PARSHAS Bamidbar 5784 – Shavuos
One Body. One Soul.
Shifra Yachnes
Co-Director,
SPARK
I am not sure if others can relate to this, however, presently I have taken to avoiding my social media feeds and news sources. It feels like a tsunami has attacked our people. Not necessarily physically, but perhaps even more damaging, through ideas, fabrications and distortions. If I allow myself, I could fall down a rabbit hole that seems endless, hopeless, and quite terrifying. If all I had to go on was the news and what society is telling me, I would be lost.
Thankfully, that is not the case. I have a nation that is also my family standing behind me and the oath of my Creator promising me that our people will never perish and ultimately good will prevail over evil. Hashem gave us an incredible treasure that is the Torah. A guide and a light to walk us through the turbulence of our lives. We are promised that if we cling to this gift, then we will be choosing life. Real, joyful unadulterated life! A gift that protects from the terror of our enemies.
This upcoming Wednesday and Thursday we will be celebrating Shavuos, the day that we were given this Torah, this lifeline. However, we are also given a very clear message. When the Jews were about to accept the Torah on Mount Sinai, the text used to describe the scene is very interesting. It speaks of the Jewish people as one person, one entity, when in fact they totaled three million. Why would the Torah seem to make such a grammatical error? As we know, the Torah never errs and every letter is there to teach us something.
This particular usage of wording teaches us that the Jewish people were united as one entity and it was because of this very reason that they merited to receive the Torah. They were as if they were one body and one soul. This did not mean that they were all uniform and all the same.
Quite the contrary, we came from 12 unique and individual tribes, each possessing uniquely individual qualities. We were created differently, with different opinions, ways of thinking about the world, and approaches to dealing with the challenges of life. Yet we were one. We accepted each other and embraced each other because of our differences. We realized the unique value that each member of our nation contributed to the whole. And because of that, we earned the right to receive this Torah that got us and will continue to get us through the hardest parts of our history.
How appropriate is this message for us today. The only way that we are going to merit to continue cleaving to the Torah is if we embrace each other for all of our shining traits. Yes, even if we disagree – even if we vehemently disagree – we still have the ability to love one another and be unified as one body and one soul. This unity is what is going to save us and this unity is what is going to take us to our ultimate redemption.
-Message based on commentary of the Ohr HaChaim to Shemos 19:3
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