DEAR FRIENDS,

The hardest part of putting our Yom Tov magazines together may very well be trying to introduce it on this opening page. A few paragraphs feels like too few keilim for too much ohr.

We don’t create a theme for Nekuda Tova, nor do we tell our contributors what to write about. It was a humbling experience to watch a theme unfold as the articles came in, clearly orchestrated by the Nosein HaTorah. As we read them, our excitement for Matan Torah grew, and we hope it does for you as well.

Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu! How lucky we are, in such a turbulent and distracting world, to have the Torah to hold onto, to throw ourselves into, and to get lost in. To learn how to live and act, to align our will with the ratzon Hashem. To purify and refine ourselves, to organize our inner chaos, to cling to Hashem, to fight the yetzer hara, to immerse our minds into like a mikveh of purity. Through night and day, katnus and gadlus, war and peace, we hold onto it like a plank of wood in a turbulent ocean.

The Torah is so much more than the sum of the words within it. Its very words are a pure expression of Godliness, as our cover art so beautifully conveys through the words of the Gemara, «אנא‭ ‬נפשי‭ ‬כתבית‭ ‬יהבית»‭  ‬— “I have written My very Essence into words and given them to you.” Hashem infused His light into the Torah, and when we learn Torah lishmah, for the purpose of coming closer to Hashem, we draw that ohr into our neshamah.

On Shavuos, Hashem invites us back under the chuppah of Matan Torah. Yisroel, Oraysa, v’Kudsha Brich Hu chad hu. The Torah is the link between us and Hashem, and by throwing ourselves into learning it we come close to Him.

As you sit down with this issue over Yom Tov, our hope is that you feel that warmth and connection on every page. May we all merit to experience Matan Torah this year not just as a historical moment, but as a personal, fiery encounter that truly brings us closer to Hashem, and may we carry that with us into every word of Torah we learn in the year ahead.

Gut Yom Tov!

The TYH Family