The Torah is a Tree of Life

There is a well-known story in the Talmud (Bava Metzia 59b) about a group of rabbis locked in a debate about whether a particular oven is pure or impure.

Rabbi Eliezer insists he is right, but the other rabbis disagree. To prove himself, Rabbi Eliezer calls on miracles. Unbelievably, a tree uproots itself, a stream flows backwards, and the walls of the study hall begin to collapse. Finally, a heavenly voice declares, “Why do you argue with Rabbi Eliezer? He is correct.” One might think that this would be the end of the argument, but it is not.

Rabbi Yehoshua stands and declares: “Lo bashamayim hi” (“It is not in heaven”). He argues that the Torah no longer resides in the heavens but rather down here on Earth. Torah is thus to be interpreted by us. It is in our hands. And so the rabbis of the Talmudic story rule against Rabbi Eliezar, and God’s voice is set aside.

This is a striking story from over a millennium ago, and its lesson continues to reverberate today. Torah, we are taught, is meant to live here with us, in the messiness of being human. Understanding Torah and Jewish law is left to those who are willing to engage with it in a careful way, to devote themselves to it, and not wait for divine interpretation.

This is the inheritance we celebrate on the holiday of Shavuot. We don’t only celebrate that Torah was gifted to us once, a long time ago at Sinai, but – and maybe more significantly – we celebrate that Torah continues to be gifted to us, shaped by us, and reshaped in (and for) every generation of Jews.Our tradition teaches that every one of us who ever was, or ever will be, stood at Sinai to receive Torah. And it also teaches that at this moment at Sinai, each person heard the Divine voice in their own way, according to their own capacity. We glean different meanings from Torah because we are all uniquely different, but also because the teachings of Torah are endlessly rich, like a well with no bottom. The Mishnah teaches, “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it” (Pirkei Avot 5:22). From this, we learn that Torah is not something we master once or something that has a finite reading, but is rather something we can return to, again and again, to uncover new meanings.

And when we engage in this sacred work, we become the repositories of its teachings. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously wrote that Judaism does not need more textbooks, but “textpeople” who embody Torah in the way that we act, engage with the world, and raise the next generation.

Shavuot begins on May 21. It is a holiday that recalls the giving and gifting of the Torah at Sinai and the ongoing relationship each of us has with Torah throughout our lives. It is a traditional practice to study Torah on Shavuot, so I do hope you will join me at the MNjcc’s Tikkun Leil Shavuot that night.

Additionally, on May 14 at 7:00 pm, I’ll be teaching a pre-Shavuot learning session at the DJC called “Entering the Orchard”, where we will explore PaRDeS – a classic Jewish approach to Torah study that invites us to read text on multiple layers at once: Pshat (what it says), Remez (what it hints), Drash (what we draw from it), and Sod (what feels deeper or mysterious). Together, we’ll experience how Jewish tradition approaches Torah as something rich, layered, and open to interpretation, speaking to our lives in ever-evolving ways.

Chag Sameach, and I’ll see you at Sinai.