B"H

Accepting the Law

There is an old joke which explains why the Jews got the Torah. God
didn't offer it to us at first, you see. The two tablets upon which
the Ten Commandments are written were offered to other, greater
Peoples first.

God went to one People and asked them if they wanted the two tablets
with the Ten Commandments written in them. They asked: "What's
written?" God told them and the first People replied: "Don't
steal?!", "Forget it!"

So, God went to another great People and offered them the two tablets
with the Ten Commandments written in them. They too asked what's
written. God told them and they replied: "Don't commit
adultry?!", "Nothin' doin'!"

So it went until God got to Israel, the smallest and lowliest of the
Peoples on earth. God came to us and asked if we would take the
tablets with the The Ten Commandments written in them. To which we
replied: "How much does it cost?" "It's free", God said. "Good", we
answered, "we'll take the two."

Actually, that's not how it went down. We received the Torah on the
basis of Avraham and Sarah's merit, granted, the Torah is our
inheritance from Avraham and Sarah. Yet we merited the Torah on our
own when we said: "Everything that the Lord says we will do and we
will hear." (Exodus 24:7). *First* we committed ourselves to the
doing of the commandments. We did not make our doing the
commandments contingent upon our agreeing to them or understanding
them. *After* we said we will do the commanments of The Lord, we
also committed ourselves to hearing, i.e., understanding them insofar
as we are able. This was and is and always will be our merit.

This is not less true of the Laws of B'nei No'ach. Those who will
merit to become truly righteous Gentiles will first commit themselves
to accepting those laws. Only then will they be blessed with a full
and deep understanding of the Love and Wisdom beyond all description
that they contain.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat