Parshas Naso (5768)
This coming Sunday evening, June 8th, Jewish
people all across the world will be getting together
with their families to celebrate the holiday of Shavuos -
"The Festival of Weeks" - which commemorates the
Revelation at Mount Sinai when G-d gave His beloved
Torah to the Jewish People.
One has to wonder why it is that the holiday of
Shavuos is so unpopular (relative to the other Jewish
holidays) among the majority of Jews in North
America today, and, in some circles, is virtually
unknown. Could the reason be that Shavuos always
comes out every year right after Passover - and we are
all "holidayed-out" from the matzoh, maror, and other
Passover foods that we stuff ourselves with at the
Seder? Or maybe it has to do with the fact that there
aren't a whole lot of rituals associated with Shavuos.
There are no succahs (huts) to build and to decorate.
There is no cleaning of our homes from all the
chametz (thank G-d!). A shofar isn't blown, and there is
no Kol Nidrei sung in the synagogue. We don't light a
menorah (candelabra) and we don't dress up in crazy
costumes. Shavuos is, in a sense, a "ritually-
challenged" Jewish holiday.
Okay, so we do have a custom on Shavuos to eat dairy
foods like cheesecake and cheese blintzes. And there
is a long-standing tradition for Jews to stay up all night
long on the first night of Shavuos in anticipation of
receiving the Torah on the following morning. But if
chocolate cheesecake with graham cracker crust and
truffle topping doesn't talk to you (or if you're lactose-
intolerant), and you're also not into Torah "all-
nighters" - then there isn't much left in the way of ritual
that's going to get you (and the kids) all excited about
the holiday. And there may be other reasons for
Shavuos' lack of popularity as well. But whatever the
reasons for the general lack of observance of and
excitement for the holiday of Shavuos, I believe that
there is something unique about this holiday which, if
anything, should make Shavuos the most celebrated
of all Jewish holidays.
But first, a little background about the Jewish holidays
is necessary in order to understand and appreciate
the essence and beauty of the holiday of Shavuos.
SHAVUOS IS NOT A "MEMORIAL DAY"
There is a very important reason why the celebration
of Shavuos involves practically no rituals, while all the
other major Jewish holidays are so rich with customs
and special traditions. And it has to do with the fact
that the other holidays are days upon which we
commemorate significant events and miracles that
occurred in the history of our people, and which
defined us as a nation.
Take Passover, for example. Passover celebrates our
ancestors' exodus from Egypt and the freedom of the
Jewish people to serve G-d. Well, for the better part of
our history we have not been truly "free" from foreign
oppression and various forms of anti-Semitism that
inhibited us from living a Jewish lifestyle and from
serving G-d as a Jew should. So each Passover, we
get together at the Passover Seder and we perform
various rituals that serve to remind us of the true
freedom that our nation experienced as we left Egypt,
and we yearn for a time when we will we once again
be truly free. And the same is true of many of the other
rituals associated with the Jewish holidays. So that all
the mitzvahs (commandments) and rituals of the
Passover Seder and the other major Jewish holidays
commemorate and "bring closer to home" the
concepts and experiences that are a collective part of
our Jewish national history and of who we are as a
Jewish nation.
Shavuos, on the other hand, is not just a "Memorial
Day", commemorating something that our people
once had or experienced. You see, on Shavuos, some
3300 years ago, our ancestors stood at the foot of
Mount Sinai and celebrated as they received G-
d's "Big Instruction Book for Life" - the Torah - and
now, so many years later, we still have it and we're still
celebrating!! We might have lost our freedom over the
course of our long history; we might not have sat
under G-d's "cloud of glory" - represented by the
sukkah - ever since the clouds left us after 40 years in
the desert. But the Torah that we received on Shavuos
way back when is still with us, and has been faithfully
studied and adhered to by the Jewish people
throughout these past 3300 years.
So there is really no need to perform rituals on
Shavuos that "commemorate" the "past event" of
receiving the Torah. All we really need to do to
celebrate Shavuos properly is to open up the book -
the Five Books of Moses or the Talmud or any other
Jewish book of Torah and its Divine wisdom and -
viola! - we are right there at Sinai, learning from the
same Torah that our ancestors heard and learned
from so many years ago.
TORAH: THE GREAT UNIFIER
The greatness of the Torah that G-d gave to us at
Sinai lies not just in the fact that it has stayed with us,
and has been a source of strength and wisdom for all
Jews throughout the millennia. It is far more than that.
As Ben Bag-Bag wrote in Ethics of our Fathers
(Chapter 5 Mishnah 25):
"Turn and turn about in it [the Torah], for everything
is in it; and within it shall you look, and grow old and
gray over it, and do not stir from it; for there is no better
portion for you than this."
The late Irving Bunim explains the words of the great
sage as follows: We are bidden to turn ever and again
to the Torah, never to close the pages and declare our
study finished. And the reason for that is, as Ben Bag-
Bag says, "for everything is in it". The true greatness of
the Torah that we received on Shavuos lies in the fact
that a child can listen and be thrilled by its narratives,
and a philosopher of advanced age can ponder it and
become inspired by the deep thoughts implicit in the
same narratives. And it's not only at every age and
level of scholarship and observance that the Torah
has something to say, which can have a major impact
on our lives. The Torah also has within it the Divine
wisdom and insight necessary to help guide us
through all types of problems and struggles that may
confront us as we go on in life.
So that a Jew can never say, "The Torah has nothing
to say to me. It doesn't speak to me." Turn to it again
and again, says Ben Bag-Bag. There you can find
guidance in domestic problems, counsel in social
relations, and priceless lessons in business ethics -
"for everything is in it." And the greatest thing is that
it's ours - it belongs to the entire Jewish people - the
Torah is ours to consult in every situation, an
unchanging and unerring source of direction for our
lives.
All these wonderful qualities make Torah the "great
unifier" of the Jewish people. You see, some Jews will
tell you that rituals don't do it for them, or that they have
a different background and customs than you have.
But what all Jews have - and what truly unifies us as a
people - is the Torah that we received at Mount Sinai
with all its life-impacting wisdom and guidance, just
waiting for us to study it and let it into our lives. And no
matter where a person is religiously, the Torah always
has something to say to him, which can give him both
guidance and direction.
And this is why Shavuos - the day upon which we once
again receive G-d's Torah - should really be
celebrated by all Jews today more than ever. For the
Torah is the great unifying force for the Jewish people,
and, as such, can be truly appreciated by all Jews, at
all different levels of ritual observance.
THREE REQUIREMENTS FOR TORAH STUDY
Though the Torah is the heritage and property of each
and every Jew, in order to really get something out of
Torah study and to grow from it, one has to fulfill
certain basic qualifications or requirements. The
commentaries explain that just as when our
ancestors received the Torah they had to ready
themselves in certain ways, so as to be able to
appreciate and grow from the Torah, so must the
Jews of each generation be "prepared" before they
delve into the wisdom and depth of the Torah. The
source for this is a very strange verse in Exodus 19:1-
2, which describes the journey of the Jewish people
till they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai:
"In the third month from the Exodus of the Children
of Israel from Egypt, on this day, they arrived at the
Wilderness of Sinai. They journeyed from Rephidim
and arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai and encamped
in the Wilderness; and Israel encamped there,
opposite the mountain."
If you look carefully, you will see that the entire second
verse is superfluous. The first verse already indicates
that the Jews arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai. Why
then does the second verse talk about where they
journeyed from before they came to Sinai? And it
should be obvious that if they arrived at the
Wilderness of Sinai, that they were going to encamp
there. Why then does the Torah mention, not once, but
twice, in the same verse that Israel encamped there in
the Wilderness of Sinai?
The Ohr Hachaim, one of the great Torah
commentators, explains the verse homiletically to be
referring to the three basic requirements necessary
for the receiving of the Torah and for proper Torah
study.
The first requirement is that we apply ourselves to
Torah study, with seriousness of purpose and a
strong commitment. This is what is meant when the
Torah says that the Jews "journeyed [away] from
Rephidim". The word Rephidim is a contraction of the
Hebrew words rafu ye-dei-hem,
meaning "loosening their grip" [on the Torah]. And
when it says that the Jews at Mount Sinai journeyed
away from Rephidim, it means that they reaffirmed
their commitment to take the study of Torah seriously
and to devote serious time to it.
Secondly, it says in the verse that the
Jews "encamped in the Wilderness". The wilderness,
or desert, is a lowly place with not much to boast
about. And the Jewish people who were to receive G-
d's Torah humbled themselves in submission to the
word of G-d, for the words of Torah remain only with
the humble. Where a person's ego is pushed aside,
there is room for Torah and its wisdom and moral
lessons to come in and do their magic. But without the
requisite humility, Torah simply won't change the
person.
And finally, the Torah says that "Israel" encamped
there, implying that there was unity among the Jewish
people. They were all together as one "Israel" in their
quest for spiritual growth through Torah study. And
that applies today, as well. For any Jew, no matter his
or her age, level of sophistication, or religious
affiliation, to get anything at all out of the study of
Torah, there must be a certain sense of unity amongst
us, born of the realization that the Torah, as the living
word of G-d, has no agendas whatsoever and always
favors the truth above all else.
If we apply ourselves seriously to the study of Torah
and its instructions for living a meaningful life, push
our egos aside to allow room for new insights and
growth, and resolve to approach the Torah with an
open mind and with a realization that the Torah is
what has unified us as a nation, then we will be able
to fully utilize the great wisdom and insights that the
Torah - our Torah - has to offer, and our lives will be
greatly impacted and enhanced.
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