Rabbi Jacobson will discuss the following topics:
- Chassidus Applied to Shavuos
- What exactly is the Torah and what happened at Mattan Torah?
- When was the Torah written? Did it always exist just as G-d always existed, or did G-d write the Torah when He decided to create the world?
- Does the Torah contain all of G-d's knowledge, or just the parts that relate to creation and to us?
- If we were able to travel to a distant planet, would we be responsible to observe Torah and mitzvos there, or was the Torah only given on Planet Earth?
- Was the Torah written all at one time or did it evolve and grow as a document and get edited into what it is today?
- What exactly was given at Sinai – the written or the oral Torah?
- Why is there a written and an oral Torah?
- Why was it okay for the rabbis to write down the oral torah when it was prohibited to do so?
- Why then can’t we change other prohibitions?
- Can there be mistakes in the oral Torah?
- Since rabbinic Judaism in the oral Torah is filled with disputes, can we say that those that did not hold by it were on a higher state of Ahavas Yisroel, devoid of arguments?
- Why don’t the disputes indicate that there are mistakes in the oral Torah?
- Since we ignore certain opinions in the Talmud could it be that we are mistaken in our practice?
- How did the Avos do the mitzvos before they were given at Sinai?
- How did they know Torah before it was given?
- If Abraham performed all the mitzvos, why did he wait until age 99 to do a bris?
- How could the Jews sleep and need to be awoken for the giving of the Torah?
- Why is it considered special that the Jews said naaseh v’nishmah?
- Did they say naaseh v'nishmah out of their own free will, or were they compelled to do so?
- Why don't we count the 50th day of the Omer?
- Why do we sing and dance on Simchas Torah and not on Shavuos when the Torah was given?
- Why do we need two separate commandments, one to believe in Hashem, and another not to believe in false gods?
- Why does G-d get so angry about idolatry, if other gods don’t even exist?
Torah Mattan Torah
