The Ties That Bind

As different as the Super Bowl and the Siyum Hashas were, they nevertheless shared one thing in common: The desire of the human for connection and unity.  It is our belief that since the human soul was created with a similarity to Hashem and with the obligation to increase and cultivate that similarity, it therefore seeks out Oneness.  Hashem, as the Shema states, is One – He is uniquely one, the only one, and absolute Oneness.

So too the human being seeks out oneness in many different ways. We love to be part of a huge unit of people, such as at football games and the Super Bowl.  We spend a lot of time, effort and money to find unity with one other person – our spouse.  Scientists seek out the string or the algorithm that tie together events and phenomena.  Even cooking, art and music are based on finding the thread that will tie together tastes, textures, aromas, colors, shapes, notes, tones and instruments.  We love and enjoy unity because we are tuned into Hashem and designed for that pursuit.  The Torah begins with the second letter of the Aleph-Bet, beis, the letter that is also the number two, because creation was the beginning of separation of the creature from the Creator.

It is our task to go from the beis, “twoness” back to the aleph, which is oneness.  The vehicle for that task is the Torah and its mitzvos and therefore the Ten Commandments, the ultimate condensed version of all the mitzvos begins with the letter aleph, because they are the ultimate path to the Oneness of Hashem.