Erev Shavuos we wrote of Am Yisrael’s unique status as an eternal people. A wonderful drashah that I heard on Shavuos which stretched well into Motzaei Shavuos explored the source of that unique status in ways which each of us can take to heart and apply each at his own level.

The eternity of the Jewish people derives from our special relationship with HaKadosh Baruch Hu which was forged at a specific moment in human history: when the entire nation responded at Sinai  “na’aseh v’nishmah – we will do and we will understand” in joyous anticipation of the giving of Torah. On account of those two words Hashem refers to the people of Israel collectively as “beni bechori Yisrael” – my son my firstborn son (Shabbos 89b). (Rashi explains that already in Egypt Hashem called the Children of Israel “beni bechori” because He knew that they would in the future stand on Har Sinai and proclaim “na’aseh v’nishmah” and accept the yoke of Torah with ahavah (love) just as sons love their father.)

Klal Yisrael relates to Hashem in two ways – as avadim (servants) and as banim (children). Avadim writes the Vilna Gaon refers to mitzvos which are experienced as something imposed as a master commands his servant while banim refers to our relationship through the study of Torah for which love and passion are essential.

The ways in which we experience mitzvos and talmud Torah are fundamentally different. Prior to commencing our Torah learning each day we recite a blessing in which we beseech Hashem to “make the words of Your Torah sweet in our mouth and in the mouth of Your nation.” Before taking the Four Species for instance we make no request that Hashem should make the mitzvah sweet.

 “Mitzvos are not given for enjoyment” is a halachic principle found throughout Talmud. Thus if one took a vow to derive no pleasure from someone it is still permitted to borrow his lulav because mitzvos are not given for pleasure. That principle however does not apply to Torah: It would be forbidden to learn Torah from someone from whom one had taken a vow to derive no pleasure.

Love of Torah is an expression of love of Hashem. The “es” in the commandment “v’ahavta es Hashem Elokecha – You shall love the L-rd Your G-d” comes to include in the commandment “love of Torah” (Kallah Rabbosi 3). Enjoyment in Torah learning rather than being contradiction to “Torah lishmah  (Torah learning for its own sake) ” is essential to the attainment of that lofty spiritual level writes the Avnei Nezer in his famous introduction to Eglei Tal.

Our primary cleaving to Hashem is through cleaving to His Torah. And Rabbeinu Avraham min HaHar a Rishon explains that pleasure is an essential for all forms of deveikus (cleaving).

Through that joy in learning do the greatest Torah scholars become one with the Torah. That is the meaning of the Gemara (Makkos 22b)) “How foolish are those people who stand before a sefer Torah and do not stand before a great man” for a great scholar is a walking sefer Torah.

Torah is the Divine Intelligence and thus can be explained only in its own terms: If two verses of the Torah appear to contradict one another we must discover a third verse to decide the proper interpretation. And yet the words of the Tannaim and Amoraim – the Torah she’b’al peh – are themselves Torah for through their cleaving to Torah they become one with it. The secrets of Torah are compared to “honey and milk under your tongue” (Shir HaShirim 4:11). Honey and milk represent the power of transformation – milk is permitted even though it derives from blood which is forbidden and honey comes from forbidden insects. So too does cleaving to Torah transform the words of flesh and blood to divrei Torah.

That is why explains the Bais HaLevi it is appropriate to refer to the sixth of the Sivan as the day of Mattan Torah even according to the opinion in the Gemara that the Torah was given on the seventh of Sivan. When Moshe Rabbeinu declared an extra day of preparation based on his own reasoning and Hashem agreed to his words on the sixth of Sivan that was the first example of Torah sheba’al peh – of the words of a human being becoming words of Torah.

TO THE DEGREE that we attach ourselves to the words of Torah do we approach the level of na’aseh ve’nishmah and attach ourselves to that moment at Sinai when the Jewish people returned to the level of Adam HaRishon before he sinned. And to precisely that degree do we guarantee our eternity as a people.

The Gemara (Shabbos 88a-b) relates how a Sadducee observed Rava learning with such intensity that he did not even notice that he was sitting on his fingers and they were dripping blood. “Ama pezizah – a hurried and unreflective people” the Sadducee said to Rava “for you placed your mouths before your ears” – when you undertook to keep the entire Torah before you heard what was in it or considered whether you were capable of the task (Rashi).

Rather than deny the charge Rava accepted it fully We went after Hashem with purity he tells the Sadducee like all those who act out of love and rely upon Him that He would not place upon us something that we are incapable of doing.

Another example of learning that knows no calculation: Rabbi Eliezer ben Pedas was so engrossed in learning Torah in the lower marketplace of Tzippori that he did not even notice that his outer garment was lying in the upper marketplace (Eruvin 54b). The Gemara cites his complete involvement in Torah learning as a fulfillment of the verse “. . .  with the love of her [i.e. the Torah] are you intoxicated always” (Shir Hashirim 5:19) – i.e. like those “fools and simpletons” who ignore their business affairs to run to hear a halachic discourse (Rashi).

While Rabi Eliezer ben Pedas was thus engrossed in learning someone approached to steal his garment only to find it guarded by a venomous snake. The very snake who seduced the Adam and Chava to sin became a guardian for Rabi Eliezer ben Pedas who was totally involved in his Torah learning. So too does the na’aseh ve’nishmah of Sinai serve as the corrective for Adam HaRishon’s Sin.

Na’aseh ve’nishmah – the heedless love of Torah of the am pezizah – is thus the key to immortality and eternity. Rabbi Isaac Chaver a leading disciple of the Vilna Gaon writes in the introduction to his Haggadah that the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represent two diametrically opposed paths. The first is the path of Torah the Divine Intelligence which is above nature. The second represents the path of human calculation. When Adam ate of the latter without first partaking of the Eitz HaChaim he brought death to the world and obscured Hashem’s presence in nature.

When we cling to the Torah we raise ourselves above the world of human calculation and lift the veil of obscurity in which nature enshrouds Hashem today. And through that clinging we guarantee the eternity of the Jewish people who are also above the natural order. That eternity -- our exclusion from the general rule of rise and fall of all nations -- constitutes the greatest revelation of Hashem in history.  

THESE THOUGHTS so inadequately redacted here obviously have powerful implications for the current situation of the Torah community in Eretz Yisrael. (I did not mention the name of the Rav who gave the Shavuos drashah partly out of fear of introducing my feeble understanding into his words. But also because no summary of a two-and-a-half hour drashah can begin to convey the beauty of the full structure or capture the power of hearing these words from the mouth of one whose pure joy in Torah is reflected in the light on his face as he becomes a ma’ayan misgaber an overflowing stream of Torah.)

The above concepts help to explain the futility of certain forms of dialogue (though not of personal contact) in Israeltoday. Those who cleave to the Torah and those who have no connection to it dwell on different planes: One cannot see beyond human calculation; the other prides itself on being an am pezizah – above calculation. They are speaking from the perspective of the two different trees at the center of the Garden and their dialogue will be that of the deaf.

Being a member of the am pezizah however is not a matter of being born into a Torah family or of being enrolled in yeshiva. It requires a lovesick involvement in Torah. When parents for instance seek to ensure that their sons will be able to learn Torah b’shalva without pressure by demanding fabulous dowries they thereby remove that Torah learning from the realm of the am pezizah and enter the world of human calculation.

Ironically the secular population inIsraelperceives the source of Jewish eternity more than we might expect. Most Israeli Jews perceive however dimly that the survival of the Jewish people and even of the modern state ofIsrael is miraculous and suspect that miracle is not unconnected to Torah.  That dim perception is reflected in the offer to exempt one-quarter of yeshiva students from every draft cohort.

On the other hand if many of us who have the good fortune to have been exposed to the sweetness of Torah learning myself chief among them fully grasped its power would we not approach that learning with greater passion especially at a time when the newspapers are filled with reports of Syrian missiles targeting Tel Aviv and the possibility of war breaking out any moment?