On Shavuot, we remember and celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai. However, the Torah is not just the scrolls that contain the stories of our ancestors or, as some people believe, the word of God. The Torah contains wisdom imparted to us in the form of those stories and in the words of God. At Sinai, Jews also received the Oral Torah.

More than that, we each have a Torah of our own. We have our own wisdom, much of which comes from our own lives and the stories we tell about them. It comes from the lessons we have learned as we have lived and how we then share that wisdom.

Everyone has a Torah–unique and individual as well as part of The Torah. It all blends together.

Today, on Shavuot, whether you are Jewish or not, consider your Torah. (After all the Torah is the Old Testament or Bible; Christians read this as well. Muslims are descendants of Abraham. We are all one.) Are you open to receiving the Torah–your Torah–today? Are you willing to share it with others?

Know that the more you give your Torah (wisdom) to others, the more you will receive it (wisdom).

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said we all must be teachers. As we teach, we open ourselves to learn more. In fact, we elevate ourselves to the next level so we can learn more, and by so doing we leave a spot open for someone else to move up and into.

Elevate yourself, and elevate someone else by giving your Torah.

Receive your Torah today on Shavuot. Ask God to Give it to you. Be open to receiving it. Then give your Torah to others. Share your wisdom: through teaching, writing, speaking.

Chag sameach (Happy holiday)!

The process of receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai began 49 days before the actual even occurred. It began with the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. The 49 days between the Exodus and Shavuot, the holiday that celebrate the forming of the covenant and God’s giving of the Torah to his Chosen People, is called Sefirat Ha’Omer, or counting of the Omer.

In Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, (23:15) we are instructed to count from the day we brought the Omer as a “wave offering.” An omer was a measure of barley the Jews brought as the afternoon offering on the second day of Passover. Even today, at the end of evening prayers on each night–or for less observant Jews at some time during the day, a Jew recites a blessing and then verbalizes the number of that day. On the 50th day, the holiday of Shavuot was celebrated.

However, this counting has also been associated with the sefirot on the Tree of Life. Each of the seven weeks relates to one of the lower seven sefirot and each of the seven days of the week also relates to a sefirah. And so the sefirot are paired up during the course of the 49 day period.

By looking at each day’s pairing and examining how those characteristics or character traits apply to our own character, we can refine ourselves and make ourselves ready to receive the Torah each year.  This takes honest and introspection. By traveling up the emotional ladder, so to speak, we see how we are or have been slaves to our personalities–how the forces of our emotions and ego control our lives. We work during these seven weeks to “free ourselves from bondage.” Then, like the Israelites, we are read to enter into a covenant with God–or with our true selves. we can reconnect with our souls.

By going through this process each year, we help ourselves refine our character and achieve personal freedom from those things that hold us back from achieving our human potential.

It always amazes me to realize how many times during the Jewish year we are given a chance to go inward and refine our character, purify our selves, improve our way of being in the world we can grow and learn and become our best selves. Yet, most of these processes can be used by anyone; you need not be Jewish to use them.

I highly suggest getting a copy of Spiritual Guide to Counting the Omer by Rabbi Simon Jacobson. Anyone can use it–Jewish or not.  I use it each year.

Today is fifteen days, which are two weeks and one day, of the Omer: Chesed of Tiferet–Lovingkindness in Compassion.

Actually, I have way too many other things going on in my life to worry about the garden. I won’t even be around most of the summer, so I don’t plan on planting anything new. I just wanted the weeds gone and the sprinklers set up.

Besides, last summer the sprinklers went on the fritz without me knowing it and many plants died. Also, the gophers found a lof of other plants extremely tasty and ate them while I wasn’t watching.  That’s what happens when you are too busy to tend to a garden. Gardens need care and attention.

As I was pulling weed after weed and bemoaning the loss of so many beautiful plants, I began thinking about Shavuot. I was asked to teach during the all night learning session at Chadeish Yameinu, my Jewish Renewal community, but I declined. I had been up until 2 a.m. two nights in a row, and they wanted me to teach at 2 a.m. I couldn’t do it. So, I didn’t even attend.

Shavuot marked just one more holiday I have missed, one more Jewish event I have not attended, one more day when I have not been able to focus on my spiritual practice or on my spiritual or religious studies. It marked one more day when I was too busy to pay attention to the garden of my soul.

Like any garden that goes untended, the garden of my soul also has begun to grow weeds and the plants ahve begun to die. I’ve forgotten some of the lessons I once knew, and bad habits, like gophers, have begun to live there and kill off the good habits. This has happened because I’m not paying attention; I’m not focusing on keeping the garden healthy and thriving.

It’s time for me to make time to weed, till, fertilize, plant, water, prune the garden of my soul. It’s time for me to take time — make time — for the spiritual side of my life once again.

For it’s the soul that actually gives us life. Without that, we become like a plant a gopher has eaten. The unseen part – our roots – are gnawed away, and the seen part – our body — withers away and dies.

Yes, it’s time to begin weeding the garden of my soul and then tending to it with love and care. How about you?

What’s Shavuot really all about? Most of us know the basic facts: After leaving Egypt, the Israelites camped at the bottom of Mount Sinai and Moses went up the mountain not once but twice to speak with God.  And for the first time in recorded history, God revealed himself and spoke to an entire nation of people, not to one lone visionary. Every Israelite at the foot of the Mt. Sinai saw and heard God reveal the Ten Commandments.

I think, thought, we can make it so much more personal, take it so much deeper than just the giving of the 10 commandments. We can look at how God gave entered into a covenant with us, made us a nation of priests and priestesses, and gave us the Torah…and ask ourselves what each of us now can do with that.

Indeed, Shavuot commemorates the face-to-face encounter between God and the Jewish people. Our tradition tells us that we all stood at Sinai, every Jewish soul, even those not yet born. The making of the covenant and the giving of the Torah serves as a shared experience among all Jews, past and present. We each entered into that covenant, that relationship, with God, and we accepted that Torah, that teaching. We connected ourselves with God and God’s wisdom for eternity.

Within the Ten Commandments, there are actually two sets of laws. One reflects man’s relationship with God, mitzvot beyn adam l’makom, and one set that reflects man’s relationship toward his fellow man, mitzvot beyn adam l’chaveyro. The revelation at Mt. Sinai continued beyond the tenth commandment, including an additional 603 ethical and religious laws to bring the total to 613 commandments. Of those 613 commandments, 248 are positive commandments, said to correspond to the number of bones in the body, and 365 are negative commandments, said to correspond to the days of the year. When viewed together, they suggest that we Jews devote every part of our bodies, every day of our lives, to following God’s Torah as revealed to all of us, born and unborn, that day at Mount Sinai.

I see this as an indication that we are imbued with Torah. Each and every one of us carries the Torah and its commandments within us. For what is Torah but wisdom and lessons and inspiration? Indeed, we are told that Moses brought down from that mountain not only the commandments but the oral Torah and the mystical tradition we know as Kabbalah.

All of this we commemorate on Shavuot. Every day, however, we have a chance to offer this Torah ourselves not only through our actions – by performing mitzvot- but also by actually offering our wisdom to others. We can inspire each other with our actions, our words, our experiences. That’s how we can continue the tradition of giving Torah every day. Maybe that’s part of our covenant with God, to actually take the Torah and make it alive, make it our own, transform it into something personal, and then share it. We need to pass it on l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation, making it constantly new and relevant.

Most Jews celebrate Shavuot with all-night study sessions. This tradition comes from the fact that the Israelites at Mount Sinai were so consumed with their fear-rather than their awe-of God that they could not listen to the revelation being given to them. (Exodus 20:15-18). Thus, our ancestors decided this holiday should be commemorated with all night study to prepare for this momentous event instead of going to bed as usual. To correct the mistake of failing to listen, in the future they prepared well to receive the Torah with “Tikkun Leyl Shavuot,” the “Preparation on Shavuot Night.” On this night before the full day of Shavuot, Jews study late into the night, sometimes till dawn, in the hope that once again God might choose Shavuot to reveal to Israel the hidden mystical truths underlying creation.

Here’s what I suggest, however. Let’s not wait for God to reveal these truths. Instead, let’s search within ourselves, we who are created in God’s image and who were there at the mountain that day. We may not have listened but we heard. Plus, we have a spark of divinity within us, a neshamah, a soul, connected to God. We have our own mystical truths to share, our own Torah to give that will inspire and enlighten others.

So, on Shavuot, why not write down or tell others your story? The written Torah is filled with stories that teach, enlighten, inspire, and show Jews how to live. Your story or stories can accomplish the same end. Or stand up and speak your Torah, offer it to others just as God did to all of us at Mount Sinai. Someone will gain something from your wisdom.

Yes, this Shavuot, let’s not wait to see if God reveals truths and lessons to us. Let’s channel the Divine Energy ourselves by offering our own Torah to our friends, families, and communities. Ask for Divine Wisdom. Meditate and pray and connect with God. Draw on old stories and apply them to your own life and experiences, thus renewing them and making them relevant once again. Or simply tell new stories of your own.

Everyone has a Torah. What’s yours? Give it this Shavuot.

[If you want to find a Shavuot event in the South Bay, CA, read this San Jose Examiner post.]