Who Chose Us and Gives the Torah

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to Learn to Daven - Day 23.

Yesterday we asked God to make the Torah sweet in our mouths. Today we say the blessing that seals the whole Birchos HaTorah - and it's one that makes some people a little uncomfortable. So let's deal with it head-on.

Asher bachar banu mikol ha'amim - "who chose us from all the peoples." The chosen people. For a lot of people, that phrase lands wrong. It sounds like we're saying we're better. Like we got picked for the team and everyone else got cut. Favoritism.

But that's a complete misreading - and the rest of the sentence proves it. Watch the grammar. We don't say "who chose us because we're great." We don't even stop at "who chose us." The sentence keeps going: v'nasan lanu es Toraso - "and gave us His Torah." The choosing and the giving are one breath. We weren't chosen for honor. We were chosen for a job. The Torah is what we were chosen for.

Think of it like this. If a teacher hands one student the responsibility of caring for the class - that student isn't "better" than the others. They've been given a task. A weight. A relationship of trust. That's what bachar banu means. Being chosen isn't a trophy. It's an assignment. It's a relationship, with responsibilities attached.

This blessing also comes from that same sugya in Berachos, daf 11b, where the Sages work out the proper wording of the Torah blessings. And the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 47, codifies Asher Bachar Banu as the concluding blessing - the one our Sages considered the "richest" of the formulas, because it names the relationship directly: You chose us, You gave us Your Torah.

Now here's the part I really want you to catch, because most people daven right past it. Look at how the blessing ends. It doesn't say nasan haTorah - "who gave the Torah," past tense, way back at Sinai. It says nosen haTorah - "who gives the Torah." Present tense. Right now. Today.

That is a staggering claim. The Torah wasn't given once, three thousand years ago, and that's it. The Torah is being given this morning. To you. The Midrash in Shemos Rabbah picks up on the language of the Aseres HaDibros - that God speaks in the singular, anochi, "I am the Lord your God," to each individual - and the Sages teach that the words of Sinai are spoken fresh in every generation. The matan Torah isn't a memory. It's a daily event.

The Chassidic masters take this all the way. There's a teaching the Rebbe would return to: that matan Torah happens every single day. Every morning, when a Jew opens a sefer, that's not him reaching back to grab something old off a shelf - that's Hashem handing him the Torah anew, this very moment, as if for the first time. The Baal Shem Tov taught that the giving never stopped; we just have to show up to receive.

So put the two halves of the blessing together and see what an ordinary Jew is really saying every morning. Asher bachar banu - You chose me. Not because I earned it, but because You wanted a relationship with me, and You gave me a job. Nosen haTorah - and that job isn't ancient history. You're handing me the Torah right now, today, fresh.

Which means today isn't a rerun. You're not maintaining an old relationship - you're being handed something new this morning. The only question the blessing leaves you with is: are you going to stand at the mountain and receive it? Or just let it sit on the shelf?

Tomorrow: we finish the morning study section with the words of the Birkas Kohanim - the priestly blessing - and why the very first Torah we learn each day is a blessing of peace.