In rabbinic tradition, Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. In this week leading up to the festival (it begins on Thursday night; join us to celebrate with worship and cheesecake on Friday night and/or Saturday morning), let’s explore some classical and modern imaginations of the moment itself.
A couple of months ago, I had the incredible honor of being invited to sit in a room with some of the smartest people I know. Invited by Professor Joseph Skloot of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, with support from Rabbi Amy and Gary Perlin, I was part of a group brought together not only to discuss the Reform Movement of today, but—more importantly—the Reform Movement of tomorrow. Gathered with incredible thinkers and teachers from across the Reform Movement—rabbis and cantors and educators, HUC professors and administrators—we focused on central ideas and tenets of Jewish thought—including Torah. What is the Torah? What is its authority? What is its centrality to us? How do we teach it? How do we live it? All of those questions and more animated hours of debate and dialogue around a conference table.
One of the questions that was raised, as it is so often in the classrooms I am privileged to enter, was—of course—the big one: Is the Torah true? While I am not going to try to give “the” answer, especially not across a computer screen, I will share one of the answers that stuck with me from that gathering. I do not remember who said it there, and I am sure they were quoting someone else, but they said that “Torah is not true because it happened once, but because it is still happening.” In other words, the truth of Torah ultimately resides in its ongoing relevance in our lives and to our world; its meaning derives not from some historical fact (“truth,” with a little t), but from its timeless lessons from which we still draw wisdom and inspiration (“Truth” with a capital T).
Starting with the rabbis, the festival of Shavuot became known as Zman Matan Torateinu, the time of the giving of the Torah. Rabbi Menachem Mendl of Kotsk, writing in the 19th century, wonders why we focus on the giving and not the receiving. His answer is that the giving was a moment in time—it was an event that happened at Sinai, and therefore something we might celebrate for a day or two in a year. But the receiving—he says—that is forever, and that is infinite, and that is now, and that is ours.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer