Matan Torah is very much alive today. Because we, too, were there
When his fellow inmates later asked him how he had remained calm in the face of the guard’s hostility, Rav Chatzkel replied, “I’m used to bigger noises.”
When Rav Chatzkel opened a Gemara, he didn’t only see the finely printed words of the Vilna Shas and the various page layouts of the later commentaries. He saw, he heard, and he felt Abaye and Rava. He was completely absorbed in the experience of learning Torah and the ensuing impact on all of Creation. In the face of all that, the Soviet soldier’s aggression meant nothing to him.
We’ve learned about the fire and the lightning that we witnessed at Har Sinai, how the entire world was shocked into utter silence, how the devar Hashem resonated through the universe.
Yet it may seem to us that as history draws us further and further from the greatest event of all time, its echoes grow ever fainter.
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