Postscript to Matan Torah

 While Matan Torah is depicted in Parshat Yitro, the culmination of the Sinai experience is described in Parshat Mishpatim. As I process the news coming from Israel on Thursday, there are few aspects of the Postscript to Sinai that seem particularly poignant at this moment. First, it is only now in Mishpatim that we read how Bnai Yisrael responded to the Torah with “Naaseh V’Nishma”. The Midrash describes how impressed Hashem was with this response, so much so that He granted each Jew with “two crowns”, one for each of these commitments. The theology behind the commitment of “we will do and we will listen” is that as human beings we cannot possibly fully understand God’s laws. While we are encouraged to seek meaning and reasons behind the mitzvot, on a basic level we must commit to doing even if we do not necessarily understand all of the time. We call the reasons behind mitzvot “Ta’amim” which literally means taste or flavor. To use a food analogy Torah and Mitzvot are fundamentally nourishing to our souls. Not everything that’s good for us necessarily tastes good. And everyone has different senses of taste. Furthermore our sense of taste can differ over the course of our lifetime due to both external and internal factors, such as our health and our environment. While we should always seek to enjoy Jewish learning and Jewish learning, the foundation of our Jewish identity must be a commitment to Hashem in good times and less good times, when we understand what is happening and even when we don’t. “Naaseh V’Nishma” is similarly important for us to tap into when we are confronted with incomprehensible evil and sadness, some of the feelings many of us feel as the remains of innocent Israeli hostages were returned from Gaza after more than 500 days of captivity. We must mourn the losses, and we must remind the world that Hamas is barbaric and pure evil and must be totally annihilated. As we do that we also double down on the unbreakable relationship we have with Hashem and our unbreakable Jewish identity and pride in the Jewish People and the Jewish State of Israel. Second, between the depiction of Matan Torah in Yitro and the Postscript in Mishpatim, the Torah interrupts with dozens of commandments related to civil law and the proper functioning of society. I believe that this shift is meant to highlight to us the importance of Achdut. The experience of receiving the Torah was very lofty and spiritual. It was a very personal experience. While learning Torah can replicate that ethereal experience (and we should daily find ways to tap into that feeling), Living Torah finds expression in the messiness of dealing with real people, or navigating power imbalances, in how we treat our family – and our enemies. It finds expression in how we value compassion and justice and fairness, and in how we abhor cruelty and vanquish evil. While the bookends of Matan Torah are about our personal relationship with Hashem, the book itself is focused on our relationship with each other. The prerequisite for Matan Torah was Achdut, and the anticipated outcome of Matan Torah is Achdut. The first and most essential response to challenging times and to aspirations for a better future must also be Achdut