The most important thing to remember in regards to Shavuos is that Hashem gave us the Torah that day 3332 years ago. Every single aspect of the Torah, revealed and concealed, with all the debates of the Mishnah and Gemoroh, along with the stories of the Midrashim, was brought into the world on that day. This doesn’t mean that Moshe Rabeinu literally wrote down the Gemoroh or Midrashim, rather that the foundation for what would become all of these things was given to him by Hashem, then taught to Yehoshua bin Nun, who then taught it to the Z’keinim (Elders), the Nevi’im learned from them, and the Torah Sh’baal Peh was preserved until it was taught to the Anshei K’Nesses HaGedolah, then written and preserved for us by Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi in the form of the Mishnayos.
There’s an idea brought in the seforim that Shavuos is an eternal time, more so even than other Yomim Tovim, in that we should always learn Torah as if it was given fresh that day. The tzaddikim say that all chiddushim also come from Matan Torah itself, so when you have a chiddush come to you in the middle of learning, this means you’ve effectively received that Torah just as it was given on the first Shavuos. Following this, every bit of true Torah such as the Midrashim, Gemoroh, Zohar, and the various other sifrei kodesh, even if they weren’t literally given at the same time according to p’shat and the historical record, on a spiritual level those were all received by us on Shavuos. All the Torah was given then, and that was also the nationwide “giyur,” so to speak, of Klal Yisroel. Every Shavuos, even every day, we can tap into this same current.
It’s said that on Shavuos we made the proclamation “נעשה ונשמע”, we shall do and hear. The essential sod of this is that we accepted upon ourselves the עול מלכות שמיים before we accepted the Torah and listened to it. Through performing this either through saying K’rias Shma before learning, or making a similar verbal declaration of accepting Hashem’s rule and the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven with complete kavannah, we can begin to hope to become receptive to the same influences of our spiritual ancestors and hear the Torah anew. From this place, we can receive true chiddushim and learn Torah properly, as if we heard it on that great and awesome day in the desert by Har Sinai over 3000 years ago.
Yismach Lev 