Yisro 78 we all say
by davening, yismach moshe b'matnas chelko that although Moshe could have kept
the Torah for himself, he was happy to give it as a gift to klall yisroel.
Similarly the pninei mishulachan haGra brings the gemara brachos 5a that says
that unlike when a human gives something away he is a bit saddened, Hashem is
happy when giving the Torah to us. This is seen all the more so when we take
into account the gemara which says it's not good to give away your first
acquisition. The Torah was Hashem's first as it says Hashem kanani reishis
darko, and yet still Hashem was happy to give it away.
All this seems a bit
strange as we've once mentioned the reason Torah is 'The best s'chora'-
"lekach tov", is because even when "peddling" it to
another, the original "owner" never loses it! So what exactly is so
great about Hashem or Moshe being happy, no one loses anything when giving away
Torah! Perhaps it's something special aout Torah, or wisdom in general, but
it's certainly nothing specifically special about Hashem or Moshe?
I believe we can
answer with the well-known fact that the angels were upset that Hashem was
giving away the Torah. What upset them was that we became the
"balabus", the authorities on the psak halacha and halacha decisions
would now be "lav bashamayim he". We became the deciding factor and
not the heavenly courts. This is perhaps also what happened when Moshe listened
to Yisro and gave the authority of psak away to the yidden. A simple group of 3
men can now form a court and render decisions which until then were only in the
hands of Moshe.
Let's appreciate the
tremendous gift of the Nosein HaTorah!
