Since we are now in the period just before Mattan Torah, it is a good idea to listen to Hashem’s instructions about how to prepare for this annual event. The posuk (Shemos 19:1) tells us that as soon as we reached Midbar Sinai, Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to tells us, “You shall be to me a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Bnei Yisroel.” Rashi adds a cryptic phrase: “no less and no more.” Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein (Borchi Nafshi, Vayikra, page 450) recalls that when he was learning in Yeshivas Slabodka, his rosh yeshiva, Rav Eizik Sher, explained the profound lesson Rashi is teaching with these four magic words.

“It would seem odd,” the rosh yeshiva began, “that Hashem would wish to withhold Moshe from supplementing His words. After all, Moshe would surely be able to inspire us about our great fortune in becoming Hashem’s holy nation and having the privilege of serving Him.”

The famed baal mussar answered that as opposed to the excessive amount of propaganda and publicity to which we are all subjected on a daily basis, Hashem has no need or desire to persuade us of anything. He simply presents us with the facts. We are about to receive the Torah. If we prepare ourselves properly, we will be showered with tremendous blessings. We will be the most fortunate people in the world. That is all Hashem needs to say. Anything more would not only be superfluous, it would be counterproductive and unseemly for the Creator of the universe.

Rav Zilberstein adds a contemporary corollary that is even truer than when he wrote it about twenty years ago. “The plague of advertisements and commercialization is worse than ever before. We are inundated with misinformation and disinformation from every side, all of which is almost unavoidable.”

To digress for a moment, my rebbi, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, also wrote about this subject soon after he arrived in the United States. His first publication after arriving on these shores was about the dangers of the false press and deceptive media (see Rebbetzin Bruriah David’s Sefer Hazikaron Pachad Yitzchok). Imagine what Rav Huner would have had to say about the internet and AI.

Rav Zilberstein goes on to castigate what seems relatively innocent compared to the horrific lures of today’s media. He criticizes those who sell and advertise drinks with names such as “taam hachaim – the taste of life.”

“This is the taste of life?” he says. “It is only Torah and mitzvos that are the true taste of life.”

Ironically and very sadly, we almost laugh at this worry when compared with the true evils and spurious lies we face constantly. I don’t know if this one has come to Rav Zilberstein yet, but my rebbi would surely have directed the full force of one of his maamorim at this phenomenon. A so-called influencer on the Democratic side of the political spectrum has actually been advocating for shoplifting and other forms of robbery as legitimate ways of political expression. Others have rushed to the side of a recent murderer who killed someone in cold blood because he disagreed with his politics.

While the antidote to all of this is surely a proper kabbolas haTorah, as Rav Zilberstein says, we must first shield our children and ourselves from these baleful influences. One way of doing this, as Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu even before Mattan Torah, is to remember who we are and how must think and act. My rebbi was careful to announce in every volume of his Pachad Yitzchok that we will be learning Hilchos Deios and Chovos Halevavos — the laws of how to think and the obligations of our hearts. These expressions are a stark reminder that before we act, we must cleanse our thoughts and attitudes from the pollution around us. Becoming a goy kadosh and a mamleches kohanim is part of the antidote to the depravities that now fill the world.

Rav Chaim Friedlander (Sifsei Chaim, Shemos, page 302) offers us an incredible metaphor for understanding the task given to us at Har Sinai. He notes that somehow or other, human beings are involved in everything that happens on earth. Whether good or evil, it is man who does things, sometimes for better, sometimes for words. He explains that the reason for this is, as the Ramchal (Daas Tevunos 124) teaches, that since the world was created for mankind, every one of our actions affect the world at large. We may add from the often-quoted line of Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch that it is our task to be an ohr lagoyim, a light unto the nations. When we are worthy, we influence them to the best that a human being can be. When we don’t, anti-Semitism sets in to remind us that the world does indeed revolve around us. Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky explained this to mean that we want nothing for ourselves, only to elevate the world to the levels that it can attain when Am Yisroel keeps the Torah.

Rav Shimshon Pincus (Sichos, page 220), too, points out that Hashem’s message even before Matan Torah was that He had created us to be a unique entity in the world. As the Kuzari (1:26) famously taught, there were once four levels of creation: the inanimate, agricultural, animal and man. But then Hashem made a new species in the universe, Am Yisroel. This was even before we had heard a word from Hashem or performed a single mitzvah.

The Baal Shem Tov and Chassidus in general always taught that a Yid is different just because of his holy neshomah. That is what we learned from Rav Zilberstein and Rav Scher.

During the Shloshes Yemei Hagbolah, when we prepare to receive the Torah once again, we must recognize the sublime nature of being a Yid. Everyone knows that we are different. For the enlightened ones, this is a compliment. For our enemies, this is a source of jealousy and enmity. But the fact of mamleches kohanim and goy kadosh is indisputable.

In truth, this process began on Pesach, when we began counting Sefirah. Every day brought us one step closer to being the nation Hashem wants us to be. He created us with that holiness and purity. It is our task not to ruin or diminish it.

The Sheim M’Shmuel (Shemos, page 246) goes even further. The promise of being the mamleches kohanim and goy kadosh ensures our eternality. He quotes from Chazal (Sanhedrin 92a) that being a member of the goy kadosh is defined by living by the rules of eternity. This may be a reference to the teachings of both the Ramchal and Chassidus that it is our ultimate task to restore the glory of Adam Harishon before he sinned, before the edict of death had changed everything. When we think in the glorious terms of malchus, kedusha and service of Hashem (kohanim), we are transported from limited creatures to the infinite neshamos that are a part of Hashem Himself

If we try our best to absorb these ideals now, before Shavuos, we can hopefully ascend to the heights of our potential as man and Am Yisroel to be mekadesh Sheim Shomayim and bring the geulah sheleimah bemeheirah beyomeinu. Amein.