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The following is from RSRH's essay Sivan I, The Collected Writings of
RSRH Volume I.<br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>But why then is this
celebration [of the giving of the Torah] itself on so small a scale, so
quiet,<br>
and restricted in the Torah to the fleeting span of but a single day?
And<br>
on that day itself the celebration is marked by scarcely one
positive<br>
symbol, and is expressed merely in a negative way-by abstaining<br>
from doing any work!<br><br>
One day only? One quiet day? Only one quiet day for the Torah?<br>
Verily, one cannot say that celebrations and festivals have brought<br>
only blessing into the sphere of the Torah. Celebrations not
properly<br>
understood have often been misused in times of religious decadence.<br>
The weaker a generation is, the less willing is it to serve those
ideals,<br>
the greatness and truth of which it cannot, after all, entirely deny.
The<br>
less a generation is inclined to pay homage to these ideals by
dedicating<br>
to them its life and to build an altar to their honour by
sacrificing<br>
its possessions and enjoyments, the more eagerly does it grasp at
easier<br>
substitutes in order to bedeck itself with lip-service to these
ideals.<br>
And thus it builds monuments, institutes festivals and holds
banquets,<br>
intoxicating itself with the fragrance of such symbolical veneration,
in<br>
order to soothe its conscience for the obvious betrayal and negation
of<br>
these ideals in its everyday life.<br>
The same applies to the great ideals, aims and truths of the Torah,
if<br>
we betray and deny them in our lives, if we have not the will to
devote<br>
our lives to them, if we do not want to realize the truths of the Torah
in<br>
our daily existence, refusing to use the symbolism of the festivals
for<br>
their realisation. </font>If
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>we celebrate these festivals
in order to give a mere<br>
symbolical recognition to the existence of these truths while refusing
to<br>
them the power to mould our lives, and sneering at them in practice
by<br>
living without thought of the Torah, then the spirit of the Torah<br>
frowns at us too- "I cannot tolerate iniquity combined with solemn
meeting. <br>
My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts." (Isaiah 1,
13-14.)<br><br>
This, then, is the final reason why the Torah rejects any symbolic<br>
expression and even any designation of Shavuoth as the Festival of<br>
Revelation. From the very beginning it should clearly be conveyed to<br>
us that the Torah, the quintessence of all that is good and precious,
is<br>
not satisfied that we devote a Festival-be it a day, a week or even
a<br>
month-to it. The Torah demands of us the dedication of every hour<br>
and every moment throughout the year.<br><br>
God has designated the Torah to be the soul of our whole AishDas<br>
</font>the <font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>invisible gentle
flame of our whole being which permeates<br>
our homes and animates and moulds our being. And just as you can<br>
find organs for all sensual functions of life, and yet will look in vain
for<br>
an organ which is the bearer of the soul-because the whole human<br>
organism is its bearer and no part of it can be without the soul-so<br>
also the Torah, the soul of Israel as a national entity, is not limited
to a<br>
special day or week or month, because the whole of Israel's life
belongs<br>
to it and is to be regulated by it. Any localization within this life
would<br>
but limit the realm of the Torah.<br><br>
Why not a whole week or a month, and why not a symbolical<br>
celebration for the Torah? Because it is not the week nor the month<br>
but the whole year that belongs to the Torah, and this is so because
the<br>
Torah does not demand a symbol only, but life and conduct.</font></body>
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