If Not Now, When!
We are increasingly inundated with news of antisemitic attacks. I could enumerate the details of the far too many incidents. It is frightening. It is terrifying. It is debilitating. It is dispiriting. I could detail even more emotions. Today my focus shifts. From where do our people draw strength?
Tonight’s holiday of Shavuot offers us hope. The holiday celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Its celebration is marked by a recommitment to learning. The sixteenth century kabbalists developed the custom of tikkun l’eil Shavuot. They would spend the entire evening studying to prepare themselves anew for the revelation of Torah.
The custom’s name can be translated as “repairing the night of Shavuot.” One reason why it is called tikkun—repair is to correct a historical mistake. According to the ancient rabbis the Israelites overslept the morning they received the Torah. Maybe they were tired after all that shlepping around the wilderness. Only after God awakened them with loud blasts of the shofar did they rouse and become attentive. (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:12) So the mystics urged us to stay up the entire night to correct this mistake. We can thereby demonstrate our eagerness to show that we are eager to renew our commitment to Torah.
These days tikkun can offer us something even more profound. It is not about correcting a historical mistake but instead about repairing our fractured souls. Antisemitism has accompanied us throughout our history. The frequency and ferocity of these attacks are unfamiliar to us. Few of us have witnessed such antisemitism in our own lifetimes. Now we recognize it was only lying dormant.
What are we to do?
One answer is found in the holiday of Shavuot. Throughout our history, and despite the world’s attacks against us, we have stubbornly clung to our faith. We have not turned aside from our people or looked away from our tradition. We have not focused on what they are doing, or saying, but instead on what we can do.
We pore over the Torah’s words year after year and find strength and renewed purpose within its verses. We study the wisdom of our ancient rabbis and discover that the truths they offered two thousand years ago hold contemporary meaning.
Rabbi Hillel used to say, “If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” (Pirke Avot 1:14)
That remains excellent advice for any age and any time.
It is revelatory that words spoken thousands of years ago still hold meaning.
Study some Torah. Repair your soul.
If not now, when!