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Shir ha-Shirim XIII: Part One: The Kiss of Torah: Sefirah 10



Another explanation: “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth.” Rabbi Yochanan said: An angel carried each utterance at Mount Sinai from before the Holy One, blessed is He, each one in turn, and brought it to each of the Israelites and said to him, “do you take upon yourself this commandment? Many roles are attached to it, many penalties are attached to it, many precautionary measures are attached to it, so many precepts and so many lenient and strict applications are attached to it; such and such a reward is attached to it.” The Israelite would answer him, “Yes!” The angel then said, “do you accept the Divinity of the Holy One, Blessed is He?” The Israelite answered, “Yes, yes!” Thereupon the Angel kissed him on the mouth; hence it says, “It was shown it to you that you may know (Deuteronomy 4:35),” namely by an angelic messenger. (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1.2:2, part one)

 

Each word spoken at Sinai was presented to each of the Children of Israel as a gift. Each word brought by the Angels to each Israelite was a case in itself. When the Angels case the people it was an expression of the in tent city of connection already expressed by the cases of the words.

This is how we must approach each word of Torah: we must strive to experience each word that we study as a case, presented individually to each of us, offering each of us an opportunity to say, “Yes! Yes!” Offering each of us an opportunity to ask him express our belief in God’s Divinity.


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