Shavuot

This weekend we celebrate the greatest day in human history. The Revelation on Mount Sinai was really the beginning of the Jewish religion.

It began when every man, woman, and child heard G-d speak. They accepted the covenant to observe the commandments, as they received the Ten Commandments and the Torah.

In essence, Shavuot is an expression of the greatest gift given to the world, the Torah. It is the book that teaches morality and what is right and wrong. The Jewish people were given the task of observing the Torah and set the example of proper behavior.

It is only the Torah that sets these standards. The breakdown of values and the permissiveness of society, is the result of rejecting Hashem and His Torah. It is absolute foolishness to think that man is capable of devising a better system than the Torah.

When the yardstick of right and wrong is based on what “feels good,” it opens the door for unlimited acceptance of all types of deviant behavior. The justification comes not from Torah values but from an “anything goes” mentality.

We demonstrate how much we cherish the Torah by staying up all night and studying it. But Shavuot is also a time where we need to understand how desperately the world needs to return to its teachings.