This week Am Yisroel stands at Har Sinai to receive the Torah.
This is the event that changed the world -- not to mention Am Yisroel -- forever.
There is a Torah.
We are not wild animals. We are the Children of Hashem.
We have an eternal law to live by, given to us by the Master of the Universe.
Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz zt”l recorded the amazing words of former President Harry S. Truman some seventy years ago. The President was explaining to Rabbi Lorincz the reason that he had recognized the nascent State of Israel in 1948, against overwhelming opposition, especially from his own Department of State. Here is what the President said:
“Only Stalin and I knew the true dangers that faced the world. The possibility of atomic war will continue to threaten to destroy the world, and – even more -- to leave the residents of the world in a situation worse than death. And if I still have the will to continue to live, it is only because I believe that, just like in the past, three thousand years ago, you Jews saved humanity, wild mankind, via your Torah, so too I believe and hope that, even nowadays, you, the Jewish Nation, will be successful again, to enlighten and to heal the beasts of cruelty in our midst and save the world from total destruction.” (Miluai Shomo)
Wild mankind! Oy how these words ring true today!
Remember: this was a non-Jew speaking!
My friends, what enabled Am Yisroel to receive the Torah on that Great Day?
Rabbi Nosson Scherman Shlita”h, in the Overview to the new Artscroll book, “Angels in Orange,” quotes the Pele Yoetz, who stated that the Shechinah rests upon Am Yisroel only when we are united. Nowhere was this more evident than at Har Sinai, when the Torah was given to us only because we acted “k’ish echad b’lev echad … like one man with one heart.” (Rashi on Shemos 19:2)
My friends, this is the central fact that we must keep in front of our eyes – not only as we read the events of this week’s momentous Parsha -- but forever, every second of our lives.
We received the Torah only because we were unified, because we acted like brothers and sisters, family, mishpacha, Yidden who love each other and are willing to do anything for each other. Without that unity, we plunge directly into Gehenom on earth, unbearable exile and catastrophe, G-d forbid!
Look at the events of the past year! Terrible, heart-wrenching division and hatred in Israel and then the catastrophic events of October 7, one leading directly to the other. When we are at war with each other, G-d forbid, then our enemies go to war against us, and we are left unprotected! “Magen Avraham,” the shield which has protected us against the wild beasts since the days of our Father Avraham, is withdrawn!
The lesson is as clear as day. The world will be healed when we are healed. If we do not act as one nation then we are lost, G-d forbid. If we act toward each other “k’ish echad b’lev echad” then we will be saved and the world will quickly turn into a new Gan Eden, k’heref ayin … in the blink of an eye!
Just as suddenly as the catastrophe came, the Redemption will come!
That is how simple it is.
This, my dear friends, is all we need to know.
