When I went looking for a fresh piece of fruit this morning, I could not find it. As I searched our home, my daughter told me the fruit bowl was in her room. It was positioned in front of the web camera, as her class was preparing for Shavuot.
Shavuot is also known as Chag Habikurim, the festival of the first fruits. There is something special about firsts. The excitement, the anxiety, the fear, and the rush of adrenaline that accompanies the potential of firsts; the first time your favorite fruits appear on the shelves of grocery stores, the first time new clothes are on the racks for winter or summer, the first time you see a relative after a long period away.
We are in a season of first. Not many of us have ever lived through a pandemic before. But tonight, we begin one more first- receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.
The words have stayed the same eternally, but each and every time we open that book, it should feel as if it is your first. It should be as fresh as the fruit you pick off of the tree.
Enjoy our Torah this Shavuot. Learn it as if it is your first time. Use a fresh set of eyes and an open mind and heart.
Chag Sameach
