Shavuos: Torah Sets You Free

Hi, this is David Wolowsky with a quick Shavuos message. We're going into a very special Shavuos. Uh one that will of course divide the Jewish people. This This is a dividing Shavuos because in America you have a two-day Shavuos. We never have a two-day Shavuos in Eretz Yisrael. We have only a one-day Shavuos. However, the second day of Shavuos for those of you in Chutz La'aretz is a Shabbos. We're going to have a regular Shabbos. So, we're going to lain Parshas Naso and you're going to lain for Shavuos. We will be off a parsha for a bunch of weeks, which of course is going to be challenging for me. Yeah, because I'm planning a trip to America coming up in the three weeks and so we want to uh we're going to have to find that laining somewhere and catch me up. But in any event, >> [clears throat] >> with Shavuos coming, um it's important that we have insight. I've spoken about this in the past that in Judaism time is not a circle, it is a spiral as the Maharal explains that you come back to the same point but always on a higher level. So, this Shavuos has to be better than your last Shavuos and your next Shavuos has to be even better than this one. So, there are so many different aspects of it. But the one thing we need to remember is it is the Yom Hadin for uh Torah. And Torah is the thing that sustains us. Pesach, we become physically free, but on Shavuos we become spiritually free. As the Chazal say, don't read that it was charus [snorts] al haluchos, that it was carved into the luchos, read cheirus al haluchos. The Torah brings you freedom. And when we accept the all Torah upon us, that frees us. Why? Because we're essentially wild animals, and you need a yoke on an animal to teach it how to be able to function in a civilized society. So, too, on Pesach, we brought the carbon omer from barley, which is animal food. And here we are bringing the stay lechem from wheat, which is people food. We are becoming people. And this is bringing us One of the names of Shavuos is Chag Hakatzir, where we harvest the wheat. This is the time when we move from becoming like animals to becoming people. And that's ultimately the purpose of the Torah, to allow us to transform ourselves into v'nei Adam, instead of acting just like animals. And that's the power power of Torah is to make us into human beings. >> [clears throat] >> We you throw around the term human being like, "I'm only human." But the truth is that Adam ha-Rishon, the malachim was singing shira to him cuz they thought he was a Kadosh Baruchu. That's a human being. And that's what we're striving to achieve. All of us should be zoche to have a good Shavuos.