The media reported that preceding the beginning of the Ramadan fast month (the lunar month in which Moslems fast during the day), the police reinforced its manpower in Jerusalem around the Har Habayis to control any riots.
This was taking place precisely at the time of preparations anticipating the day of Mattan Torah when, lehavdil thousands of times over, tens of thousands of Jews converge upon the Kosel. And simultaneously, botei medrash and shuls throughout the Holy Land, and throughout the entire world as well, prepared to greet the many who would pass the night of Shavuos in Torah study, in shiurim, in a general purifying anticipation to enter the Covenant together with the Creator and assume the yoke of Torah and mitzvos.
No special reinforcement was needed in preparation of the mass gatherings of this Festival, as in all other holy Holidays established in the Torah. No riots took place or will ever occur to "commemorate" the giving of the Torah to Jewry or for celebrating our other yomim tovim. This serves to focus on the difference between Jewry and the nations of the world, between the Torah transmitted to us via Moshe Rabbenu and the dissolute faiths of nations living bloodthirstily by their sword, and their overall hatred of the G-d of Yaakov.
Our great Torah leader and beacon, HaRav Aharon Leib Shteinman, would continually remind us of the scene in the town of Brisk, a town like all other Jewish settlements, which decked itself out every year in greenery in honor of the giving of the Torah. He would also evoke the song which was sung by mothers to their babes, "Oifen greener barg... / On a green mountain was the Torah given!" The custom of decorating shuls and homes with greenery was mentioned and incorporated as a halacha. The fact that we choose, by halacha as well as by custom, to festoon our environment with greenery is brought by HaRav Chaim Falagi in his work "Moed Lechol Chai" as stemming from an interpretation of the posuk from the Megilla, "And the faith/law was promulgated in Shushan", with the homiletic [alternate] reading of "Shoshan - roses." The Torah was given on a backdrop of roses and flowers, to be interpreted that all of its ways are pleasant and fragrant.
This has always been the pride of Jewry. We are a nation which did not bear a sword on its thigh nor did it ever boast honor and pride in its power and might to kill or its prowess in battle. This is not the portion or praise of Yaakov.
HaRav Shach was wont to remind us, in this context, of his feelings during World War II. "As a persecuted Jew, versus the blood-thirst and power-hunger of Hitler ym"sh," he would note, "I would imagine a scene where he would approach a Jew and seek to exchange roles: `You should rule over the countries of the world and be the strongman executioner and I will be your victim.' Undoubtedly," mused HaRav Shach, "every single Jew would reply: `By no means! You take the whole world, just don't turn me into a murderer! I, as a Jew, despise you for your beastly lust for power. I am proud to be the victim and not the despicable perpetrator.' "
HaRav Shach quoted the viewpoint of the Russian czars: "It is preferable to conquer land at the price of human lives rather than preserve human lives and lose land, for there is no alternative to land, while people can always be replaced." This is the weltanschauung of gentiles, a very material viewpoint which adulates might and the beastliness in man. Yaakov, however, despises such an outlook. "Not through arms and might, but only through My spirit, says Hashem, L—d of Hosts."
