Torah- Anthropology and not Theology

Shavous- The day we received the Torah . Now we are in the days between Passover and the holiday of Shavuos. Shavuos is the day we received the Torah on Mount Sinai. As I have written in the past, the Jewish calendar is a revolving wheel. Each year we return to the same time slots. So when we celebrate Shavuos, the time when our nation received the Torah, it is not a festival of a one time experience. Rather we are able to relive the experience. Every year on Shavuos we as a nation and as individuals have a chance to reaccept the Torah that is being given to us.

Those that did not accept the Torah and those that did In order to be able to receive the Torah it is essential that we study how our nation was successful in originally accepting the Torah upon themselves.

The Sages taught us what went on behind the scenes which led up to G-d's revelation at Sinai when giving us the Torah. G-d went and offered the Torah to all the other nations. Each nation,though, inquired first what is the Torah all about, and what is written in it. When they heard an example they turned it down, answering that it does not fit within their life style. When G-d offered our nation the Torah we responded as recorded in Exodus 24:7 "We will do and (then) hear."

How can we accept something without knowing what it is? This raises an obvious question. How can someone accept to do and then hear? Why should they be willing to accept without knowing what they are accepting? Is that logical? In order to comprehend this we need to understand an important point about what the Torah is about and how we need to approach it to gain an insight into its vast immeasurable wisdom.

The Nineteen Letters In the 1800s Jewry in Germany was rapidly vanishing. The enlightenment movement started there and almost succeeded in destroying any remnant of Judaism. That was until there arose a man of greatness who saved German Jewry and changed the tide, saving many. His influence is still felt today, and the American Jewish education system finds its roots from the great man's influence in Germany.

I am referring to Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, of blessed memory. When he was 28, starting out his career, he wrote a small collection of letters which he called "The Nineteen Letters" printed in German to address the issues that until today still trouble many secularists about Judaism.

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