For No One in Particular

As the dust of the Knesset elections has settled this week we move onto an election of far greater import. In this week’s Parshas Yisro HaKadosh Baruch Hu elects to give the Torah to the Jewish People and take them as His holy nation.

At the foot of Har Sinai before the Torah was even given while Bnei Yisrael were still preparing themselves for the tremendous Revelation that was about to take place they discovered that this Torah wasn’t really suited to what they perceived as their needs their character their essence and their disposition. They would have to adapt their nature to suit the Torah’s demands. This is how the Torah describes their preparations for the great moment of their encounter with HaKadosh Baruch Hu:

“Hashem said to Moses ‘Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and they shall wash their garments. And they shall be prepared for the third day for on the third day Hashem will descend before the eyes of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And you shall set boundaries for the people all around saying “Beware of ascending the mountain or touching its edge; whoever touches the mountain shall surely die.” … When the ram’s horn sounds a long drawn out blast they may ascend the mountain’” (Shemos19: 10-13).

Here we meet the nation on the eve of its peak moment when the people are required to prepare  in the most practical sort of way: “And they shall wash their garments.” This mundane act of producing a freshly-laundered garment by its very nature gives a person a sense of cleanliness and imbues his soul with a feeling of purity and elevation. It enables him to sanctify himself and take off into the open spaces of spirituality. The implication is that while they hearts were still immersed in mundane material concerns — while they were preoccupied with little things they were not capable of integrating the elevated message of Har Sinai. The people realized that the Torah would not come to them out of their own selves but would be imposed on them externally.