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Let's talk about Torah, about the secret of Jewish genius spanning thousands of years. We are an eternal people, existing for millennia. Because of this, it is worth examining the events we are involved in, not only in the present but through a historical lens of eternity. We have built kingdoms and twice seen them destroyed, ruled our land and been enslaved by others, exiled among countless nations, and reached the ends of the earth. At times, we thought we had been accepted, only for the world, a generation or two later, to remind us with cruelty: You are Jews. You are unwelcome guests. We were expelled and kept moving.
Wherever we wandered, we contributed to economic life, added layers of knowledge in science, philosophy, ethics, literature, and culture. When allowed, we even integrated into politics and leadership. Nearly a quarter of all Nobel Prize laureates are from our people, even though we represent just two-tenths of one percent of the global population. After a long and bloody journey, we defied the odds and returned home, reestablishing a kingdom, a government, a military, an economy, and a vibrant culture.
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What are the chances that a people, whose land was destroyed twice and scattered across the globe, would retain their identity for thousands of years without a state, and then come back to life, return to their ancient homeland, and renew their days? No other nation on this planet has a history or national biography like this.
Where did we live when we had no land? In books. Picture an immense skyscraper set up on the earth, and the top of it reaches to heavens, made entirely of books. Unlike the Tower of Babel, which worshipped human hubris and stone palaces, we exalted ideas for bettering humanity and built palaces out of written letters. We Hebrew speakers have a unique privilege: to visit any floor we like, discover the intellectual and spiritual riches, and take provisions for our journey. And not just Hebrew speakers, but anyone who wants, can enjoy this vast treasure, large parts of which are translated into many languages. Not a one-time visit, but an ongoing journey throughthe treasures of wisdom no other nation has handed its descendants in such abundance. Even an ignorant Israeli speaks the language of the ancients, uttering words once spoken by our prophets and sages.
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The primary foundation of this textual skyscraper is the Bible, particularly the Torah of Moses, which sparked a revolution as early as the second millennium BCE. Back then, there were civilizations with developed systems of law and governance, moral views, and philosophies of life. However, that singular moment in history, when a nation of slaves received its eternal constitution in a barren, lawless wilderness, changed the world forever.
Moses understood that one cannot suddenly change deeply ingrained worldviews and norms. Therefore, he focused his battle on a root cause: idolatry, the embodiment of gods, deities in human form with superpowers and human desires, themselves subject to larger forces of fate. In doing so, he continued the legacy of Abraham, our nation's founder, who abandoned the civilization of his time and journeyed to an unknown land to create a nation that would change history. Oral tradition tells us that Abraham smashed his father Terach's idols, a symbolic act of iconoclasm.
The second commandment in the Ten Commandments is an Abrahamic one: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness... You shall not bow down to them nor serve them." This prohibition is not against art, heaven forbid, but against the religious worship of images. I once heard from Professor Marc Alain Ouaknin: Do not turn yourself into a statue. Do not worship yourself. Do not bow to the norms of the age or to your own opinions. Always challenge them. In other words, remain intellectually in motion. Be spiritually dynamic.
Indeed, the first words spoken to our founding ancestor were: "Lech lechah" (Go forth). In Hebrew, one can understand it as calling to go into yourself. Before venturing outward, first go inward, into your own thoughts and ideas, examine them, and from there set out on your journey. How beautiful that Maimonides, writing in the 12th century, described in his book "Hayad Hachazaka" (The strong hand) Abraham's spiritual discoveries as an intellectual "walking" or wandering: "Once this mighty man [Abraham] was weaned, he began to wander in thought while still young, to wonder... His heart wandered and understood, until he arrived at the path of truth."
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Standing upon the Bible are the floors of the Oral Torah, the endless interpretations, not only of the Torah but of every level of this towering textual skyscraper. A stranger entering a Beth Midrash (study hall) would hear verbs in present participle: Rabbi Akiva asks," Rashi "says," Isaiah "responds." That is because this growing pile of books is not a matter for archaeologists, nor does it belong in a museum. It surrounds us, and we are constantly conversing with its books and ideas, arguments and rulings, questions and answers, renewing and being renewed from generation to generation. For they are our life and the length of our days.
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The Jewish Enlightenment movement's (18th-19th centuries) criticism of seemingly futile halachic discourse, like the laws of an ox that gores a cow, stemmed from a time when the Jewish people were in national slumber and forgot that their destiny was not to remain in exile but to return to Zion. Today, having returned home, it's important to know our sources, including Jewish law. The case of the goring ox belongs to tort law, which is always relevant: a car accident, for instance, or damage caused not directly by a person but by their property.
Beyond practical application, these discussions sharpen and clarify our pursuit of justice and truth. When Jethro, likely a priest and judge among his people, sees his son-in-law Moses judging the nation, he asks: "What is this you are doing for the people?" (Exodus 18:14) Moses replies: "Because the people come to me to seek God" (18:15). See the standard Moses set at our national beginning: Doing justice between people, even for "small claims", is seeking God, no less.
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Dear parents, read the Bible with your children. You do not have to be religious to pass on this treasure, the foundation of the civilization we built over thousands of years. Do not wait for the education system. You can read the biblical text itself to your kids, and explain unfamiliar words along the way. Children do not see it as highbrow; they understand it is a special kind of language, just like poetry or song. If you are struggling, do not give up. Buy a Bible with a contemporary commentary. It is our lifeblood.
Start with Genesis and Exodus up to the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments. Read about our people's journey in Numbers. Move on to Joshua and the conquest of the land (you can skip the land allotment chapters), then the Book of Judges, which recounts life before centralized leadership. Continue with the monarchy in the Books of Samuel, covering Saul and David, and then Kings, detailing the nation's split and events up to the destruction, followed by the Second Temple period in Ezra, Nehemiah, and more. Along the way, you will see how much these stories resonate with today and, above all, draw comfort and faith in the eternity of Israel, and just as important, patience with the historical process we are all part of.
On Shavuot, we return to that historic moment and receive the Torah again. This time, not in barren land, but in our sovereign state. Blessed is the nation that has it so.
