I’m told that the best test of a sermon is depth – not length. (I wonder how I score on that count…) No one can argue, though, that G-d definitely doesn’t go on for too long. Just last week we read the Ten Commandments – not a long sermon by any account, it’s just 620 letters long! But it was presented with such an impressive delivery that it has been resonating loudly throughout history.
The delivery included such amazing and overwhelming spiritual revelations that it caused the millions of Jewish people watching to faint! After such an intense spiritual experience, you would expect the continuation of the Torah’s narrative to focus on maintaining this deep connection. Yet this week’s Torah portion focuses on quite mundane laws; civil laws associated with redress of damages, loans and rules governing Jewish courts.
It almost seems as though the Torah is attempting to distract us from this amazing spiritual experience, by diverting our attention back to the mundane world!
The truth is, that in this juxtaposition is evident the intention and purpose of the entire Torah and Mitzvot: to live a physical life in accordance with a higher purpose. G-d created this world, and in fact the entire universe, with the purpose that we, small human beings that we may be, would live our lives in accordance with His will; not that we should seclude ourselves on a mountain top and meditate in an attempt to draw closer to the Infinite.
True holiness is not measured by how removed we can be from the physical reality, rather by how well we master our world and elevate our lives.