Our Holy Torah

Each year as the holiday of Shavuot arrives I can almost smell the excitement in the air, of all the thousands of Jews gathering at the Kotel on Shavuot. The singing and praying that goes on is a sight that can be felt in the air. At about 2 or 3 in the morning streams of people throughout the city from all ends, far and near, start flowing down the streets of the beautiful golden Jerusalem. Men wrapped in their prayer tallis, women pushing sleeping babies in their carriages, young men and women singing, walk proudly down the roads leading up to the old city of Jerusalem, with the Kotel as their final destination. As the marchers enter the gates leading up to the Western Wall you can almost hear the angels up in heaven, greeting each and every one. The birds chirp so loudly that you can hear their greetings as well.

Hundreds of tables are set up with the Torah scrolls so that the thousands of Jews who came to pray will be able to create hundreds of minyanim, inches away one from another, making up the most beautiful sounds in the world.

The tables of refreshments are set up graciously by wonderful Jews, out of the goodness of their hearts, just so that all the many people who came to pray and do the pilgrimage of the festival of Shavuot will have something to drink and eat before they set out on the long road back home.

No one sleeps on this night as this is the night that we received our holy Torah so many years ago on Mount Sinai. The truth is that no one is even tired since they are filled with all the excitement and holiness of this spectacular event. If one closes their eyes as they enter the Kotel Shavuot night, and early in the morning, one can actually imagine how beautiful and uplifting receiving the Torah was, at Mount Sinai so many years ago. You can feel as if you were standing at Mount Sinai at that very moment. The solidarity and the songs, the prayers and the harmony, all that is felt in the air can actually be seen.

When Am Yisrael received the Torah it is written that they were able to see the sounds, as opposed to hearing the sounds. This concept can truly be felt as one stands at the Kotel during this spectacular moment at the break of dawn on Shavuot. Each year I can almost see the holy Bait HaMikdash coming down right in its place, high and majestic, on top of the Kotel back in its place. At the end of this spiritual encounter as the prayers end, all the people start singing and dancing out of joy and happiness that they had the merit to pray at the Kotel with all the people of Israel.

The Holy Torah which we received, is the center of every home in the Jewish family. The Torah guides us in the right path, always showing us the right way to go. The Torah protects us from all bad things. The Torah heals and builds us, so that we may be strong and healthy, to be able to worship our creator in the proper way each and every day.

Every holiday is holy and special to the people of Israel. However Shavuot is the heart of them all. Since without the Torah we would have nothing. The Torah is the base of our entire existence. It is written that when Hashem created the world, He looked in the Torah and created the world according to what was written in it.

This year so many changes have taken place, since this terrible plague hit the world. All of our regular habits and celebrations, took on a different light and the focus all over the world has seemed to shift, revolving around Covid-19. However, as Jews, we always have the Torah at the center of all our endeavors and no virus in the world can ever take the Torah away from us.

So even if we won’t be able to march as a nation down to the Kotel, and feel as if we are receiving the Torah once more on Mount Sinai, we will be gathering in our homes and singing and dancing; thankful that we are Jews that can follow the laws and holidays written down in the Torah, no matter where and no matter what the circumstances are.

I believe that the angels and birds that greet us every year as we go the Kotel Shavuot night, will great each and every one of us personally in our homes.

I hope and pray that please G-d soon we will truly be redeemed at the final redemption, and that we will all unite once again at the third holy Temple in Jerusalem. Amen.