[Avodah] Torah and Life

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from RSRH's essay Sivan I, The Collected Writings of 
RSRH Volume I.

But why then is this celebration [of the giving of the Torah] itself 
on so small a scale, so quiet,
and restricted in the Torah to the fleeting span of but a single day? And
on that day itself the celebration is marked by scarcely one positive
symbol, and is expressed merely in a negative way-by abstaining
from doing any work!

One day only? One quiet day? Only one quiet day for the Torah?
Verily, one cannot say that celebrations and festivals have brought
only blessing into the sphere of the Torah. Celebrations not properly
understood have often been misused in times of religious decadence.
The weaker a generation is, the less willing is it to serve those ideals,
the greatness and truth of which it cannot, after all, entirely deny. The
less a generation is inclined to pay homage to these ideals by dedicating
to them its life and to build an altar to their honour by sacrificing
its possessions and enjoyments, the more eagerly does it grasp at easier
substitutes in order to bedeck itself with lip-service to these ideals.
And thus it builds monuments, institutes festivals and holds banquets,
intoxicating itself with the fragrance of such symbolical veneration, in
order to soothe its conscience for the obvious betrayal and negation of
these ideals in its everyday life.
The same applies to the great ideals, aims and truths of the Torah, if
we betray and deny them in our lives, if we have not the will to devote
our lives to them, if we do not want to realize the truths of the Torah in
our daily existence, refusing to use the symbolism of the festivals for
their realisation. If we celebrate these festivals in order to give a mere
symbolical recognition to the existence of these truths while refusing to
them the power to mould our lives, and sneering at them in practice by
living without thought of the Torah, then the spirit of the Torah
frowns at us too- "I cannot tolerate iniquity combined with solemn meeting.
My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts." (Isaiah 1, 13-14.)

This, then, is the final reason why the Torah rejects any symbolic
expression and even any designation of Shavuoth as the Festival of
Revelation. From the very beginning it should clearly be conveyed to
us that the Torah, the quintessence of all that is good and precious, is
not satisfied that we devote a Festival-be it a day, a week or even a
month-to it. The Torah demands of us the dedication of every hour
and every moment throughout the year.

God has designated the Torah to be the soul of our whole AishDas
the invisible gentle flame of our whole being which permeates
our homes and animates and moulds our being. And just as you can
find organs for all sensual functions of life, and yet will look in vain for
an organ which is the bearer of the soul-because the whole human
organism is its bearer and no part of it can be without the soul-so
also the Torah, the soul of Israel as a national entity, is not limited to a
special day or week or month, because the whole of Israel's life belongs
to it and is to be regulated by it. Any localization within this life would
but limit the realm of the Torah.

Why not a whole week or a month, and why not a symbolical
celebration for the Torah? Because it is not the week nor the month
but the whole year that belongs to the Torah, and this is so because the
Torah does not demand a symbol only, but life and conduct. 
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