Rabbi Ed Farber
&
Rabbi Mario Rojzman
Hang in there – Shabbat is coming!
May 18, 2010
5th day of Sivan, 5770
49th day of the OmerShavuot Festival
SHAVUOT Shavuot has many names in the tradition. It is known as the Feast of Reaping, which refers to the particular harvesting going on at the time of the festival. Another name is the Feast of Shavuot, which refers to the counting of seven weeks from Pesach to arrive at the day of the holiday. Chag HaBikkurim is a popular name that means – Feast of the First Fruits. A name used by the Rabbis but not in the Torah is Atzeret. Atzeret refers to the concluding day of a holiday season. What holiday season are the Rabbis referring to? They want to make the connection between Pesach and Shavuot so they call Shavuot ‘Atzeret’ – the concluding day of Pesach. But there is over a month between the holidays!. The connection is this. On Pesach the people of Israel go free from Egypt. But until they get to Sinai and receive the Torah they are a people without direction, without law, without covenant. That is not freedom. That is chaos. So they began counting anxiously and lovingly for the day they would receive that Torah. When they received it that period of holiday celebration finally came to an end. The Rabbis are right. Pesach has no meaning without Shavuot. Going free from Egypt has no significance for the Jewish people without Torah.
CUSTOMS: The best known custom is that of Torah Study late into the night and for many – into the wee hours of the morning. If we are going to celebrate the gift of the Torah it needs to be connected with the study of the book. This custom is known as Tikkun Leyl Shavuot.
Another custom is that of eating dairy on Shavuot (not the day that falls out on Shabbat). The reasons are unclear. Perhaps it is connected with the description of Canaan as the land of ‘milk and honey’. Or it might have something to do with Torah as being the source of life and milk being such a source. A fanciful reason is given by Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropol who said that the numerical equivalent for the Hebrew word for milk – ‘chalav’ – is 40 which is the number of days Moshe spent on the Mountain. There is probably some connection with the fact that this holiday falls out in the summer and dairy is preferable in the hot summer months. In any case – who needs a reason to eat Blintzes!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How do I light the Yom Tov candles and the Yizkor candle for the 2nd day if it is already Yom Tov and I can’t light a match. It’s simple. One is not permitted to start fire on Yom Tov but it is permitted to continue a fire from one place to another. So you leave a 24-hour candle burning and use that to light your Yizkor and Yom Tov Sheni candles.
SHAVUOT THOUGHT:
“Why is the Festival of Shavuot called ‘the time of the giving of our Torah’ and not the time of the receiving of our Torah? Because the giving of the Torah happened at one specified time, but the receiving of the Torah happens at every time and in every generation. -–Rabbi Meir Alter of Ger
“Each generation must makes its own way back to Sinai, must stand under the mountain and re-appropriate and reinterpret the Revelation, in terms that are both classical and new. We recognize change as part of the continuing process of tradition itself. – Rabbi Gerson Cohen (late Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.).
SHAVUOT Shavuot has many names in the tradition. It is known as the Feast of Reaping, which refers to the particular harvesting going on at the time of the festival. Another name is the Feast of Shavuot, which refers to the counting of seven weeks from Pesach to arrive at the day of the holiday. Chag HaBikkurim is a popular name that means – Feast of the First Fruits. A name used by the Rabbis but not in the Torah is Atzeret. Atzeret refers to the concluding day of a holiday season. What holiday season are the Rabbis referring to? They want to make the connection between Pesach and Shavuot so they call Shavuot ‘Atzeret’ – the concluding day of Pesach. But there is over a month between the holidays!. The connection is this. On Pesach the people of Israel go free from Egypt. But until they get to Sinai and receive the Torah they are a people without direction, without law, without covenant. That is not freedom. That is chaos. So they began counting anxiously and lovingly for the day they would receive that Torah. When they received it that period of holiday celebration finally came to an end. The Rabbis are right. Pesach has no meaning without Shavuot. Going free from Egypt has no significance for the Jewish people without Torah.
CUSTOMS: The best known custom is that of Torah Study late into the night and for many – into the wee hours of the morning. If we are going to celebrate the gift of the Torah it needs to be connected with the study of the book. This custom is known as Tikkun Leyl Shavuot.
Another custom is that of eating dairy on Shavuot (not the day that falls out on Shabbat). The reasons are unclear. Perhaps it is connected with the description of Canaan as the land of ‘milk and honey’. Or it might have something to do with Torah as being the source of life and milk being such a source. A fanciful reason is given by Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropol who said that the numerical equivalent for the Hebrew word for milk – ‘chalav’ – is 40 which is the number of days Moshe spent on the Mountain. There is probably some connection with the fact that this holiday falls out in the summer and dairy is preferable in the hot summer months. In any case – who needs a reason to eat Blintzes!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How do I light the Yom Tov candles and the Yizkor candle for the 2nd day if it is already Yom Tov and I can’t light a match. It’s simple. One is not permitted to start fire on Yom Tov but it is permitted to continue a fire from one place to another. So you leave a 24-hour candle burning and use that to light your Yizkor and Yom Tov Sheni candles.
SHAVUOT THOUGHT:
“Why is the Festival of Shavuot called ‘the time of the giving of our Torah’ and not the time of the receiving of our Torah? Because the giving of the Torah happened at one specified time, but the receiving of the Torah happens at every time and in every generation. -–Rabbi Meir Alter of Ger
“Each generation must makes its own way back to Sinai, must stand under the mountain and re-appropriate and reinterpret the Revelation, in terms that are both classical and new. We recognize change as part of the continuing process of tradition itself. – Rabbi Gerson Cohen (late Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.).
Shavuot has many names in the tradition. It is known as the Feast of Reaping, which refers to the particular harvesting going on at the time of the festival. Another name is the Feast of Shavuot, which refers to the counting of seven weeks from Pesach to arrive at the day of the holiday. Chag HaBikkurim is a popular name that means – Feast of the First Fruits. A name used by the Rabbis but not in the Torah is Atzeret. Atzeret refers to the concluding day of a holiday season. What holiday season are the Rabbis referring to? They want to make the connection between Pesach and Shavuot so they call Shavuot ‘Atzeret’ – the concluding day of Pesach. But there is over a month between the holidays!. The connection is this. On Pesach the people of Israel go free from Egypt. But until they get to Sinai and receive the Torah they are a people without direction, without law, without covenant. That is not freedom. That is chaos. So they began counting anxiously and lovingly for the day they would receive that Torah. When they received it that period of holiday celebration finally came to an end. The Rabbis are right. Pesach has no meaning without Shavuot. Going free from Egypt has no significance for the Jewish people without Torah.
CUSTOMS:The best known custom is that of Torah Study late into the night and for many – into the wee hours of the morning. If we are going to celebrate the gift of the Torah it needs to be connected with the study of the book. This custom is known as Tikkun Leyl Shavuot.
Another custom is that of eating dairy on Shavuot (not the day that falls out on Shabbat). The reasons are unclear. Perhaps it is connected with the description of Canaan as the land of ‘milk and honey’. Or it might have something to do with Torah as being the source of life and milk being such a source. A fanciful reason is given by Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropol who said that the numerical equivalent for the Hebrew word for milk – ‘chalav’ – is 40 which is the number of days Moshe spent on the Mountain. There is probably some connection with the fact that this holiday falls out in the summer and dairy is preferable in the hot summer months. In any case – who needs a reason to eat Blintzes!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How do I light the Yom Tov candles and the Yizkor candle for the 2nd day if it is already Yom Tov and I can’t light a match. It’s simple. One is not permitted to start fire on Yom Tov but it is permitted to continue a fire from one place to another. So you leave a 24-hour candle burning and use that to light your Yizkor and Yom Tov Sheni candles.
SHAVUOT THOUGHT:
“Why is the Festival of Shavuot called ‘the time of the giving of our Torah’ and not the time of the receiving of our Torah? Because the giving of the Torah happened at one specified time, but the receiving of the Torah happens at every time and in every generation. -–Rabbi Meir Alter of Ger
“Each generation must makes its own way back to Sinai, must stand under the mountain and re-appropriate and reinterpret the Revelation, in terms that are both classical and new. We recognize change as part of the continuing process of tradition itself. – Rabbi Gerson Cohen (late Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.).
