How could a mass of individua slaves escape Egypt, come together as a nation, and receive the Torah at Sinai in 50 days? Preparing for Shavuot one must confront this question. One could only imagine the awe and fear of this fledgling nation standing there at Sinai. As  Brené Brown, my vulnerability Rebbe, teaches, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” ( Daring Greatly) This showing up only happened when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world. Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance. For our people to receive the Torah they needed to accept who they were and not hide their modest beginnings.

I was thinking about this when learning this profound first Mishna in Chagigah. There we learn who is obligated on the three pilgrim Festivals in the mitzva of reiah- appearance, this seeing and being seen by God in the Temple. Who is obligated to show up? One of the groups that is not obligated is minors. The Mishna clarifies:

Who has the status of a minor with regard to this halakha? Any child who is unable to ride on his father’s shoulders and ascend from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount; this is the statement of Beit Shammai. And Beit Hillel say: Any child who is unable to hold his father’s hand and ascend on foot from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, as it is stated: “Three times [regalim]” (Exodus 23:14). Since the term for feet is raglayim, Beit Hillel infer from here that the obligation to ascend involves the use of one’s legs. “(Mishna Chagigah 1:1)

It is obvious that only people who are older than Bar or Bat Mitvah are obligated to make the trek to Jerusalem. By definition minors are not obligated to keep commandments. Clearly this is not defining the commandment, but rather the obligation of education in the context of showing up for these festivals. So what are Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagreeing on?

On the simplest level they disagree as to the age of when a father is obligated to teach his child by taking them on this holiday. For Beit Shammai it starts earlier, when as child can go on their father’s shoulders. For Beit Hillel is starts later, when they can talk themselves with the assistance of holding their father’s hand. But clearly there are other things going on here, this graphic image in the Mishna is screaming for explanation.

I want to offer two more today for Shavuot. At the end of the Mishna an explanation is offered for Beit Hillel. These festivals are called Regalim, the holiday of lifting the feet. This is why Beit Hillel says that this education starts later when the child can lift their own feet. And maybe this is the whole disagreement. Maybe Beit Hillel things it is a regel, where Beit Shammai thinks it is a reiah- appearance. The most important part is that the child can see and be seen. What better place to do this than on their father’s shoulders?

This points to a depth of the experience of how we think about the receiving of the Torah. How could a group of slaves show up at Sinai? In a deep deep way they could show up Sinai because it was never for themselves. They showed up for the sake of the next generation. While the Gemara reasons that Beit Hillel must be right, there is a power to to Beit Shammai’s world view. Is our job to start them on our path like Beit Hillel? Or is our job to have them see further then we could ever like Beit Shammai?

As I have quoted before in his classic the Prophet Khalil Gibran wrote :

     Your children are not your children.
     They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
     They come through you but not from you,
     And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

     You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
     For they have their own thoughts.
     You may house their bodies but not their souls,
     For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
     You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

We will never be successful in making them like us. Our only hope is that we inspire them to be free and like themselves. In many ways this is the image of showing up at Sinai. Slaves carrying their young on their shoulders. From this perch ourr children can see the house of tomorrow.