On Shevuos we recall and relive that seismic event of the Jewish Nation receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai. Is it fair to ask, “What exactly did we receive?” If we appreciate how awesome the Torah actually is, that just might add more flavor to our celebration.

At Mount Sinai the Torah was revealed. Our mystical teachings tell us the Torah preexisted the world and it was actually the blueprint with which The Almighty created the world, as the Zohar states, “אִסְתָּכַּל בְּאוֹרַיְיתָא, וּבָרָא עָלְמָא…Istakel B’Oraisa U’Bara Alma -HASHEM looked into the Torah and created the world”. Now the Torah itself is made up of letters and words and sentences from the Hebrew Language- The Holy Tongue. What are those letters?

The Meor Einayim spells out something so incredible beyond. He says that HASHEM contracted his infinite G-dly being into the letter ALEF. It was too overwhelming and a world would not be able to receive its intensity so HASHEM restricted it into the letter BEIS. Each subsequent letter became the receptacle of continued reduction of the essence of HASHEM HIMSELF until the final letter TOF. This is a brief summary of what he writes. That gives us a brief window into the awesome nature of the ALEF BEIS, the building blocks of the universe. The letters of the Holy Language function conceptually like elements in the periodic table. In Sefer Yetzirah, which is reputed to have been written by Avraham Avinu, it is written, “Twenty-two Foundation letters: He engraved them, he carved them, He permuted them, He weighed them, and with them He depicted all that was formed and all that would be formed.”

If we would be looking at the periodic table while reading that statement it would make perfect sense to us, even with a rudimentary high school understanding of chemistry. Every element has an atomic weight. The differences in each nucleus of protons and neutrons and the various valences of electrons circling like planets makes the difference between heavy metals, liquids, and the lightest gases.

We discovered in the 20th century that when any of them are split open, a gigantic ocean of sublime energy is suddenly released. Who packed so much light and power into the tiniest particles that comprise everything about you and me, and all that’s in between?!

The implications of this are enormous. Torah is an actual manifestation, not only of HASHEM’s will and deepest wishes, but so is the whole world. Therefore, to behold the world and to grasp the Torah is to touch and be touched by ultimate DIVINITY.

A close friend of mine who passed away a few years ago, shared with me at a Yeshiva reunion the following original thought based on a brief statement in Gemara Menachos. It was our last conversation. It remains with me. He grasped his TZITZIS and said the Gemara says, “Kesher Elyon D’Oraisa” -The literal meaning is that the first knot of the TZITZIS, is a Torah obligation.

However, he understood here that the highest connection that two Jews can have with each other is through their common connection to Torah and the highest connection that anyone can have with HASHEM is through Torah.

I was an advisor for a large program that matches people with little Torah learning experience with mentors who had much more Torah learning in their lives. Very often, well intentioned mentors would share with me their frustration that they were trying to convince their partner of the truth and virtue of this or that aspect of Torah life.

I would frequently remind them of something I heard from Reb Nota Schiller ztl. that there is a world of difference between “learning about it” and “learning it”. What does that mean? People will not be moved by convincing arguments. The Midrash Eicha states: “even if they abandoned Me but kept My Torah, the light within it would bring them back to the good”

A friend of mine loves to tell engaging stories and only in the end he quietly slips in a brief Torah thought. He explains the Talmudic statement, “I created the Yetzer Hora and I created the Torah as an antidote (TAVLIN literally a spice). How is the Torah relegated to a spice?! It’s the main meal!

He says that when a kid needs medicine, his parents will mix it into some applesauce with honey. He won’t resist and he doesn’t realize the medicine entered his system, but when it does, it has its medicinal effect. So too, much talking about medicine all day cures nothing. However, sipping some Torah is the most sublime and powerful cosmic medicine, supernal chicken soup.