Shavuot: Embrace the Torah with Your Entire Being - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

[Music] imagine someone in a very comfortable situation he's in his luxurious office it's well air conditioned he's sitting back in a recliner in a plush chair and he even has cold water with ice in it but he really wants Peach Snapple and someone is passing by imagine if the person would say please have mercy on me merciful friend please mercifully bring me Peach Snapple you think this guy is out of his mind Mercy he's in a very comfortable situation he's in an air conditioned office room he has water Mercy is not the term to use when you're asking for something that would seem to be a luxury however what if somebody had traveled through a desert for many many days without food without water and he was dehydrated and his strength was ebbing away and he was about to faint and he see someone off in the distance with water imagine if he would say you know perhaps you would consider giving me some water that's not how you ask the proper way to ask is please merciful friend have mercy on me I don't I'm dying I don't have life please grant me some water you know in the daving in the that we say before we make a very unusual request we say we sayu of our father merciful father who has Mercy have mercy on us what are we about to ask for are we about to ask Hashem to bring Rua to someone who was sick are we about to ask Hashem to bring livelihood to someone who is poor then it would be appropriate to say merciful father who has Mercy have mercy on us but no what do we ask for please help us understand your Tyra doesn't it seem a little a little bit overboard to say merciful father who has Mercy have mercy on us do you know that there is no request in the entire liturgy not in the not anywhere where we invoke Mercy more times than asking Hashem to help us understand the t is Mercy the proper term to use in this situation says we see from the terminology from the phraseology of this braa that of all of the things that we we need in this world the one that we are most desperate for is understanding the Tyra and that is because TOA is not a luxury in our life toyra is not like Peach Snapple when we already have water toyra is not luxury toyra is not even necessity toyra is life itself as we say [Music] in is the life and the length of our days and therefore of all the things we ask for in this world the one we ask for most impassionately most desperately is for Hashem to help us understand and observe the T you know we say the t is it's a tree of life to those who grab a hold of it then gives the following analogy imagine someone fell in a raging River you know that River that's flowing down to Niagara Falls fell in a raging River and his life is on the line and in the last moment he sees there's a tree that is growing out of the river bank and it's extending over the river and he knows if he grabs hold of that tree he could save his life how is he going to grab hold of that tree is he going to say well let me see if I could grab it with my left hand maybe I'll try it with my pinky now now now is not the time for a half-hearted effort he's going to grab that tree with both arms with both hands he's going to use every ounce of energy he has with every fiber of his being he's going to embrace and grab tightly to that tree because that tree will bring him life so too says this world The Temptations of this world world the T voice of this world the values that were bombarded by in the society and the environment we live in is literally like a raging River threatening to pull us under but we have hope we have a source of Salvation and that is the TOA the tah is a tree of life but only only to those who grab a hold of the T how are we going to embrace this tree of life are we going to give it a half-hearted effort no we're going to embrace the Tyra with every fiber of our being because this world is a raging River and our only chance for survival is embracing the Tyra with every ounce of physical and emotional energy we have the the tree of life but only to those who grab a hold of it with all of their strength because the Torah is our life and the length of our days this as we accept the tah let us [Music] remember it is a tree of life to those who grab hold of her with all of their strength wishing everyone [Music]