The next few days give us much to celebrate. On Shabbat morning, we will celebrate all who engaged in Jewish learning opportunities in the past year. From our Hebrew school students to our Thursday Lunch and Learn, to all of you that come to classes at Beth Sholom, we are so proud of everyone that engages in ongoing learning. This celebration feels particularly apt as it falls immediately before Shavuot, the celebration of receiving Torah at Mount Sinai.
We read a midrash offering an image of the revelation at Sinai: "The Divine Word spoke to each and every person according to their particular capacity. And do not wonder at this. For when manna came down for Israel, each and every person tasted it in keeping with his or her own capacity—infants, young people, old people—and if each and every person was enabled to taste the manna according to their particular capacity, how much more and more was each and every person enabled according to their particular capacity to hear the Divine Word.” (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana)
In this midrash, we learn that each person at Sinai heard something different, according to their own capacity. As we grow and our lives change, our abilities change as well, and so the Torah that we learn will continue to evolve. This Shabbat, we celebrate the multiple ways that all of you have chosen to continue in your learning, the multiple ways you’ve continued to hear the Divine Word. Perhaps that’s part of the beauty of having Torah as the bedrock of our Jewish community: we each hear something different, we each learn the Torah that we need in our lives.
That’s what we celebrate this morning, and that’s what we continue to celebrate on Saturday evening when we begin Shavuot. I hope you’ll join us for our Tikkun Leyl Shavuot from 9PM-Midnight, featuring learning sessions from our own community members. I hope this year, as we celebrate Revelation, we’ll each seek out the Torah that we need to hear, each in our own capacity.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
P.S. Shavuot services will be at 9AM on both Sunday and Monday, and please remember that we recite Yizkor on Monday. Chag Sameach!
