In high school, Shavuos ties into graduation. The most moving speech at graduation is usually the tribute to the parents. Often that is hotly contested, as many girls want to give their parents this gift. One year the girl that spoke shared how she, the child of small town shluchim, went away from home to a Jewish school as a small child. Every school year she went away, after every holiday she left home, and she never cried. She left her house, again and again, year after year, and she never cried. She practiced her graduation speech multiple times and was prepared to deliver it eloquently. She said it by graduation rehearsal, with poise. Graduation – tribute to the parents – she is at the podium with everybody’s eyes and ears directed at her… and she is bawling. She continues the speech, through her tears, and her mother is crying, she is crying, everyone in the audience is crying, I am crying and thus falls apart the beautifully practiced speech of how she always left home and never once cried.
High school graduation evokes tears, tears reflecting the emotion of leaving friends and the haven that has nurtured you over the past four years. But her tears were also mixed with pain, a pain never before released, of the 5-year old that has to leave home, because we are in exile and her parents need to be in a town where there is no education for her. That is an exile when you have to send your five-year-old away to learn Torah.
And this five-year-old that went through our high school, today is married, with children, working in klei kodesh, continuing the chain of love and commitment to G-d, with all the strength she received from her home and from her years of out of home schooling, including in high school. This is homegrown, taught to me by my students, Shavuos inspiration.
Sometimes acquiring Torah demands sacrifice, even today. But the reward of Torah wisdom and boundless love of G-d is more significant, and despite logic, we continue the bonds that have intimately attached our people to G-d for 3329 years.
At Bnos Rabbeinu we merit to help our students attach themselves to the ties of the generations by providing a caring home where the women of tomorrow are provided with tools today to become the Noshim Tzidkonios who are bringing the redemption.
Here are some incredible Shavuos Inspirations Bnos Rabbeinu Students have shared with me.
- Hayom Yom really does express the essence of the day; analyze it with that vision.
- There is nothing more exciting than learning Torah.
- Torah is G-d sharing with us His diary
- There is nothing cooler than immersing yourself in a complex Rashi analysis and walking away awed at the brilliance of Torah, of Rashi and of the Rebbe
- Torah is a dynamic exchange between me and G-d. We talk, listen, interrupt and share.
- Chassidus is the dew used to revive the dead. This is the secret to our amazing energy, learning lots of Chassidus.
- Never say,’ I already learned it;’ each time you will go deeper than before.
- Tehillim is davening Torah with the advantages of both, calling G-d by name in your prayers.