Perashat Nasso 5777

Perashat Nasso 5777

This Shabbat comes right after Shabuot, during the forty days Moshe sat up on Har Sinai and did not have food or drink. The sefarim say that these are days of mercy and kindness, shown by the fact that we do not recite Tahanun for another week.

There is no date in the Torah for Shabuot. The Torah merely says to count forty-nine days from Pesah. Nor is there a specific location mentioned for where the Torah was given to us. Does anybody know today where Mount Sinai is? It is somewhere in the vast Sinai Desert.

The reason why there is no date or place mentioned is to teach us that one does not need a specific time or place to learn Torah and to practice and connect to it. You are never too old or too young to study the wisdom of the holy Torah. "God has made one corresponding to the other" (Ecclesiastes 7:14).

The Evil Inclination does not have a specific time or place either. It continuously searches for ways to disrupt us from studying Torah and from advancing spiritually.

If we continue with the acceptance of the Torah that we just received anew, by adding to our studying of the Torah, surely Hashem's blessings will be upon us.