join the party even if you can't hear the music

(Skip down to #4 if you just want a vort.)

1) I wish I could take credit for saying this because it is so simple and yet so true, but it's not my words, it's the words of a Rav in the community: if only people were afraid of cheit and looked after their neshoma as much as they are afraid of the virus and care about their guf; if only people fulfilled mitzvos with as much attention to hidur as they are careful about every detail the health authorities demand.  Ha'levay. 

2) I am not a posek or a Rav, so my opinion is meaningless.  I just throw it out there to provide entertainment and something to think about : )  With that caveat out of the way...maybe this goes without saying, but I see so many emails about outdoor minyanim that maybe it's a good idea to say it anyway.  Unless you intend to daven in a near silent whisper, it is really NOT (again, only l'fi aniyus daati) a good idea to make a minyan in your driveway, on your porch, on your lawn, at ha'neitz on Friday morning.  People (non-Jews, wives, children, neighbors) are asleep at 5:00AM.  They probably don't want to wake up to the sound of your hallel, as beautiful as it may be.  As someone in favor of tefilah btzibur despite the lockdown, in this case I would say it is better to make an exception since if you are making noise outdoors you risk violating issurei d'oraysa for the sake of a maybe kiyum derabbanan.  (Of course, if your shul is open and you have a minyan indoors then you avoid the issue, but I wont get into that again.)

3) Along the same lines, it is easier to stay up all night when you have someone giving you a shiur, when you can go out to the lobby to chat with a friend for awhile, when you can  go from m'chayil el chayil, from course to course all night, from the fruit platter to the ice cream to the sushi, etc.  When you are sitting alone at home with just a gemara, a cup of coffee, and whatever snacks your wife left out, you are in for a hard battle.  For those who can do it, kol ha'kavod.  I've written in previous years that it may be smarter to just go to sleep, get some rest, and learn b'hasmadah with a clear head all morning the next day when everyone else is napping.  Kal v'chomer this year when the odds are stacked against you it may be better to learn well a few hours next day rather than be misnamnen all night. Again, ask you LOR. 

4) V'kol ha'am ro'im es ha'kolos... va'yanu'u va'yamdu meirachok (Shmos 20:15)  Rashi quotes from Chazal that Bnei Yisrael were literally blown back by the experience of mattan Torah 12 mil, but the malachim came and brought them back, as it says in Tehilim (68:13), "Malchei Tzivakos yidodun yidodun."   

B'pashtus, the pshat in the pasuk in Tehilim is that "yidodun" is referring to the movement of the malachim (or milachim = kings, to be precise) themselves, and Chazal are interpreting it derech derush to mean that the malachim moved Bnei Yisrael.  Degel Mahaneh Ephraim, however, quotes a pshat from the Besh"T that reads the derash and pshat as perfectly in line with each other.  He gives a mashal: imagine a party where the best band in the world is playing.  As soon as the band starts, people can't help but to get up and start dancing.  The closer you are to the band and the better you hear the music, the more you want to dance.  Enter one poor deaf guy who takes a look around, sees all these people making movements and gyrations, and decides they must be crazy, as he has no idea what is going on.  If only he were a little smarter he would realize that it's the music that he can't hear that is bringing all these people simcha, and he would rush and join in with them as well.

Torah is the most beautiful music, the greatest shirah.  It is beyond any human being to take it all in.  We came to mattan Torah like deaf people to the party.  Nonetheless, we see the angels "yidudon yidodun," dancing like crazy -- they are the one's moving, dancing, filled with unbelievable simcha.  We are "ro'im es ha'kolos," we see the party even if we don't hear the music, and we know something special is going on.  So we push ourselves forward in the hope that we can maybe catch some of the notes, some of the music, and be uplifted as well.

There are a lot of people who comes into Shavuos (and who come into the beis medrash all year) who are ro'im es ha'kolos.  They don't hear the music -- they don't hear the sweetness of a R' Chaim, they don't hear the beauty of a Rashba.  They may not hear, but they see the joy of those who are zocheh to be yoshvei safsalei beis ha'medrash and they recognize that there is something important going on here.  They too want to be part of it.  So they come to the beis medrash, even if it is just this one night, and they hope maybe something will rub off, that maybe they will hear some of that joyous melody and maybe something of the tune will stick with them.  If we walk away with even that, we've accomplished something.