On Shavuout we celebrate receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The importance of the Torah is that it shows us that morality is objective. There is no such thing and individual morality. That goes for leaders as well as followers. We are all called upon to be moral.
As we know, Thursday night, Friday, and Shabbat is the festival of Shavuot. Traditionally, Shavuot marks the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. And this is an extremely important event — not only in Jewish history, but in the history of civilization itself.
Before the giving of the Torah, the world was filled with idolatrous societies. Every nation had its gods, its rulers, and its customs. What made the Torah unique was not merely monotheism, but ethical monotheism. The Torah established the idea of objective morality: that something is moral or immoral not because a king says so, not because society votes on it, and not because it is politically convenient, but because God says so.
That was revolutionary.
Throughout history, rulers have often disliked religion precisely because religion places limits on power. The great totalitarian movements of the twentieth century — whether communist or fascist — were deeply hostile to religion. Why? Because religion not only constrains the population; it also constrains the leaders. It tells rulers: “You are not above the law.”
The Torah insists that kings, judges, priests, and prophets are all subject to the same divine law.
That is why the story of the prophet Nathan confronting King David is so remarkable. Nathan goes directly to the king and tells him: “You have sinned.” In most ancient societies, that conversation would have ended very quickly — and very badly for the prophet. Kings were treated as semi-divine figures. They were above criticism.
But not in Judaism.
The Torah teaches that no human being is above God’s law.
Even today, you can still see remnants of the old idea of absolute kingship. The Shah of Iran’s official title was “King of Kings.” Think about that title for a moment. The Torah rejects that concept entirely. A Jewish king carries a Torah scroll with him precisely to remind him that he is not supreme.
Years ago, when I would give tours in Safed, Israel, people would notice the large picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe hanging on the northern wall of the yeshiva. They would ask about it. I would point out something important: when the students prayed, they faced away from the picture. They were not praying to the Rebbe. He was respected, admired, even loved — but he was not God.
Then I would ask them: “What do you think would happen if tomorrow morning people discovered that the Rebbe publicly violated Shabbat?”
The answer is simple: he would lose almost all of his followers immediately. Why? Because the basis of his authority was not that he stood above the Torah, but that he lived by the same Torah as everyone else — only on a higher level.
That is one of the Torah’s greatest lessons: the law applies equally to everyone, from the greatest leader to the simplest person.
This idea even influenced American political thought. In 1799, President John Adams wrote that the Constitution was “made only for a moral and religious people” and was inadequate for any other. In other words, a free society only works when the people — and the leaders — accept moral restraints upon themselves.
That is one of the great messages of Shavuot.
At Mount Sinai, God did not simply give us rituals or ceremonies. He gave us a moral framework for society. The Torah teaches that there is a law higher than kings, higher than governments, and higher than human ambition.
And that law applies equally to all of us.
Something to think about.
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