The Everlasting Covenant of Connection

Are you ready to receive the Torah? What is Shavuos? What does it mean to receive the Torah? What is Torah? Torah is ohr, light. It shines the way. The Torah is a lamp to my feet, it shows me the way, it gives me direction, instruction. Sefiras Ha’Omer is all about preparation. Each year, there’s a new opportunity to receive anew the Torah. To receive the Torah, a person has to open himself up to receive higher levels of perception, da’as, wisdom from the Almighty. As we get closer, if we’re serious and we really believe that this is a new opportunity, so what can we do now to really receive the Torah on Shavuos?

Rav Noach Weinberg’s “48 Ways to Wisdom” was his most famous and impactful course. With it, he reached tens of thousands of Jews, and it’s all based in the Mishnah from Pirkei Avos, in the last chapter, that every year we read before Shavuos. Kinyan haTorah, the 48 ways, prerequisites to be worthy of really connecting with the Torah, to align ourselves, to make ourselves into a kli, a vessel to receive the Torah.

One year, before Shavuos, the Gaon Rav Asher Weiss said in a Yeshivas Derech Hamelech shiur, where he connected the days of the omer to these 48 ways of acquiring the Torah. He suggested that each one of the days of omer, a person should introspect and see how he can implement these ways into his life in order to receive the Torah. There are 48 ways, but there are 49 days to Sefiras Ha’Omer. As we get to the end, we realize we’re still so far away from being ready. So on the last day, the final day of Sefiras Ha’Omer, erev Shavuos, all one can do is just open up a Tehillim and say, Hashem, I know that I’m not ready, but I open myself up in self-nullification to receive your Torah.

This is called bitul, and what a gift it is this year, that the day before Shavuos is Shabbos. On it, we’ll read Parshas Bamidbar, the aspect of making yourself into an empty space. The desert, the Ba’al HaTurim says if a person doesn’t make himself into a This Friday night, at the shalom zachar of my new grandson, may my daughter and son-in-law merit to bring him into the bris of Avraham Avinu in its time, I said over an amazing piece of Sfas Emes where he connects everything that we’ve been talking about until now. It was as if he was there with us together. Listen to these amazing words.

The verse says, they rested on the seventh day, and from there, meaning from Shabbos, they journeyed to Har Sinai. With the power of Shabbos, they arrived at Har Sinai. Each and every person, by refraining from working on Shabbos, it’s as if he’s saying, Hashem, I’ve done all I can do during the six days of the week. Now I raise up my hands to you and say, I open myself up to higher blessings.

This is Shabbos. Shabbos is bitul. Every Shabbos, by refraining from working on Shabbos, a person is preparing himself to receive the Torah. Like we sing on Seder night, Dayeinu, if He would only have given us the Shabbos, and then brought us close to Har Sinai. Shabbos is a preparation for receiving the Torah. It says they camped, in singular, as one person with one heart. Through the power of Shabbos, the Yidden reached a level of unity.

This is the aspect of the midbar, each year we read Parshas Bamidbar before Shavuos. Midbar is self-nullification, to open oneself to hear the words of Hashem. It’s as if the Sfas Emes was at a shalom zachar, and he ends the piece and he says, so too when a baby boy enters in the eternal covenant of connection, his bris, the secret of eight days, he must experience a Shabbos before his bris.

So, too, Shabbos was given before we entered the bris of Torah and Har Sinai. Both Shabbos and bris are eternal covenants with Hashem, beini u’bein Bnei Yisrael, between me and the Jewish People, an everlasting covenant. No matter what, we’re connected. The aspect of bitul, self-nullification, is peeling away the external covers that separate us, the orlah, the klipah that covers our heart. We peel them away in order to enter into a constant connection with divine wisdom, da’as.

Baruch Hashem, this year the 49th day is Shabbos, Parshas Bamidbar, an opportunity to drop the external walls that don’t allow the higher wisdom to flow into our hearts and our minds. With the power of Shabbos, and with the power of the eternal covenant of bris, may we grab this last day of opportunity with two hands, the 49th day. With this year it corresponds with Shabbos Bamidbar. May we make ourselves into a vessel to receive the Torah anew, until the whole world is full of da’as.

Hashem, we want your Torah! Hashem, we want da’as, your wisdom. The more wisdom there is in the world, the closer we get to the third and final Temple, speedily in our days.