This week's Torah portion of Yitro (Sh'mot, chapters 18-20) tells the story of G-d giving the Torah to Israel at Sinai. We read in Chapter 19:

"In the third month after the Children of Israel's departure from the Land of Egypt, on this day they arrived in the Sinai Desert. They traveled from Refidim and came to the Sinai Desert, and they encamped in the desert… opposite the mountain."

From here and from similar sources, the reader might be surprised to find that we learn the importance of preparing for receiving the Torah and for Torah study in general. We learn it as follows: 

"On this day" – Rashi says that it could have been expected to say, "On that day," and the fact that it says "this day" tells us that we should view Torah as an ongoing, present-day experience: "The words of Torah must always be new for you, as if they were given this very day." 

This is very similar to a derivation made from the end of D'varim (27,9), that is, at the end of the Five Books of the Torah. This means that not only at the end of the Torah must we learn to feel that what we have learned is new, but we must feel this even before we receive the Torah! And this insight is part of the introduction to our acceptance of the Torah – because even before we hear what the Torah has to say, we must already begin preparing for it. 

Similarly, in Pirkei Avot (2,16 [19]) we learn that one must be diligent to study Torah – but even before that, in Mishnah 14 [17], we are taught that he must discipline himself to study Torah. That is, one must prepare himself well before beginning to study the Torah. And this is why the Rambam ruled in his Laws of Torah Study (4,1): "Torah should be taught only to a proper student - one whose deeds are attractive - or to a simpleton [whose deeds may be unknown]. However, one who walks in bad ways should be influenced to correct his behavior and follow a straight path; after that, he is checked and allowed to enter the Beit Medrash to be instructed."

The preparation that one does to receive the Torah is a major job. When G-d first appeared to Moshe at the Burning Bush, He told him (Sh'mot 3,12), "When you take the nation out of Egypt, you [plural] will serve [lit.: work] G-d on this mountain [Sinai]" – and this "work" at Mt. Sinai is the work of being prepared to receive the Torah. This is a spiritual task, to prepare ourselves to say, "Whatever G-d says, we will do and we will hear" (Sh'mot 24,7). This is the work and service of G-d: our toil and effort to be ready to receive the Torah even before we knows what it demands of us.

And this preparation to be able to say "We will do and we will hear" is the necessary service of G-d for all generations. Pirkei Avot (3,9 [12]) teaches: "One whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure; but one whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom will not endure." Rabbeinu Yonah asks: "How can it be that one's deeds could be greater than his wisdom? If he doesn't know Torah, how can he know what to do?" He answers as follows: 

The Mishna is referring to one's passion for Torah wisdom. This wisdom can endure only if he has a passion for it. And Rabbeinu Yonah adds that when one is ready to fulfill the Torah and its mitzvot, it is as if he already fulfilled them. True, if he hasn't learned, he will not know what to do – but the very willingness to perform what he has been told is itself its fulfillment. His willingness is considered "wisdom." 

Elsewhere (Shaarei Teshuvah), Rabbeinu Yonah cites two sources for this: One is from Sh'mot 12,28 which indicates that Bnei Yisrael carried out a commandment on a certain day when in fact they only did so on a later date – on which the Mechilta states that because they took it upon themselves to do it, it was as if they had already done it. [See Avot D'Rebbe Natan 22 for the second source.]

But we must still ask: True, one's deeds can be greater than his wisdom when he does not know all the mitzvot – but how can it be that his wisdom is less than his deeds, given that he knows what to do [for his deeds are numerous]? 

It must be that the wisdom referred to here is not just general knowledge of the commandments, but rather all the details of the mitzvot that he is required to know in order to fulfill them correctly. And these, of course, are infinite. For as long as a person does not know all the details, but still strives to know them – it is considered that his deeds are greater than his wisdom, and his wisdom will endure. For this is the preparation for Torah that is, as we said, so necessary. 

And this preparation for Torah wisdom – which stems from the recognition of the value and importance of Torah – is the very foundation of "feeling that Torah is new every day." And as we said above, this is something that we were charged to feel even before we received the Torah, for it is part of the preparation for receiving the Torah, and part of the service of G-d that Israel was commanded even before they arrived at Mt. Sinai.


Translated by Hillel Fendel