[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img] Dateline Jerusalem — I was once asked if every week there is a holiday in Israel. It seems as though I am always writing about celebrations and holidays. But it is hard to avoid because so much of Israeli life is associated with Jewish religious observances, events related to Israel's existence and the Jewish people. The beginning of this week was Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), commemorating the liberation and unification of the City of Jerusalem. This weekend, however, we spend hours in synagogue in prayer, hear the Ten Commandments read aloud, and stay up all night learning Torah (Bible) as part of the observance of the holiday of Shavuot (Shaw-voo-oht), commemorating the day that G-d spoke the Ten Declarations (Ten Commandments) over 3,300 years ago. G-d gave the Jewish nation the Torah at Mt. Sinai 50 days after the exodus from Egypt (there are seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, from the freeing of Jewish slaves in Egypt to the receiving of the Torah). Shavuot means “weeks.” The Torah was given to and accepted by the Jewish nation then, but every year on Shavuot we receive the Torah again and renew our acceptance of it.

Many people do not believe that G-d ever gave the Torah and Ten Commandments. I am not trying to convert anyone to my beliefs. But in this age of scientific discovery, I find it hard not to believe that G-d wrote it. There are too many examples of things written in the Torah that was given to Moses and expressed in the Talmud, which explains the details of the written Torah and is also a compendium of Oral Law (passed down from father to son since Sinai), that only recently have been proofed or discovered. Man could not have known of these things 3,000 years ago at the time of the Torah or 1,500 years ago at the time the Talmud's oral law was compiled and written down.

For example, today in school we learn that millions of years ago there was once one gigantic land mass that separated over time into the seven continents. However, over 1,000 years ago, the Jewish sage Ezra commented on Genesis 1:2 of the Torah, stating “First G-d created one continent, but then split them into seven continents…” How could Ezra have known long before America, Antarctica and Australia were ever discovered that there were seven continents and that originally there was one enormous land mass that split? Only G-d could have known and passed it down through Torah.

Another example deals with fish and animals. It was not until the Torah was given to the Jewish nation that the notion of kosher came about. The Torah and Talmud detail what animals are kosher and not kosher. Kosher animals must have split hooves and chew their cud. The pig family is the only animal in the world that has split hooves but does not chew its cud. Therefore, even today, it would be safe to assume an animal with split hooves is kosher unless it is a pig. Similarly with fish, kosher fish must have scales and fins. Fish with fins and no scales are not kosher. Although this was written thousands of years ago, to this day there are no species of fish that have scales and no fins. Only G-d could have known this and passed it down through Torah.

In the 18th century, Halley was given credit for being first to discover a comet that would appear in the sky approximately once every 75 years. It was such a “great discovery” that the comet was named Halley's Comet. Yet, written in the Talmud almost two thousand years before Halley was the following, “A certain star rises once in 70 years…” (Talmud, Horayoth 10a). Again, only G-d could have passed this down through Torah and Talmud.

The Torah is such a great gift of knowledge, a book with laws and ethics and values that affect every aspect of our lives, not just those of Jews, but of mankind. Perhaps that is why the Jewish nation every Shavuot continues to renew its acceptance of the Torah since first receiving this great gift from G-d.

Chag sameach (happy holiday).

L'hitraot. Shachar.