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This past week, the Jewish community observed the festival of Shavuot. Originally a holiday with an agrarian connection, it has now become intricately connected to the giving of the Torah by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and the moment when the Jewish people became newly consecrated to God. Many chose to observe the festival through study sessions that went late into the night and by following a custom of eating dairy foods, a tough beat for those among us with lactose issues.

A story from of old portrays the moment at Sinai as quite chilling and relays the Jewish people’s acceptance of Torah as compulsory. In this Midrash (Shabbat 88a:5), God holds Mount Sinai over the people like a barrel and says, “If you accept the Torah, it is good. And if not, here shall be your graves.” I imagine a bit of a Mel Brooksian scene where someone shouts back, “God, we took a vote, and a majority of the people agree to your terms.” God replies, “Really? At least 300,001 of you agreed on something?” “Well,” came the retort, “A simple majority. We actually had 600,000 opinions, but one person agreed with someone else. So, we accept your Torah.”

Thankfully, today, rather than threaten those with death unless they accept the Torah, we take a different approach: we invite. We invite all to attend Torah study (9:00 am every Saturday morning here at Sinai or online). We invite all to join Friday night Shabbat services where a lesson from Torah will be highlighted and to come on Saturday morning at 10:00 am when we read from the actual scroll. And while those are regularly scheduled opportunities to accept Torah each week, many ways of accepting Torah are more individualized and personal. We accept Torah when we are kind to others, when we commit to addressing the problems of the world, and when we mark Shabbat in some manner, either on our own or with people whom we love.

Shavuot may have passed, but the invitation still stands.