A Living Torah

(19) I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—if you and your offspring would live— (20) by loving your God יהוה, heeding God’s commands, and holding fast to [God]. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that יהוה swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.

ביום הזה THE SAME (lit., this) DAY — on the day of the New Moon. (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:1:3; Shabbat 86b). It ought not to write ביום הזה, but ביום ההוא, “on that day”; what, then, is the force of the words “on this day”? Since they refer to the day when the Israelites came to Sinai to receive the Torah they imply that the commands of the Torah should be to you each day as something new, as though He had only given them to you for the first time on the day in question (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 273; cf. Berakhot 63b).

Even though all the laws of the Torah are decrees, as we explained at the end of the Laws of Desecration, it is worthwhile to meditate on them and assign reasons to whatever part of it you can assign a reason to...most of the laws of the Torah are nothing but advice from the Master of Advice to refine the character and to straighten the actions.

Rabbi Yehoshua stood on his feet and said: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12). The Gemara asks: What is the relevance of the phrase “It is not in heaven” in this context? Rabbi Yirmeya says: Since the Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, we do not regard a Divine Voice, as You already wrote at Mount Sinai, in the Torah: “After a majority to incline” (Exodus 23:2).

What is the reason for Rabbi Yosei HaGelili’s opinion? As it was taught in a baraita : “a scroll” (Deuteronomy 24:1): From the word scroll, I have derived that only a scroll is valid. From where is it derived to include all objects as valid materials upon which a bill of divorce may be written? The Torah states: “That he write her,” in any case, i.e., any surface upon which the formula can be written. If so, why does the verse state “scroll”? To tell you that a bill of divorce must be written on a surface like a scroll: Just as a scroll is neither alive nor food, so too, a bill of divorce may be written on any object that is neither alive nor food.

(22) You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. (23) Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. (26) The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

AND THOU SHALT REMEMBER THAT THOU WAST A BONDMAN IN EGYPT. Rabbi Abraham [ibn Ezra] said that this phrase is connected with the expression and thy manservant, and thy maidservant. The correct interpretation is according to the plain meaning thereof, that you are to observe these statutes which the Lord Who redeemed thee out of the house of bondage commanded you. We also proclaim in the Kiddush of that [festival] day, “It is a memorial of the exodus from Egypt.” He stated these statutes with reference to the Festival of Weeks because the reason for the counting of seven weeks, and the observing of only the fiftieth day as the only solemn assembly is not mentioned in the Torah. I have already mentioned their secret.

The Sages taught: On the sixth day of the month of Sivan, the Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish people. Rabbi Yosei says: On the seventh day of the month.

The Feast of Weeks is the anniversary of the Revelation on Mount Sinai. In order to raise the importance of this day, we count the days that pass since the preceding festival, just as one who expects his most intimate friend on a certain day counts the days and even the hours. This is the reason why we count the days that pass since the offering of the Omer, between the anniversary of our departure from Egypt and the anniversary of the Lawgiving. The latter was the aim and object of the exodus from Egypt, and thus God said, "I brought you unto myself" (Exod. 19:4). As that great revelation took place only on one day, so we keep its anniversary only one day: