Imagine you are going out to a great steak restaurant. You are looking forward to that delicious steak, but decide to start with an appetizer to whet your appetite. You ask the waiter to recommend something, and he suggests... a steak. You want a first course before the main dish? The waiter recommends more steak. By the time you get to the main dish, you don't even want to see a steak!
We want to appreciate kabbalas haTorah that takes place Shavuos morning, so what do we do? We stay up all night learning. Steak before the steak! By the time the baal koreh gets to aseres hasibros half the shul is asleep, not sitting in excitement and anticipation.
The Zohar writes that on the night of Shavuos the goal is l'natra dachya ila'ah -- one can have great taharah on this night (see post from 2013). How does one achieve tahara? Sefas Emes answers: through torah. There is limud hatorah that is done for the sake of knowledge, and there is limud hatorah which purifies and elevates the person.
Our first course is limud hatorah which is a mitaheir. That meal, that experience, is completely different than the limud hatorah of the rest of the year. It transforms a person and makes the rest of learning possible.
There are two organs about which one can say משביעו רעב מרעיבו שבע. One of them is the brain.
ReplyDelete"(see post from 2013)"
ReplyDelete"an active, eager waiting"-- Shemos 19:16, thunder and lightning: thunder first ! but isn't the speed of light far greater than the speed of sound? but the Jew is ALL ears for the Voice of the invisible G-d; the thunder is WITHIN him, the lightning outside.
G-d said, 'let there be light': one HEARS Him say, and only then sees the light. "It's all about anticipation and enthusiasm." The heard steak fully precedes the one seen and eaten.
"there is limud hatorah which purifies and elevates a person"
ReplyDeletethe first weekly(!?) reading of shenayim mikra [at night (like Shavuos)?]
and "[t]here is limud hatorah that is done for the sake of knowledge"
the second weekly mikra [plus targum? which would suggest reading the entire parsha mitaheir, and then reading each pasuk with its targum {by day?}]