Shavuot Meritorious is Israel's portion, for the Holy One blessed be He desired them, and gave them the Torah of truth, the tree of life, that in it a man grasps life in this world, and life the the world to come. And every person that exerts himself in Torah learning and grasps it, he has life. And every person that abandons the words of Torah, and separates himself from the Torah, it is as if he has separated himself from life, for she (the Torah) is life, and its words are life, as it is written,"For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh" and it is written, "It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
The Jewish people had left Egypt, and traversed the desert, and were encamped at the base of Mt. Sinai in the stark harshness of the desert. There, at the base of the mountain, they encountered God. According to tradition, this is when we received the Torah.One of the stories from the Midrash about the giving of the Torah relates how the Jewish people decided to accept the Torah. It was, as Don Corleone said in The Godfather, “an offer that not refuse.”God lifted Mt. Sinai over the heads of the assembled People of Israel and then asked us if we wanted the Torah. If we said “no,” God would drop the mountain on top of us.
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