Shavuos - Preparing with Purity | Rabbi Zev Smith

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Zev Smith’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Put yourself back 100 years ago. You’re living in America when Yiddishkeit was at a crisis level and you heard the great news. The Chofetz Chaim consented to travel to America, to strengthen American Jewry. How excited we would be, how we desperately needed that. And yet it didn't happen. Someone told the Chofetz Chaim: Eh, it's not so important. What a devastation that would be. How do you deprive Yidden of so much spiritual encouragement? And it sounds strange, but something similar happened thousands of years ago. The Ribono shel Olam said: I'm ready to give the Torah in two days. And Moshe said: No, we need three days to prepare. How could Moshe do that and deprive Klal Yisroel from the 613 Mitzvos, from learning, from davening, from Torah? Evidently, Moshe understood there’s something that has to precede Torah, and that's purity. To enjoy the delight of learning, to experience ‘Praiseworthy is one who is filled with Torah’, there has to be a receptacle. There has to be a ‘Create for me a pure heart, Hashem.’ There has to be a holiness. A mind that's polluted with impurity, eyes that have been tainted by sights that are not appropriate,

Jump to a moment

1. 0:07Put yourself back 100 years ago. You’re living in America when Yiddishkeit was at a crisis…
2. 0:39How could Moshe do that and deprive Klal Yisroel from the 613 Mitzvos, from learning, from…
3. 1:10is not conducive to ‘In my heart I will build a sanctuary.’ You see, that's really…
4. 1:40it's about ‘We will do.’ It’s about maintaining this holiness that's the prerequisite of enjoying Torah,…
5. 2:10something doable, something that we could monitor, and most importantly, something that's practical. Whether it's at…
6. 2:41they, too, have to realize that the future of Torah and Klal Yisroel are in their…
7. 3:14Let us be this ‘one who comes to purify himself’ in these holy days and we…

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