RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:SHAVUOT: MAJOR LESSON OF THE REVELATION AT SINAI

 RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:SHAVUOT: MAJOR LESSON OF THE REVELATION AT SINAI

 

 

Dear Editor:

 

Jews celebrate on June 8's eve, Shavuot, commemorating Moses receiving the Torah atop Mt. Sinai. It is 7 weeks from Passover. Shavuot is derived from the Hebrew for 'seven.'

 

The sages teach that Sinai was chosen because it belonged to no nation so that the teachings in the Torah could belong to all humankind. The whole of Torah has been distilled to: "What is distasteful to you, do not do to your fellow."

 

As a rabbi, I am often consulted with situations involving human conflict. Genesis 37:14 asks us to: "look into the wholeness" of your fellows. We are not to look at their defects.

 

It is human nature to notice the defects in others, whereas a person is often oblivious of his own shortcomings. I counsel those with relationship situations to pray: "Let me see the virtues of others and not their faults."

To attain spirituality one should not look out of himself, and not look into others. We should take our own inventory and not that of other people. What we do not like in others, the Talmud teaches, are exactly the faults we have, that we are ignoring. Talmud Bavli Tractate Kidushin 70a: "He who condemns others, sees in them his own faults. "

While it is easier to hold resentments to others, it keeps us from growing spiritually.  It is not the way of Torah nor of the two great religions stemming from it. We can achieve perfect unity if we indeed pay attention only to our own defects.  The true way to God is to get along with one another locally as well as globally. This is the major lesson of the Revelation at Sinai circa 3500 years ago.

Rabbi Arthur Segal

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