Imagine if kosher food was not readily available in every supermarket, and there weren’t kosher restaurants aplenty to satiate every palate. Imagine if they had to travel hundreds of miles to use a mikveh, as some Jews in the former Soviet Union had to do. Imagine if they were denied the right to learn Torah under the penalty of death. Just imagine…
They should be thankful to have such a “formidable” challenge as the one they claim to have, even conceding that to them it is serious. And we should wonder whether or not we are doing an adequate job in educating our young people that Torah sometimes requires sacrifice or pain or struggle, and observance of the Torah sometimes means that we cannot always get our way.
Not every desire can be reconciled with the laws and morality of the Torah, even if the zeitgeist decrees that you can always have everything you want – how you want it and when you want it. It is just not true. That is when we show our love for Torah by surrendering to God’s will.
Just because young and modern people disagree with something in the Torah does not make them right and the Torah wrong. Perhaps, indeed, it is the reverse. One would think a primary focus of Jewish education today (in truth, I assume it is) would be to impart to children the reality of life as God mandated it to us. Only God’s vision of mankind is real – not anything that we concoct. Only God’s morality can preserve mankind’s hopes, dreams and aspirations. Only the truths of Torah can remind man that he is created in the image of God and has been given the tools with which to best serve God, perfect his soul, and enjoy life on this planet.
Again, without trivializing anyone’s pain or the struggles people confront, it stands to reason that if we investigated every generation going back to ancient times, young people in every generation undoubtedly found something to take issue with in the Torah.
When all their peers were worshipping idols, or marauding, or carousing, or eating any type of food, or enjoying the weekend (not Shabbat), or reveling in every new discovery and every act of rebellion against their elders, or when they saw their peers pursuing their life’s dreams and desires unfettered by any external restrictions – it is not difficult to envision that many of them felt spiritual “challenges” as well. Those who overcame them are our illustrious ancestors in whose merit we exist today. Those who succumbed to them disappeared into the mist of history and were lost to our eternal people.
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Every generation thinks it is reinventing the wheel and faces trials no one else had before. In truth the wheel grinds on, and in every age Jews confront obstacles to the observance of mitzvot and the love of Torah. What we can never do is measure the worth or viability of Torah by contemporary standards of morality. If we ever did, among other problems that would not be a Torah worth sacrificing for or even dancing with.
In the Torah reading on Simchat Torah we indirectly reference the famous Mechilta (Parshat Yitro) that every small child is taught: “And He said, ‘Hashem came from Sinai, shone forth to them from Se’ir, appeared from the mountain of Paran…’” (Devarim 33:2).
To whom did God appear? The Midrash states that the nations of the world would have protested the giving of the Torah to Israel, so God first offered it to them.
He revealed Himself to the children of the wicked Eisav (Se’ir) and asked, “Will you accept the Torah?” They answered with a question: “Mah k’tiv ba?” – “What is written in it?” God answered “You shall not murder,” and the children of Eisav responded that homicide is a legacy from their ancestor, and so they rejected the Torah.
Ammon and Moav were also approached and they also asked “Mah k’tiv ba?” Told there are restrictions on lascivious behavior, they too declined, for their nations were founded on acts of immorality.
The children of Yishmael were also offered the Torah and also asked “Mah k’tiv ba?” Informed of the prohibition “You may not steal,” they too protested. “Our forebear was blessed with this special talent, and so the Torah is not for us.”
Conversely, when the people of Israel were offered the Torah, we answered “Whatever God says we will do and we will obey” – “na’aseh v’nishma” (Shemot 24:7). We did not ask “Mah k’tiv ba?” We accepted the Torah without investigation (even impetuously, as Rava, the great amora, was taunted by a heretic, in Masechet Shabbat 88a) and only because we trusted the Lawgiver to give us a Torah that would guide us through life properly, satisfy every legitimate human need, and perfect our souls.
We accepted the Torah unconditionally, even though to us it was an “aish da’at,” a fiery faith that is not easily handled. We trusted God, Who is compassionate and merciful and knows the best way for man to live.
Some are still asking “Mah k’tiv ba?” – What is written in it?” – and conditioning their acceptance of the Torah on whether or not the commandments of the Torah suit them, their friends, their personalities, their business practices, their own moral conclusions, their family lives, their politics, and their proclivities. But those whose acceptance of the Torah is predicated on “Mah k’tiv ba?” will never fully accept the Torah. They are substituting their morality for God’s and, in effect, worshipping themselves.
Is that something to celebrate? Maybe on one’s birthday, but that is not the meaning or import of Simchat Torah. On Simchat Torah we celebrate not the giving of the Torah but its incorporation into our lives and our profound joy in being entrusted with God’s eternal message for all of mankind. At the very least, we should feel an unlimited sense of gratitude along with the rejoicing.
