0. READ CAREFULLY — THERE WILL BE a test later on.
1. In the book of Exodus, Moses tells the Children of Israel that G?d wants to enter into a contract with them. With one voice, and without knowing the details, the people reply, “Na’aseh v’nishma” — literally, “We will do, and we will hear/understand!”
2. Many people may argue that the formulation is backwards. How can you do something unless you first hear and/or understand it? But the Torah is imparting a great truth: that one can understand certain things only by doing them.
2. Imagine trying to explain the taste of a peach to someone who hasn’t eaten one. You may wax as eloquently as you like, but if you really want them to “get it,” you need to hand them the fruit and bid them taste. One bite will render your descriptions moot. Listening to music, falling in love, grieving a loss; some parts of life must be known through experience.
4. Children grasp this innately, expressing it in the phrase “make-believe.” Who among us hasn’t made a house or spaceship out of a large cardboard box, then whiled away many happy and unselfconscious hours believing it to be just that?
5. First we make, then we believe. Try it sometime and see.