31 May CURING THE “EVERYONE DISEASE”

The Gemara in Masechet

Kiddushin (32ha-b) brings

Rav Yosef’s ruling that a

Rabbi is allowed to forego

on the honor owed to him

by virtue of his Torah

scholarship. Rav Yosef reached this

conclusion on the basis of the fact that

Hashem Himself waived His honor when He

led and guided the Jewish People when they

left Egypt. If G-d Himself could forego on

His honor, Rav Yosef reasoned, then

certainly a Rabbi can waive the honor owed

to Him.

Rava challenged this line of reasoning. He

said that G-d owns everything, and so He

has the authority to forego on His honor.

But a Rabbi represents the Torah – and the

Torah is not his that he can waive the honor

owed to the Torah. We are required to show

honor to Rabbis because they represent the

Torah – and no Rabbi has the authority to

forego on the honor that we must give to the

Torah.

But then Rava changed his mind, and

:conceded to Rav Yosef’s ruling. He said

Indeed, the Torah is”†–†אי≠ן¨†תו≠רה†די≠לי≠ה

his.” When a person learns and becomes a

scholar, he “acquires” the Torah. It becomes

his. Rav proves this from the second pasuk

in Tehillim which says about a Torah

he –†בת≠ור≠תו†יה≠גה†יו≠מם†ול≠יל≠ה†¨scholar

delves into “his Torah” day and night. A

scholar is considered to “own” the Torah he

learned. And so a Rabbi does, in fact, have

the right to waive the honor owed to him

This is a critically important statement, one

which encapsulates one of the main

objectives of the holiday of Shavuot. It is

about making a commitment to “own” the

Torah, to build a very personal connection

with the Torah. Accepting the Torah means

that we do not merely flow with the tide,

doing what everybody else does. It means

that we make the decision to take the Torah

and make it part of our essence, part of our

very being.

Our community has so much to be proud of

in regard to religious observance. I feel,

however, that many of us suffer from what

we might call “the everyone disease.” We

are too affected by what everyone else is

doing. We are too conscious of how people

are living their lives, and this can sometimes

pull us to act in a way which isn’t right for

us, and pull us away from acting the way

which is right for us.

Shavuot is the time to establish that תו≠רה

די≠די≠ה†הי≠א†– to make the Torah our own. It

is a time to make a personal commitment

that does not depend on anybody else but

ourselves, a commitment to be who we’re

supposed to be without considering what

other people are doing, or what other people

are going to think of us. It’s often a lot easier

to just be like everyone else. It’s easier to

just ride along the current, to go along with

the flow. But this is not

how we are going to achieve. In order to

achieve, we need to work hard. And part of

that hard work is developing our own

selves, being who we should be even if that

means being different than the people

around us. Let us try to

cure the “everyone disease,” and make the

commitment to “own” the Torah, to build a

deep, personal connection to the Torah,

without worrying about what other people

are doing or saying.