We are in the Omer period—a time in which we count the days leading up Shavuot, every day bringing us closer to Torah, closer to meaning.
Throughout the generations, our commentators, philosophers, and sages have attempted to reduce the 613 commandments of Torah (תרי״ג מצוות) to just a few general principles. The great 20th-century French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995) understood the essence of Torah in this way:
“…[T]o follow the Most High is to know … that nothing is of greater importance than the approach made towards one’s neighbor, the concern with the fate of the ‘widow and the orphan, the stranger and the poor person,’ and that no approach made with empty hands can count as an approach …”
And what teaches us this central truth? Writes Levinas: “The traumatism of my enslavement in Egypt constitutes my very humanity, that which draws me closer to the problems of the wretched of the earth, to all persecuted people.” (“The Levinas Reader,” p. 202).
For Levinas, the story of Passover is our defining moment that points us toward a life of meaning and purpose. As we approach Shavuot, the festival that celebrates the gift of Torah, I give thanks for a tradition that understands our relationship with God through the prism of our obligations to others. As Levinas writes: “To know God is to know what must be done.” There is work to be done in partnership with God. Let’s get to it.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi
