Vision looks inward and becomes duty, outward & becomes aspiration, upward and becomes faith.
—Rabbi Stephen Wise
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav offers a similar teaching, offering that every human being reaches in three directions: inwards, to the self; outward, to others; and upward; to God. But the real secret, of his teaching and of Rabbi Wise’s, is of course that they are one. Only when we are grounded in ourselves can we truly connect to others, and when we truly connect with others—we encounter the Divine.
Shavuot begins tonight, the holiday in which we celebrate the moment of revelation at Sinai—and the moments of revelations in our lives. We stood together at Sinai—reaching outward, and yet each of us—the rabbis teach—heard our own message, reaching inward. And together, at Sinai and now, we continue to reach upwards—to our best selves, and beyond that, to the Divine.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer