Kabbalists regard the Mount Sinai Revelation as the climax of human history, as on this day we were given the opportunity to manifest everything that we wanted and everything that we might ever want. Since then, humanity has been trying to regain what we had on Mount Sinai. The Torah with all its commentaries has only one goal, which is to bring humanity to the state that it had achieved on Mount Sinai.

 

The Revolution in Human Consciousness

The Revelation on Mount Sinai has three messages that have affected human history and is still behind the drive that we humans have, for a better future, for all of us:

1. The quantum leap from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light

The journey to Mount Sinai symbolizes more than anything, the road every person should take in order to become a real human, a being created in the image of God. The consciousness of the slaves in Egypt represents the state of mind of desperation and helplessness. The one who is busy blaming others for all his troubles, aches and pains, is a slave to despair and to his mistakes of the past. He would also be an eternal slave to the stupidity and/or tyranny of others. The slave cannot see any option for a different reality; he’s enslaved to his state of mind of hopelessness. The Exodus and the counting of the Omer symbolize every person’s ability to leap and jump beyond the 49 gates of impurity, beyond despair and darkness and transform his reality to the exact opposite. That exact opposite is being represented by the holiday of Shavuot. It is said that, during the Mount Sinai Revelation, the nation of Israel stood under the Mountain, united as one person. It was a real unity of love and caring among all the individuals of the entire nation. Therefore, when the tablets where given (Exodus 32:16), the sages say that there was “freedom” on the tablets.

“Freedom” is a state of mind whereby a person is connected to his real essence, the image of God. A person who’s in touch with the concept of being created in the image of God understands that freedom means taking total responsibility for his destiny, for his actions and for his emotions, feelings and thoughts. Freedom is the ability to navigate upwards. Mount Sinai Revelation gave us hope, the ability to believe that a solution is around the corner, that we have the power to create a new, better reality. We only have to keep on having faith and keep on trying. Mount Sinai Revelation gave us a great gift, the ability to experience true love. True authentic love can be found only among free people, those well-connected to their own essence – the image of God. This is not the love that most people experience which is really a form of dependency that brings the person to despair, anguish and misery.

2. Having faith in goodness and honesty

The Ten Utterances known better, by mistake, as The Ten Commandments, and the consciousness they represent, signify the biggest revolution in the history of human consciousness. The Zohar sees The Ten Utterances as the manifestations of the Ten Sefirot of The Tree of Life, emanations of goodness and bliss from The Creator to His beloved Creations. This is also a manifestation of the rule that teaches that “The purpose of The Creation is to give His bliss and goodness to His created beings”. It was the first time in the history of mankind that a system of rules was revealed that explained the system of “cause and effect”, in a way that had the ability to take humanity out of the darkness. The Torah is teaching that moral behavior, taking responsibility, and faith in goodness will be rewarded with success in all walks of life, especially fulfillment in this world and in the world to come. The rules of the Torah are not temporary, man-made rules; these are universal laws that are also the covenant between a person and his creator, above the limitations of time, space and human logic. Statistics of the last few decades show that there is a direct relation between the social and economic status of a society and their faith and belief in the rules of “cause and effect” and the laws of The Ten Utterances.

3. The Journey towards Immortality

The Zohar is teaching us that one of the greatest gifts given on Mount Sinai was the gift of immortality. The sin of Adam brought to the world, the curse of death and the Mount Sinai Revelation is a symbol for the correction of Adam’s Sin. According to the Kabbalists, the spiritual consciousness of the holiday of Shavuot would bring humanity to the understanding, that death and aging are not a decree from heaven, but are curable conditions. It is known that happy and spiritual people get less sick and their ability to recuperate is much better than other people. According to many Kabbalists, we are facing the times in which human consciousness will internalize the message that true freedom is at hand, and freedom from the angel of death (known in Jewish tradition as the Resurrection of the Dead) will be a true possibility. It is not by coincidence that the anti-aging industry grew so much during the last few years.

How can we connect to all of this during Shavuot?

It is written in the Zohar and in the writings of Rabbi Isaac Luria that during the counting of the Omer we are building our ability to escape from slavery, to become free. As the holiday of Shavuot enters, at sundown, a very powerful metaphysical force descends to our world; this force is called in the language of the Kabbalists the “Sefira of Keter”. This force is what can connect us to all the concepts and understandings that have been mentioned above. We can compare it to a downloading of a very highly advanced computer program. The downloading continues throughout the night. The way to tap into this gift is by reading a text as per the instructions of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and Rabbi Isaac Luria. This text is called the “Tikun of Shavuot” and it is made of selected verses from each Parasha (The Five Books of Moses are devided to more that 50 parts, called Parasha) in the Torah (three verses from the beginning and from the end of each Parasha), the prophets and from all the other books of the Tanakh, The Bible (all 24 of them). The reading continues with different texts from the Mishna, Sefer Tetsira (The Book of Formation) and the Zohar. The reading goes on through the whole night. In the morning, after the Morning Prayer, The Mount Sinai Revelation story is being read from the book of Exodus. The Zohar and The Midrash teach that the events of Mount Sinai Revelation can be called the wedding between The Holy Blessed Be He and the nation of Israel. Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai teaches us in the Zohar, that the all night study is like the preparation of the garments and adornments of the bride, and the ones who prepare the bride for the wedding, will be her best men during the great moment. The power of this night and the morning following is so great, says the Zohar, that whoever follows the above instructions is guaranteed that he won’t die that year and no harm can find him, physically or spiritually. Shavuot’s power is greater than that of Yom Kippur’s, since whoever was sentenced to death on Yom Kippur can reverse the decree on Shavuot. And this is how the holiday of Shavuot connects us to the dreams and hopes of humanity, since the dawn of its history, the hope for true love, unity, immortality and the freedom from The Angel of Death and from all pain and suffering.

Tikun Leil Shavuot – Tikun Leil Shavuot – HARAMHAL Institute for download

For additional study on Shavuot and other holidays enter Live Kabbalah University.

 

Rosh HaShanah

Yom Kippur

Sukkot

Hoshana Raba

Simhat Torah

Hanukkah

Tu BiShvat (The 15th of Shevat) – The New Year of the Tree

Purim

Passover

The Seventh Day of Passover

The Counting of The Omer

Lag BaOmer

Shavuot

The 9th of Av (Tisha BeAv)

Tu Be’Av – The Holiday of Love