbe Eliezer was so innately great that he had nothing that needed any serious correction--he had nothing to overcome! On the other hand, Rebbe Akiva had to overcome great stumbling blocks and obstacles in his Avodas Hashem in the course of his self-improvement. Rebbe Akiva was thus rewarded measure for measure--he worked to overcome his negative character traits, and Hashem worked to overcome a punishment of the people that was otherwise deserved.

 

As we noted in an earlier Bulletin, the Vilna Gaon (to Yonah 4:3) writes that the items one must work on in this world are those G-d-given tests which seem to constantly recur, and those aveiros for which one has a greater desire than others. Of course, the way to work on them is by taking some type of action to thwart or hinder the negative act or trait, or at least reduce or minimize it in some way.

 

HaRav Chaim Shmuelevitz, Z’tl, writes on that a crucial lesson from the Pasuk (in the Shira in last week’s Parsha, Shemos 15:14) “Shamu Amim Yirgazun--people heard and they were shaken”--is that we must take action, we must respond--and we dare not be a spectator to the events and occurrences of our very own lives. Sometimes, a person will take action for the moment, for the day, or even for a few days, but then falls back into the same rut, stepping comfortably backwards after some good but short-lived steps forward. Projects are started, but unlike the old days in school, when the projects had to be completed, tests had to be taken, and term-papers handed in, the now “voluntary” situations of self improvement and growth fall, sometimes irresponsibly, by the wayside. For the men, for instance, one can keep absolutely on schedule daily with Mishna Yomi, Daf Yomi, Halacha Yomi, etc,--or even just learn a blatt a day of Mesechta Megillah until Purim--with subsequent or other constant short-term, well defined goals. Yet, many will start but lack the consistency, or responsibility to themselves, to actually complete the Mesechta. Similarly, a woman may take it upon herself to say a specific chapter of Tehillim with Kavanna, or recite Shir Hashirim or Perek Shira, for 40 days in a row for a zechus for herself or someone else, but for reasons beyond her control (and they really are almost always good reasons) simply not complete the task. One can see the same issue at Shul in the morning--one day a person comes on time, another day just a minute or two late, another day five or ten minutes late--it is almost as if the Pesukei D’Zimra and Kriyas Shema that he davens daily are never the same because the speed of his davening, and what he skips, is almost never the same. It is the consistency that will overcome the bad habit. Let us take a lesson from the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu was at Har Sinai not for one day, two days, or even six days, but for forty consecutive days. We must recognize that we are mountains, and not valleys--each of us has great, untapped potential--and as low mountains, we can tap into that potential and change--surely and consistently.

 

This week is the week we can reach out to the lesson of Har Sinai. It is our turn to take the study of Torah, and/or to take a middah that we must work on, and put ourselves on our very own Har Sinai--and stay there for 40 days!

-------------------------- Hakhel MIS --------------------------