The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Have you ever felt an emotion so intense, so powerful, that it physically hurt you? It’s strange how fine the line is between love and hate, awe and fear, ecstasy and pain. The ultimate example of an overpowering experience is of course, Matan Torah.

But let’s back track a little. In the beginning of the parsha, Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law suggests a justice system made up of multiple people. Until this point, Moshe had been both the sole leader and judge of the entire nation. Yitro introduces hierarchy, and therefore human bias into the law. The more people involved in a justice process, the more complicated it becomes. Later, when the Torah describes the justice system to be established, we see that it is absolutely essential to have more than one person deciding on a verdict. Why begin the parsha with this? Is it really that significant that Yitro should become famous for it? And how is it connected to The Revelation?

The entire series of events, from The Exodus to Har Sinai holds an extraordinary message, an eternal key for Bnei Yisrael. As a nation, we learn about Kedusha -- Holiness. We are told we are different - in mission, rules, and fate. More specifically we learn about the Kohanim, which teaches us that this idea of Kedusha also exists on an individual basis. The ultimate individual of course being Moshe. We also learn that Kedusha applies not only to people, but also to time and space.

It is through one of Hashem’s most beautiful gifts that we receive this lesson -- Shabbat. Shabbat is the Bet Hamikdash of time. It is the Zeevug (soul-mate) of Bnei Yisrael. It is our taste of the sweet future world. The Bet Yaakov says that Shabbat is in fact the completion of the creation of man. Animals were first created with only instinctual logic. When Hashem created the human being, Da’at (knowledge) permeated the world. Reason, emotion, truth suddenly existed in potential, in a seed called Adam. This gave us the power to distinguish, to understand the difference between right and wrong, light and dark, and most importantly, kodesh and chol. We are the vessels through which a spiritual reality could exist and be utilized.

Rabbi Kosowsky teaches in his Tefillah class that Kedusha is defined by OUR involvement in our relationships with Hashem, and in our actions in this world. Think about places that to this day we consider holy sites. You would think that Har Sinai would be blocked off by a red ribbon and visited by the thousands. But it’s not. Har HaBayit (the site of the Bet Hamikdash) on the other hand, is as Kadosh as can be. Why? Because the Bet Hamikdash was our service to Hashem. It was us being doers, being active members of our relationship with G-d. Midrash Tana’im on Devarim says that just because we refrain from melacha (“work”) on Shabbat, it doesn’t mean that Hashem doesn’t like melacha. In fact, our ability to act is beloved to Him. The Maharal writes in Pachad Yitzchak that the mitzvot of Shabbat are the expressions of love for Hashem that we cannot show by simply not doing melachot.

If Kedusha is the utilization of our potential than it is very much connected to Yitro’s justice system make-over. Bring in more people. Utilize more minds, more experiences, more perspectives. Yes, the more the complicated, but Hashem made us different for a reason. This world can not be enjoyed, healed, or uplifted without the unique actions and contributions of every soul. At Matan Torah, we experience Hashem directly for the first two mitzvot. It is so intense and powerful that the midrash tells us we were on the brink of death. And then Moshe steps in and acts as the middle man. Why did Hashem start the process one way if He knew it would be finished in another? Perhaps because we needed to understand that from the very beginning, our relationship was to be one of human involvement. The Torah, in all its wonder and mystery, can only be fully conveyed through the bodies and minds of human beings. Of us. We are the last piece of the puzzle. We are “the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything” as Douglas Adams sums it up so eloquently.

Again and again we learn how incredible our potential is, how fortunate we are for knowing it, and how much good we could accomplish if only we wanted to. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira says, “Many people console themselves by saying ‘If I am not serving G-d as I should at least I have good aspirations. Many times my heart cries out in the pain of my distance from Him.’ But would the drowning man console himself with his desire to be rescued with his heart’s cry? What use is it if he doesn’t act to save himself and try to get out of the water?”

May we all have the strength and Emunah to discover our potential as individuals, as Jews, and as G-d’s beloved human beings. Shabbat Shalom!