Approaching Shavuot, Let's Learn How to Fall

The upcoming days bring us closer to Shavuot—the festival of receiving the Torah.

What is the meaning of the word "giving"? What is the Torah that we learned before we came into the world, and what is the Torah we must study upon entering it? How is it revealed and how shall it be revealed to the eyes of the world?

"Rabbi Simlai expounded, to what is the fetus in its mother's womb comparable? To a folded notebook placed with its hands on its temples, and its arms on its knees, with a candle lit above its head, and it sees from one end of the world to the other. And they teach it the entire Torah, and when it comes to the world, an angel strikes it on its mouth and it forgets the entire Torah" (Niddah 30b).

Shavuot, which concludes the counting of seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, is also called the "Festival of the Giving of the Torah," and the emphasis is on giving, not receiving.

What insight is to be drawn from this? What is meant by "the entire Torah," and why is the study of it required before our birth?

The sages say, "Just as their faces are different, so too are their opinions," and intellect is a combination of two faculties: wisdom and understanding.

Intellect is the result of the mental processing of events that have transpired. The human brain translates every event through the senses into an experience. Every external and objective reality is filtered through the mind, which includes my beliefs, additional related experiences, memories, and values, determining how I connect to the surrounding reality and the gap between it and me.

In my field of expertise as a practitioner of NLP, we use the terms "map" and "territory" to distinguish between facts as they occurred (territory) and how the patient experienced them (map).

It is very likely that a group of people will be present in a particular event, but each one will experience it differently because the internal tools with which a person perceives the objective field are subjective.

It naturally follows to consider the use of the word "giving" in the second name of this holiday.

The Torah was given—and this is a completed fact—but the acceptance of it by everyone present at the event was different—each according to their intellectual and spiritual level. The spiritual connection of Hashem with us started and ended with giving. The process of accepting it was left in our hands... each according to their understanding and spiritual refinement.

There is a gap between giving and receiving. Giving is from a higher source, while receiving is by a lower source. The work of accepting is solely on the receiver. Internalization, the degree of amazement, the extent of change—all these depend on how much I accept and encompass the Torah, all based on my choice. The gap existing between reality and how it is perceived through my senses and understanding.

The more I prepare myself to encompass reality, the more I will be worthy of receiving and understanding "its language," understanding what it comes to teach me, and extracting from it all the teachings and guidance for my life.

The same applies to absorbing the Torah within me—as much as I open my heart to it, sanctify and purify my thoughts, I will be more worthy of internalizing it as closely as possible to the way it was given. This will allow me to reduce the gap between "giving" from a higher source and "receiving" by a lower source.

In other words, the ability to contain the Torah depends to some extent on preparing the vessels within me—how much effort I put into enlarging and refining them to contain divine content. As large as the vessel, so is the achievement and acceptance, and this, as mentioned, is my choice, and I am responsible for its execution.

According to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the whole Torah is the Torah of Falling—the Torah of Falling encompasses the entire journey of a person's life that he is destined to go through here. Even in his mother's womb, he learns of the crises he will encounter and how to extract himself from them.

This Torah will be a light to his feet when he comes into the world because the fundamental understanding he will need is that all failings contain the foundation for rising from them.

What will determine the degree of a person’s crisis in encountering certain events is his emotional and mental response to the event, not the event itself.

The experience is what will be engraved in his mind, and the weaker he is emotionally and lacking internal tools and inner strength, the more the Torah he learned from reality is weak and insignificant to him—so it will be harder for him to contain the crisis reality around him.

A person works hard to find his purpose. He searches for an occupation that will bring him mental tranquility. He also works hard to find his match, to find a dwelling place suitable to his spirit, and suddenly—lo and behold, he finds and feels this is it. Beyond all intellectual knowledge, there is a deep, inner feeling that he is in the right place.

This means he has been on this journey before... These "falls" are familiar to him, as well as the methods for rising from them.

This is a Torah he learned earlier in his mother's womb—the Torah of Falling.

In another sense - Learning the Torah of Falling equips me to build tools in the soul that will aid me in deeply understanding reality. They help me encompass crisis reality and understand its good origin.

And these insights, which will grow as a result of this learning journey, I can pass on. This will be my task, to learn Torah and teach it to others.

This is my mission upon arriving in the world.

Exile symbolizes disconnection, the lack of understanding of what happens around me. But through preparing the vessels, I reach understanding—a new revelation about the hidden and obscure, unveiling the secrets of the Torah of my life, and then I bring myself to personal redemption, illuminating humanity with its light and advancing towards the redemption of all.

If I know how to extract Torah, meaning learning and understanding from the reality around me the will of the Creator, I become a vessel to absorb new insights. I process reality within me and extract a new Torah from it.

If I read an article, if I encounter any event, if I come across any innovation or achievement, I should not ignore it but make room within me for it, dedicate an inner space for the external reality, and process these matters within me until insight, understanding, and learning emerge from them, which will become "my Torah," and then I will pass it on.

This is the entire Torah.

The Festival of Giving the Torah is filled with learning.

Inbal Elhayani, M.A, is a certified NLP practitioner and guided imagery expert, writer, and lecturer in the field.

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