BS”D
PRODUCE,
PREPARATION AND PROCESS: SHAVUOT
Shira Smiles shiur – 2021/5781
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
While
we often refer to the upcoming holiday as Zman Matan Torateinu/the Time
of the Giving of the Torah, the Torah itself never uses this name. Instead, the
Torah refers to this holiday as Chag Habikurim/The holiday of [bringing]
the first fruits, Chag Hakatzir/The Harvest Festival, or Chag HaShavuot/The
Festival of Weeks. All these names are agricultural in origin. Even Shavuot
involves counting the days and weeks of bringing an omer of barley
offering to the Temple. Further validating the Torah designations, the Torah
reading on Shavuot discusses the offerings in the Temple rather than our
receiving the Torah at Sinai. Yet our Sages conferred on this holiday the name
of Zman Matan Torateinu. Why this discrepancy? Rabbi Mintzberg asks this
question and another. In actuality, we received the Torah on the seventh of
Sivan; why do we celebrate on the sixth?
Rav
Rothberg in Moda Labinah adds a further connection to the agricultural
names of our yom tov. On Shavuot we read Megillat Ruth, a narrative that
so much revolves around fields, famine and reaping, but, although the Megillah
includes Ruth’s declaration to become part of the Jewish people and accepting
Hashem, it has no other mention of receiving the Torah.
Interestingly,
the Torah mentions only the third month with no specific date for Shavuot as it
does for the other holidays, notes Rabbi Mintzberg. The fifteenth of Nisan, for
example was already preordained for Pesach, as our forefathers already observed
the date with matzoh cakes. But it seems there was no inherent day already
invested with the sanctity of giving the Torah. The Torah was destined to be
given in the third month, but it could have been given on the sixth, seventh or
even the eighth day of the month of Sivan. It was the number three that was
significant. For the holy texts are divided into thirds – Torah, Neviim/Prophets
and Ketuvim/Writings. The Torah was to be given to a nation with three
major sections – Kohain, Levi and Yisroel. And three people were instrumental
in leading Bnei Yisroel toward the Torah and bringing it down – Moshe, Aharon,
and Miriam.
However,
the focus of the holiday remains agricultural, the first fruit and the harvest.
Since We received the Torah during this time frame, our Sages saw fit to link
the commemoration of receiving the Torah to the holiday named in the Torah for
this time. Even so, our Sages must have seen a deeper connection between the
land and the Torah to link the two in this manner forever. Rabbi Mintzberg
suggests that indeed the land was given to Bnei Yisroel so they could keep the
Torah. Indeed, the Torah itself tells us that when Bnei Yisroel leaves the
Torah, Hashem will force them to leave the Land as well. The Land of Israel and
the Torah of Israel are inseparably intertwined.
Indeed,
continues Rabbi Mintzberg, the Torah is compared to milk and honey beneath your
tongue, and the Land of Israel is described as a Land flowing with milk and
honey. To emphasize this connection, it is customary to eat dairy and honey on
Shavuot. However, since we no longer have a Beit Hamikdosh where we can bring
our first fruit and the two loaves of bread, we focus on our receiving the
Torah. But the holiday is not called yom matan Torateinu/the
day of giving of our Torah, but zman matan Torateinu/the
time [season] of giving of our Torah.
The
centrality of Eretz Yisroel is reinforced by the fates of Elimelech, Salmon and
Ploni Almoni, all descendants of Nachshon ben Aminodov. In spite of their
shared exalted yichus, their fates differed, writes Rav Yehoshua
Bachrach. Elimelech was punished only because he left Eretz Yisroel during the
famine when he himself did not need to go out to search for food and in fact he
could have helped the rest of the people.
Although
the focus of the holiday is agricultural, why does the Torah completely ignore
our receiving the Torah at that time, not mentioning it even once. The Torah
does, however emphasize the seven weeks between our exodus from Egypt and
receiving the Torah. This emphasis is deliberate, notes Rabbi Roberts citing
Rav Lopian, to teach us that receiving the Torah was dependent on proper
preparation, preparation that took seven weeks of freedom from physical
enslavement to prepare ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the
total freedom that can only be achieved through living a Torah based life.
The
need for preparation also explains why the offering on Peach was an omer
of barley, the food of animals, while the offering on Shavuot was two loaves of
wheat bread, wheat being the food of humans writes Rabbi Roberts. It would take
seven weeks for Bnei Yisroel to transform themselves from a totally physical
mindset to the elevated mindset required of human beings.
What
Torah requires is more than intellectual study. It requires an attitude of
openness that can only be reached through preparation. Only with the proper
preparation will Torah be absorbed and impact our lives, writes Rabbi Emanuel
Bernstein in The Call of Sinai. Since that preparation is of overriding
importance to receiving the Torah, our Sages designated the sixth day of Sivan,
the final day of preparation, for the holiday rather than the seventh of Sivan,
the actual day Hashem gave us the Torah. The Torah itself validates the supreme
importance of preparation through the unusual order in the performance of
another sacred rite, the lighting of the menorah. While only a kohain can
prepare the wicks for the lighting of the menorah, anyone, kohain or not, may
actually light the flames, reinforcing the idea that preparation is the essence
of the mitzvah and of Torah. [Any contractor or architect will tell you that if
the site and the materials are not prepared properly in advance, the building
will likely not be as sturdy as it should be. CKS]
It
is for this reason that we count up toward the day of receiving the Torah, for
each day our preparation builds on the previous day, strengthening the
foundation upon which the structure of our Torah life can be built. The
importance of this preparation is highlighted by the law that we cannot cut the
preparation time short until that time is complete, until the nightfall when
the forty nine days of counting are full, unlike Shabbat or other holidays when
one may usher in Shabbat sometimes even more than a full hour before the
scheduled candle lighting time.
Similar
to a wedding where the preparation is so much longer than the event itself, our
preparation to receiving the Torah [our “betrothal/wedding” to Hashem at Sinai,
CKS] is also much longer than the moments of revelation. Perhaps that explains
why we begin the Torah reading with, “In the third month,” rather than with
Moshe ascending Har Sinai, to allow few extra moments of preparation, even on
the 50th day itself, suggests Rabbi Shpritzer in Havineini
quoting the Satmar Rav.
Not
just sefirah, but each day is precious and provides opportunity for self
improvement, reminds us Rebbetzin Smiles. Those kedoshim who died in
Meron were on that spiritual journey moments before their death, never
anticipating that these would be their last moments on earth. Can we make each
day of our lives count, giving us “long days” of life within whatever lifespan
of years Hashem has granted us, as the son of the Sefas Emes testified about
his father zt”l?
What
kind of preparation is it necessary to do to acquire the Torah properly? One must
work on uprooting the negative midos/character traits. In fact, each
week is dedicated to a particular trait, from anger to arrogance. The Shvilei
Pinchas gives us a wonderful metaphor for the work we need to do. A farmer
must prepare his field by removing stones, thorn bushes and weeds before he
begins planting. Even during the growing season, he must continue weeding his
field so the crop will flourish. Similarly, man must uproot his negative
characteristics before the planting, and then the life giving waters of Torah
will help him take root properly and grow. Good midos, like properly
prepared soil, must exist before Torah can take root. Therefore, Shavuot is the
only holiday where such intense preparation is mandated. Because of the seven
week preparation period, the holiday is referred to as Shavuot/Weeks.
One
of the midos we are told to uproot is arrogance and narcissism. After
all, Hashem built the world on the attribute of chesed, the polar opposite of
narcissism. This is the trait highlighted in both its positive and negative
aspects in Megillat Ruth. Elimelech was punished for his lack of empathy
for his fellow Jew, while Ruth and Boaz were rewarded with future royalty for
their chesed toward each other and to Naomi. Even small acts of chesed are
recorded in the Megillah, writes Rabbi Lopiansky in Seeds of Redemption,
his translation and commentary of the Nachlat Yosef on the Megillah. Every
small act of chesed to another individual counts.
Rabbi
Biderman brings us to a more esoteric understanding of our Sinai experience
through the examination of a medrash. The medrash says that when Hashem spoke
the first Dibrah/Commandment to Bnei Yisroel, their souls left them.
Hashem sent the rain to revive their souls. Later, Bnei Yisroel again asked for
rain, but Hashem instructed them to ask for dew instead. What is the difference
between the two? While rain descends and waters the earth, Its effect does not
continue. In contrast, the dew is formed from condensation reaching up from
below, and its effect remains after it has formed. Similarly, Hashem wants us
to ask for a continuing relationship with Him, not one that is enjoyed for a
short time and them dissipates. It is with this explanation that we can
understand why the offerings for Shavuot can be brought for a full six days
after the holiday itself, for we want the effects of the holiday to remain with
us and transform us as we move forward in life.
The
offering on Shavuot is called a mincha chadashah/a new offering. Each
day we receive the Torah as a new offering, a new gift, in the present. As
Rabbi Hofstedter notes, in our morning prayers we bless Hashem Hanotein
Torah le’amo Yisroel/Who gives [in the present tense] Torah to His nation
Israel.
The
Torah is compared to a Tree of Life, a tree that produces fruit every day. Just
as Hashem judges the quantity and quality of the fruit trees on Shavuot, so
does He determine the spiritual levels we can achieve for the year, writes
Rabbi Reiss. On Shavuot we have the opportunity to affect our spirituality for
the year, and we should ask to celebrate and connect to the Torah each day
anew.
In
Moda Labinah, Rabbi Rothberg brings us a profound insight. We may think
the Torah has been completed, but Rabbi Rothberg assures us that the Torah
continues to be written every day. Just as Ruth and Boaz created a new volume
of Tanach which recorded their acts of chesed, so do Eliyahu and Moshiach
record our acts of chesed each day. Just as Ruth and Boaz, through their acts
of chesed, created the seed of the Davidic Dynasty, so do each of us bring the
days of Moshiach closer with each act of chesed we perform.
Sometimes
it takes unimaginable selflessness and empathy to actualize a moment of chesed.
A survivor of the Meron tragedy relates that he heard a dying Jew recite the
Shema before his death, and then, with his last breath cried out, “I forgive
anyone who is on top of me,” anyone who has contributed to my dying. Such
empathy for the emotional suffering of a fellow Jew must surely be recorded as
a supreme act of chesed to bring Moshiach quickly. Then Torah will again go out
from Zion and Hashem’s word from Yerushalayim, and be renewed each day as it
first came to us from Sinai.