Divar Torah from Rabbi Guy Dvir - Shavuot 5769

Naaseh Ve’Nishma

There is a famous question regarding the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. Traditionally we were taught that the manner in which Jews accepted the Torah on Mount Sinai was completely willful, as the Torah states, "We shall do then we shall hear" (Exodus 23, 8). The Jews declared their utmost commitment to do and obey whatever God would command, even before the commandments were issued. This declaration has remained for all time the anthem of Israel's faith in God, and devotion to His word. By virtue of this total devotion, Jews were likened to angels, for they too, are totally submissive to God. On the other hand, the Rabbi's have taught in the Gemera Shabbat 86a something quite different; "They stood at the foot of the mountain, Rav Avdimi bar Chama bar Chasa said: this teaches that the holy one, Blessed is He, covered them with the mountain as though it were an upturned dome, and said to them, "If you accept the Torah fine, but if not, your burial will be there!" Based on this teaching it seems that the Jews were coerced into accepting the Torah against their will. The Jews were given two options; either accept the Torah or this is your end. How does this reconcile with the famous act of "We shall do then we shall hear"? What happened to the selfless devotion which the Jews were highly praised for? At first glance it looks like these two teachings totally contradict one another, however the Midrash Tanhuma resolves the apparent contradiction by saying that both opinions are true. The Jews did in fact accept the Torah whole hearted when they declared "Naaseh Ve’Nishma" (we shall do then we shall hear). But when it came to accepting the oral Torah however, the Jews were not so eager to commit. Rather, God had to coerce them into accepting it by use of force. In fact, it was only on Purim that the Jews happily accepted the Oral Torah. The obvious question then is why were the Jews interested in accepting the written Torah but at the same time were unwilling to receive the oral Torah? What is the difference between the two Torot. The answer to this question lies in understanding the nature and essence of the oral Torah. Expressed in the Musar books is the idea that the foundation of the oral Torah is the toil and effort of Torah study. The oral Torah requires one's utmost devotion and dedication to the studying and remembering the vast amount of knowledge that is contained in it. Without the study of the oral Torah, the written Torah is meaningless, since the understanding of each and every law is essentially oral. Hence, the survival and growth of the written Torah depends solely on the hard toil and extreme self sacrifice in studying the oral Torah. It is precisely for this reason that God created oral Torah, since He wanted the Jews to earn the Torah by means of hard toil. God didn't just give us the Torah as a book of laws that we put on the bookshelf for display, He wanted to make the Torah something that could be acquired only through hard toil and extreme self sacrifice. It is this level of extreme self sacrifice which the Jews were reluctant to accept during Shavuot. The Jews were very comfortable with the idea of accepting the written Torah, since all it is essentially is a book of laws. However, the idea of being responsible to uphold the oral Torah was another story, since that would require a much stronger commitment. God therefore had to impose the Oral Torah on them in order for them to accept it.