What merited our receiving the Torah at Har Sinai?
We say each day in the Bracha of Ahava Rabba: “Our Father, our King – for the sake of our fathers who had Bitachon in You and You taught them the laws of life…”
The Avudraham explains that this refers to the Bitachon we displayed when going out of Mitzrayim into the dessert, as the Pasuk (Yermiyahu 2:2) states: “Go proclaim to Jerusalem: Thus said Hashem: ‘I accounted to your favor the devotion of your youth, Your love as a bride— How you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.’”
We see that in order to accept the Torah we must first strengthen our Bitachon. This is brought out in the following words of Rabbeinu Bachayah (Introduction to Parshas Beshalch) as well:
“When the Jewish people left Egypt and G-d performed innumerable miracles for them in the desert, most of these miracles were designed to be tests. When G-d split the sea for them to enter into, He did not show them a path which led from one side to the other; rather He split the sea a little at a time… Something similar occurred with the Manna. G-d never supplied more than enough for one day or one day plus the Sabbath. (Shemos 16:4). Desert travelers would normally carry a supply of several weeks’ provisions with them. G-d acted as He did in order to instill the habit of Bitachon in the people.”
As we celebrate the giving of the Torah and reaffirm our acceptance of it, let us strengthen ourselves in the vital ingredient without which we can’t truly receive it and as the Vilna Gaon writes (Mishlei 22:19) is “the central reason for its giving”: Bitachon!
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