Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

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בלה תובשחמ
parsha - and the experience - of receiving the Torah. The thunderous experience
of receiving the law of G-d occurred once in our national history, but, hopefully,
occurs every day and every evening for each of us as we fulfill the mitzvah, and
the privilege, of learning Torah. But the Torah does not wish us to surrender
ourselves before this law in such a manner that we render ourselves mindless
automatons. As R. Yochanan emphasizes when he attributes the downfall of
Yerushalayim not to violation of din, but to failure to act lifnim mi-shurat ha-din,
Torah law must not be embraced out of a desire to abnegate our responsibility
for our own decisions or out of a desire to take life easily and follow the rulebook
without thinking about what is right.
Torah describes to us the minimum required of us, and educates us to develop
our internal moral compass so that it reflects the will of Hashem. However, The
Torah’s wish is that we may integrate into our personalities the will of Hashem, as
taught to us in halacha, such that we may act in accord with His will throughout
our lives, even in those cases in which His will is for us to transcend the minimum
requirements of the halachik norm. In short, our integration of, and identification
with, the will of Hashem must be so complete that our knowledge of His will is as
natural for us – and as deep-rooted – as the legal mind of a non-Jew prior to the
giving of the Torah.