The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yosef, is currently on a special trip to the Sephardic communities in the United States. During one of the events, he said:
The Gemara in Tractate Shabbat says: It is written, "And they stood at the bottom of the mountain - indicating that the Holy One, blessed be He, imposed upon the people of Israel a mountain like a basin, and said to them: If you accept the Torah, it is better, and if not, your burial will be here." Mount Sinai will fall on you here and bury you... They had no choice, for the sake of their lives, the Children of Israel accepted the Torah, later, they accepted it willingly - in the days of Ahasuerus.
The Tosafot instead ask: After all, the Children of Israel agreed to accept the Torah, they said: Whatever God commands, we will do and obey, so why should we force them, threaten them, and in particular – 'Here will be your burial'?
There are several excuses for this.
There is an excuse from the Maharal of Prague. He explains it this way: We must investigate whether the people of Israel are like all other nations and what they have is special wisdom. Christians have the New Testament, Muslims have the Quran, a thousand thousand variations. The people of Israel have a hidden treasure, the Holy Torah. Is the House of Israel like all other nations and do they have special wisdom, or is it a nation in itself, not like all other nations? And he explains: We have four things: living things that speak, living things that do not speak, inanimate things, and plants.
And the question is why not define a person and an animal as two things, and an inanimate and a plant as one thing, isn't there any difference between an inanimate and a plant, they are not alive? Why four things, aren't there only three?
And the answer is that if you take the flowerpot and take out the sand, what will happen to the flowers? They will dry up, meaning that the plant is a creation in itself. Thus the people of Israel are a creation in itself, it is not like all the nations of the world, they are the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they inherited their good qualities, shy, merciful, reciprocating kindness. It is a people in itself. You chose us from all the peoples, we are your children, blessed be He, by what? By the Holy Torah.
This is your existence in this world.
Rabbi Saadia Gaon says: 'The nation of Israel is not a nation except in its Torah.' We have a written Torah and an oral Torah, and this is what distinguishes us from all nations. 'Blessed is our God, who created us for His glory, and distinguished us from those who err,' and they are all of them - all the multitude of Gentiles. 'And eternal life has been planted within us' - this is the Holy Torah, the Children of Israel said in the beginning, "We will do and we will listen," in order they agreed, everything that God commands is clean.
The ministering angels marveled, "Who revealed this secret to my son? To precede, to be heard?"
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Do you agree? Mount Sinai is upon you like a basin, you will know, 'and if not here, your burial will be,' it does not depend on your agreement. This is your existence in this world, without it you have no right to exist.
That is why it is written that when the children of Israel descend - they descend to the abyss, they descend if they do not have the Torah, they descend to the bottom, all the transgressions in the Torah are committed against them. Why, because this is the life of the people of Israel, this is the Holy Torah, and therefore, despite the fact that they said, "We will do it and we will listen," the Holy One, blessed be He, forced them.
Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will hold new elections, form a new coalition, and throw all the religious out - we don't want Torah, we don't want anything. Is it in our hands? No. It is in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He: and if not here, your burial will be. We need to understand that this is our life, this is the Holy Torah.
Reichman: I've seen a lot of great ones – I've never seen one like this.
From the elders, we must see the greats of the generations. We are now in the year of the passing of Maran Ha-Abba, a righteous and holy man, blessed be he. We must see how he would have sustained himself, for they are our life and the length of our days, night and day, literally dozens and dozens of years. I testify to him, at two in the morning and three in the morning he sat and studied and meditated in the books of the Holy Torah.
After he passed away, we counted the books he had at home. He had over 40,000 books. This is not a synagogue - where there are double Pentateuchs and double Siddurs, this is a private home. Understand, gentlemen, what is our Torah? Over 40,000 books on the Torah, on the Halacha, on the Mosar, on the Shas, on what not? On thought, the Torah is greater than the sea. And he would sit and think, think, think. Shabbat night, Shabbat day, non-stop.
I once traveled with him from Israel to America, 35 years ago, and I was with him. He sat and studied the entire trip, they closed the blinds for him, and he would sit and study. Rabbi Grossman was on the plane and suggested that he could arrange the seat, lie down for a while, and he scolded him: What are you doing? Get out of here.
A great rabbi, Moshe Reichman, sat next to us. He passed away a few months ago, from Canada. We didn't know him. The entire 11-hour flight, silent. He didn't identify himself. When we got off the plane - we arrived in New York, Moshe Reichman approached me and said to me: I understand that you are the son of the rabbi, I traveled with many great ones - you know what they are, great Torah scholars, I have never seen anything like this! I saw a lot, but I didn't see anyone who didn't stop talking about a version.
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