There is no other people whose history, identity, and the depth of their existence have been shaped by their engagement with and study of the book like the Jewish people. "For our nation is not a nation except through its Torah," stated our great Rabbi Saadia Gaon. The Torah, the written Torah and the oral Torah, is the cradle of the soul of the nation, it is the foundation on which the existence of the Jewish people rests.
The Torah has accompanied our people throughout the generations. Already at the crossing of the Jordan in the days of Joshua ben Nun, Joshua was commanded, "This Torah shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night." Since then, the people have accompanied the Torah and the Torah has accompanied the people, during the destruction of the First Temple, the return to Zion, the destruction of the Second Temple, and during the years of exile - this Torah has never departed from us. Even today, in the days of the renewed return to Zion, we must make an effort to deepen and persevere in the study of the Torah, and to draw from it ways of life. Studying the Torah is no longer a profession; study is the secret of Judaism. The secret of our strength, and the burden of our souls.
In Sivan 5706 (1946), the Aliyah Department received a letter from my grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Halevi Herzog, the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, in which he requested assistance in bringing 500 yeshiva students from Europe, who had fled to Japan during World War II and were then sent to Shanghai, most of them students of the Mir HaMatira Yeshiva.
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In his letter, Saba laments the loss of Torah scholars and yeshiva students in the terrible Holocaust:
""Woe to us for our great loss! ... 'May the world be silent to them' .... Even today, God forbid, Torah may be forgotten in Israel through this destruction, if we do not hurry in time to save the last ember... This is our writer's escape from the valley of killing, from the Nazi hell! What a stake, what a corner for the future of Judaism in the land and in the Diaspora.".
Less than eighty years have passed since the days when there was a real fear that Torah would be forgotten in Israel, and now the Jewish people have been blessed, and the State of Israel has been blessed, with the world of Torah flourishing on a scale never before seen in the history of Israel. In this sense, the holiday of Matan Torah, the holiday of Shavuot, is an opportunity to remember the miracle of the flowering of the Torah, and to recognize and honor the students of Torah and the study of Torah and its significance for our generation.
Regarding the words of the verse "And the name of Israel was established under the mountain," Rashi, the Rabbi of Israel, writes the words of the Mekhilta, "And the name of Israel was established - as one man with one heart, but the rest of the camps were in resentment and dispute." Receiving the Torah had to be as one man with one heart, with a deep commitment and connection of every Jew. Unfortunately, all the other camps were already in resentment and dispute.
The nature of the Torah-giving holiday is in line with the ideological unity of our people, not only in its context as a Torah-giving holiday, but also as one that concludes the counting of the Omer. During the days of the counting, we remember, among other things, the disciples of Rabbi Akiva, who were killed because they did not show respect for one another, and on these days we must also emphasize these moral words so that they permeate our hearts.
There is no Jew more than the debate, the disagreement that takes place for the sake of God, but the limit is always the limit of honor. The more we know how to disagree deeply but also respect those whose beliefs, convictions, and actions differ from ours, and even love them – after all, they are our brothers – the more we will know how to uphold and grow our nation in Torah and fear.
As the holiday of Matan Torah approaches us, my prayer is that we will not only learn and teach, appreciate and cherish those who study and practice the Torah, but that we will also learn to receive it together, as one man with one heart.
This is the moment and the date when we will all commit to a guarantee and love for all of Israel, and as the "Mother of Malchut," the first convert, said, we will also commit to each other: "Where you go I will go, where you call me I will be, your people my people and your God my God.".
Happy Matan Torah and Unity of Israel!
