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Shavuot
Shavuot
And you shall declare on that very day, that it is a Holy Day unto you; You shall do no manner of work; It is an Eternal Statute, in all your habitations, for all your generations" (Vayikra 23:21)
"Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count, fifty days; And you shall bring a 'New' Grain Offering to Hashem" (Vayikra 23:16)
"And it was on the third day, as it became morning, and there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the Shofar was very strong, and all the people in the camp were seized with trembling" (Shemot 19:16)
One of the Three "Regalim"
Along with Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot, Shavuot is one of the Three "Pilgrim Festivals" on which Jewish families, especially the males, who are freer to leave at specific times, such as the times of these holidays, and are not charged as much with the responsibilities of the home and the raising of children, are commanded to appear at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The root of the word "Regalim" is "regel," which means "foot." "Pilgrim" means one who travels; on each of these festivals, the family is expected to make the effort to travel to Yerushalayim.
Concerning these holidays it is written (Shemot 23, 14-19),
"Three Regalim celebrate before Me each year. Observe the Holiday of the Matzot, Passover; Seven days shall you eat Matzot as I have commanded you, in the month of the Spring, for it was at that time that you left Egypt, and My Presence shall not be seen by you empty-handed."
"And the Holiday of Bringing in your First Fruits (Shavuot) which you had planted in the field,"
"and the Harvest Festival Sukkot, at the turn of the year, when you gather your produce from the field."
"Three times each year shall each of your males be seen by the Master, Hashem…The first fruits of the land you shall bring to the House of the L-rd your G-d…"
Climax of the Sefirat HaOmer
In Vayikra (23,15) the People of Israel is commanded to count seven complete weeks, beginning with the second day of Pesach, or Passover, for a total of forty-nine days. This counting is called Sefirat HaOmer because the Omer Offering is brought on the Second Day of Pesach. The last day of the count, the forty-ninth day, is Erev Shavuot. The day after the full count of forty-nine is complete, the "fiftieth day," is Shavuot. That day is a holiday unto itself, with its own unique character, and ritual.
We read in Vayikra (23,16) "Until the day after the seventh week you shall count, fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem." The meal-offering of Shavuot is called "new" because it was the first Temple offering from the new wheat crop (the Omer-offering of Pesach was of barley).
In the realm of years, there is a similar count. Each seven years is called a Shemitah cycle, with each seventh year called a Shemitah, or Sabbatical, Year. Seven such cycles make up a count of forty-nine years. The year following the count, Year number fifty, is called the Yovel, or Jubilee, Year.
The English name of the Shemittah Year, Sabbatical Year, suggests or, rather, confirms that a major unit of time in Judaism is the number seven, as we see in Shabbat, the Seventh Day, of each week.
"Zeman Matan Torateinu," Time of the Giving of the Torah
The Torah is the life of the Jew. Without the Torah, life would be meaningless, not only for the Jewish People, but for the whole world as well. For it can be said, from the religious perspective, and that is our perspective, that the rest of Nature exists only for the human race, G-d's most beloved creatures. And the human race has no purpose other than to learn from the Jewish People, who will ultimately fulfill their destiny of being "a light unto the Nations." And the light spoken of is none other than the light of Torah, Hashem's Book, which is the "Proper Study of Man."
Therefore, it is obvious that the event of G-d's giving His holy treasure to the Jewish People was a somewhat important date (!) And yet, the Torah itself does not specify the exact date on which the Master of the Universe revealed Himself, so to speak, at Mt. Sinai, and transmitted His Law to the Jewish People and, through them, to the world at large.
The Talmud debates whether it was the sixth or the seventh of Sivan, and the decision is actually in favor of the opinion that it was given on the seventh. Nevertheless, for various reasons, we celebrate it on the sixth of Sivan [which will be assumed in "The Story of Shavuot"] in Israel, and we begin its celebration on the sixth in the Diaspora as well, continuing it into the seventh.
The Midrash records that Moshe debated with the Angels whether Man was worthy of receiving the great gift of the Torah. Fortunately for all of us, Moshe was judged the winner of that debate.
The Story of Shavuot
What is the Story of Shavuot?
The "stories" of many things, their background and purpose, can be told by explaining what they are called. To a great extent, this is true in general of the Jewish holidays and, in particular, it is true of the holiday of Shavuot. The names of this holiday are:
"Chag Shavuot" - The Feast (or Holiday) of Weeks
"Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
"Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits
"Atzeret" - The Holiday of "Being Held Back, or Restrained, Close to Hashem, in the Temple"
"Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop
"Chag Shavuot" - The Feast of Weeks
The holiday is given this name because it is the climax of the Counting of Days and Weeks which make up the Sefirat HaOmer. Sefirat HaOmer connects Passover and Shavuot. Passover is the holiday on which we commemorate our Redemption from Slavery in Egypt. That was our "Physical Redemption."
But physical redemption is not enough. It would have left us "free" people, but with no purpose to our lives. The purpose of the Jewish People is to serve G-d. The way we serve G-d is by studying and practicing his Torah. On Shavuot, G-d Himself appeared to us on Mt. Sinai to give us the Torah. By accepting it, we earned the title of "A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation."
Thus, Shavuot is the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt. Seven weeks had to pass before we were able to shake off the feeling of being subject to our Egyptian taskmasters. The Jewish Religion believes that there is no legitimate master for a human being other than G-d. This is probably the most important lesson of Shavuot.
"Z'man Matan Torateinu" - The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
The Jewish People arrived in the vicinity of Har Sinai (Mt. Sinai) on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The purpose of their assembling there was to receive the Torah from Hashem. Three days passed before the Jewish People recovered from their six week sojourn in the desert. Moshe was instructed by Hashem that the Jewish People would have to prepare themselves for another three days before they would be ready to receive the Torah.
Before giving the Torah to the Jewish People, Hashem had, so to speak, "shopped it around" to the various nations of the world, but there were no takers.
Moshe "Rabbeinu," Moses our Teacher, according to another Midrash, had to overcome the objection of the Angels, who claimed that the Jewish People weren't sufficiently deserving to receive the Torah. But, fortunately for the Jewish People, and for the world, Moshe won that debate.
"Chag HaBikkurim" - The Holiday of the First Fruits
This name commemorates the New Grain Offering, which was brought at this time; its offering made it permissible to bring Grain Offerings from the "Chadash," the New Grain.
This was also the time that the first fruits of all the Seven Types of Produce with which the Land of Israel is Blessed (wheat, barley, wine, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates) were brought to the Temple. This procedure is described in the Talmud in Masechet Bikkurim.
"Atzeret" - The Holiday of "Being Held Back, Close to Hashem"
This is the name used exclusively for this Holiday in the Talmud. It suggests a similarity to Shemini Atzeret. The latter comes at the end of Sukkot, while this "Atzeret" comes at the conclusion of a process which began on "Pesach," or Passover.
One way of understanding the idea of "Atzeret" is that Hashem wants the Jewish People to feel close to Him at all times. But to have them come back to the Temple in Jerusalem several weeks after Sukkot would have required difficult travel in the winter. So Hashem just held them back for one day after Sukkot, to show his special love for them.
Whereas, Shavuot and Pesach have a special relationship which makes them really, in a sense, almost like one holiday, namely, the Holiday of Redemption, Physical and Spiritual, of the Jewish People.
"Chag HaKatzir" - The Holiday of the Cutting of the Crop
This refers to the wheat crop, which is the latest of the crops to be harvested, which took place at this time. There is also a reference here to Megillat Ruth, which places the time of the events described in the Megillah as "at the beginning of the cutting of the barley crop."
Preparation for Receiving the Torah
"You shall set boundaries for the People roundabout, saying, Beware of ascending the mountain or touching its edge; whoever touches the mountain shall surely die" (Shemot 19:12)
Initial Preparations
On the second and third days of Sivan, Hashem told Moshe to tell the Jewish People, "You have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I protected you by carrying you as if on the wings of eagles, to me. If you listen to me, and observe my covenant, you will be for me a treasure among the nations, for the whole world is Mine. And you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation! These are the things you should say to the Children of Israel." (Shemot 19:4-6)
When Moshe did that, the People of Israel responded "Everything that Hashem wants, we will do! (Shemot 19:8)
Final Preparations
On the fourth day of the month, Hashem commanded that a boundary be established at the foot of the mountain, which should not be crossed all the time that Hashem's Presence would be there. To rise to the level of holiness required to hear the "Voice of G-d," they would need to immerse themselves and their clothes in a mikveh (a fountain used to remove ritual uncleanness).
On the fifth day of Sivan, Moshe rose early in the morning and built an altar of twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He offered sacrifices and sprinkled their blood on the altar. He read everything that was already in the Torah to the People, to ascertain their agreement, and they responded, "Everything that Hashem wants, "Naaseh V'Nishma," "We will do, and afterwards we will understand!" (Shemot 24:7)
On the sixth day of Sivan, Moshe took the People out from the camp, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
"And the mountain of Sinai was altogether in smoke because Hashem descended upon it in fire, and its smoke rose as the smoke of a furnace, and the people trembled greatly. And there was the sound of the Shofar increasing and increasing in intensity; Moshe would speak, and the L-rd would echo him in thunder!" (Shemot 19:18-19)
Hashem then told Moshe to warn the People again against breaking the barrier and approaching the mountain. Then Hashem came down to the People, and He spoke to them.
"And the L-rd made all these Utterances, as follows:" (Shemot 20:1)
“Naaseh V’Nishma”
"We will do first, and afterwards, understand" (Shemot 24:7)
(Much of the material in this section is adapted with permission, from Sefer HaTodaah of Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov)
The following are Midrashic comments on the somewhat rash declaration of faith and trust, cited above, by the People of Israel in Hashem:
Rabbi Simai expounded: "When the People of Israel preceded "We will understand" by "We will do," a Heavenly Voice was heard, saying, "Who revealed to my children this secret, which only the angels until now knew? as it is written (Psalms 103), 'Praise Hashem, His Angels, Mighty in Strength, who Obey His Will, then Understand His Word' - first obey, and afterwards, understand."
When the People of Israel preceded "We will understand" by "We will do," six hundred thousand angels came to them and tied two crowns to each, one corresponding to "We will do," the other to "We will understand." But when the People sinned (by worshipping the Golden Calf), one hundred twenty thousand angels came down and removed the crowns.
"And they stood underneath the mountain" (Shemot 19); Rabbi Abdimi bar Chama said, "This teaches that the Holy One held the mountain over their heads, like a pot, and said to them, 'If you accept the Torah, good! But if not - here will be your graves!' "
(Even though they had already said that they would accept first, then understand? - only to emphasize that once they accepted, they would not be allowed to back away from their acceptance!)
Comment: The description of Hashem as "holding the mountain over their head" is probably not meant to be taken literally. Rather, it should be understood as a warning that the only reason the Jewish People were living, in a sense, outside the normal historical rules, which would normally pronounce a verdict of oblivion on a relatively small nation, was their acceptance of G-d's rules; namely, that they would live by the lifestyle of the Torah. If they would attempt to abandon that commitment, Hashem would withdraw, at least temporarily, His protection.
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments
"I am Hashem your G-d…" (Shemot 20,2)
(Much of the material in this section is adapted with permission, from Sefer HaTodaah of Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov)
"Maamad Har Sinai" - The Stand at Mt. Sinai
When the Jewish People stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and accepted the Torah, was probably the most momentous event in the history of the human race. At that time, what occurred taught the following profound lessons:
There is a G-d in the World
The World was created by G-d
G-d established rules for the behavior of Man and, at the root of them, are these ten:
The text (in bold); following the text are some comments -
1. "I am Hashem, your G-d, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall not recognize the gods of others in My presence." (Shemot 20,2)
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (RAMBAN) asks, "Why did Hashem introduce Himself to the Jewish People as the One Who had taken them out of slavery in Egypt. Great as that was, wasn't He also the One Who had done something even greater; namely, created the universe? And RAMBAN answers that while it's true that Hashem had created the universe, there had been no human witnesses present at that event! Whereas, there had been millions of witnesses to the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. And these witnesses were expected to pass that testimony onward from generation to generation, till our day.
The Ten Commandments are written as commands to individuals, so that each individual should know and realize that the Commandments are meant for him, and he cannot say, "let them be fulfilled by others."
Since Hashem had appeared to the Jewish People at the Sea as a warrior, and at Sinai as a Teacher of Torah, and He would appear to them in the time of Shlomo as a young man, and in the time of Daniel as an old man full of mercy - the Holy One Blessed be He said to them, "Although you see different manifestations, you should realize that I Was the One at the Sea, I Am the One here at Sinai, I Am the One at all times - I Am the L-rd your G-d."
2. "You shall not make a carved image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the water beneath the earth. You shall not prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I am Hashem your G-d - a jealous G-d, Who visits the sin of fathers on children to the third and fourth generations, for My enemies; but Who shows kindness for thousands [of generations] to those who love Me and observe My commandments." (Shemot 20:4-6)
This is one of the three cardinal sins in Judaism, such that if Person A approaches Person B and says to him, "I will kill you if you do not worship idol so-and-so," Person B must allow himself to be killed rather than worship the idol.
The ratio of the "mercy" of G-d to His "judgment" is at least 500 to 1. For we see that he visits the sins of the fathers onto the sons only to a maximum of four generations, whereas he remembers the good deeds of the fathers for thousands (minimum of thousands is two thousand). Perhaps the way this trans-generational transfer of guilt and merit works is like this: A parent's sinful behavior can affect a child, but only up to a maximum of four generations. Whereas, an ancestor's good behavior will "sink into the bones" of the descendants, and remain as a positive influence for at least two thousand generations.
3. "You shall not take the name of Hashem, your G-d, in vain, for Hashem will not absolve anyone who takes His Name in vain." (Shemot 20:7)
Do not be quick to take oaths which involve mention of Hashem's Name. And do not let oaths become commonplace in your mouth, because someone who behaves in this manner, will swear even when he or she has no desire to do so. Therefore, it is forbidden to swear even on something true (this is why many people, when asked to swear, in certain administrative and judicial contexts, will request the right to "affirm," rather than swear). And anyone who desecrates G-d's Name by swearing falsely or even truthfully (in a matter not justifying use of G-d's Name) his end will be that Hashem, acting in accordance with the principle of "midah k'neged midah," or "measure for measure," will cause information that this person would have preferred to remain private, to enter the public arena, and be "bandied about" like something trivial.
4. "Remember the Day of Shabbat to sanctify it. Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; but the seventh day is Shabbat to Hashem, your G-d; you shall not do any work - you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within your gates - for in six days Hashem made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Hashem blessed the Day of Shabbat and sanctified it." (Shemot 20:8-11)
According to Jewish Tradition, Hashem uttered the Command of "Remember the Shabbat" and the Command of "Guard the Shabbat" (which is the form of the Shabbat command as it appears when Moshe reviews the history of the People of Israel in the Book of Devarim, and refers to the events described here the first time around, in the Book of Shemot) simultaneously, which is impossible for a human being to do, and yet the Jewish People were enabled to understand the Command. This is to teach that to "Remember" Shabbat, which relates to the positive aspects of Shabbat and to "Guard Shabbat", which relates to the prohibition side of Shabbat, are both essential aspects of the Holy Day.
The way to fulfill the Commandment of "Remember the Shabbat" is to recite the Kiddush at the Shabbat table. This is the minimum requirement; for other aspects of this command, see Remember the Shabbat.
Shammai the Elder used to say, "Remember the Shabbat" before it comes, and "Guard it" once it has come. It was said about Shammai the Elder that the remembrance of Shabbat "never left his mouth." He would buy a nice item, and say "this is for Shabbat." And they said further about Shammai the Elder that he would eat all week "for the honor of Shabbat;" he would buy a nice cow, and he would say, "This is for the honor of Shabbat." Then if he found a nicer one, he would eat from the first and set the second aside for the Shabbat. But Hillel the Elder had a different characteristic; he would trust Hashem to provide the best for each day on that day, and would say, "Blessed is Hashem each day."
Turnus-Rufus, the Roman official, asked Rabbi Akiva concerning the Shabbat, "How is one day different from any other day?" Rabbi Akiva responded, "How is Tunnus-Rufus different from other men? Turnus-Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva to clarify his meaning. Rabbi Akiva said, "You asked me, 'How is the Shabbat different from other times?' and I asked you, 'How are you different from other men?' " Turnus-Rufus angrily responded, "The Emperor wishes to honor me!" To which Rabbi Akiva answered, "The King of Kings wants the Jewish People to show honor to the Shabbat."
5. "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will be lengthened upon the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you." (Shemot 20:12)
"Honor your father and your mother;" and it is also written "a person should revere his mother and father." What is reverence and what is honor? "Reverence" includes such behaviors to be avoided as not to stand in their place or sit in their place, not to contradict them and not even to lend your support to what they have to say. "Honor" includes such actions as to provide food and drink, indirectly and even directly, to provide clothing and even, if necessary, to dress them, to cover them, to bring them in and take them out, etc., etc., in accordance with their needs.
"They asked Rav Ulla, 'To what extent is a child obligated to honor his or her parents?' He answered, 'go and see how a certain non-Jewish resident of Ashkelon behaved, and his name was Dama, son of Nesina. Once the Rabbis wished to purchase an object from them for ritual purposes, for the sum of six hundred thousand "shekalim," let's say, dollars, but the key to the safe was under the head of his sleeping father, and Dama would not disturb his father!' "
"They asked Rabbi Eliezer, 'To what extent is a child obligated to honor his or her parents?' He said to them, 'to the extent that even if the parent would throw the child's wallet into the ocean for no reason, the child should not embarrass the parent!' "
6. "You shall not murder!" (Shemot 20:13)
This is one of the three cardinal sins in Judaism, for which an individual is obligated to give up his life. This means that if Person A approaches Person B and says to him, "I will kill you if you do not kill person C," Person B should allow himself to be killed, rather than murder Person C.
7. "You shall not commit adultery!" (Shemot 20:13)
This is the third of the three cardinal sins in Judaism, such that if Person A approaches Person B and says to him, "I will kill you if you do not commit adultery with the wife of Person C," Person B must allow himself to be killed rather than commit adultery.
8. "You shall not steal!" (Shemot 20:13)
This form of stealing is the stealing of souls; that is, kidnapping, for which the penalty is "bet-din," Jewish Court-administered death. Stealing of money, for which the penalty is financial, is referenced elsewhere in the Torah.
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your fellow!" (Shemot 20:13)
Jewish Tradition holds that one is not even allowed to speak favorably about other individuals, because that too can relatively easily lead one to speak ill of that person. For example, if one says, "What a nice house (car, job, wife, etc.) so-and-so has," it is easy to see how that can lead to feelings of jealousy and "lashon hara," unfavorable speech, or worse.
10. "You shall not covet your fellow's house. You shall not covet your fellow's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow!" (Shemot 20:14)
In the Devarim version of the Utterances, or Commandments, a different verb is used. Here the prohibition is "Lo Tachmod!," "Do not actively desire!" There, in Devarim, the verb is "Lo Titaveh!," "Do not desire in your heart!" For there is a causal chain - if one allows himself to desire someone else's property, etc., that will lead to more active desire, which will lead to stealing, etc., etc.
How is it possible to command someone concerning his or her emotions? First of all, it is possible, as we see from other commands, positive [such as "You shall love your neighbor as yourself!"] and negative ["You shall not hate your neighbor in your heart!"]. Alternatively, the meaning here is that one should distance the thought of possessing some "thing" "belonging" to someone else so far outside the realm of possibility, that the thought actually recedes from one's imagination.
A Poetic Description of the Giving of the Torah
A Poetic Description of the Giving of the Torah
"You were Revealed in Your Cloud of Glory…"
(Mussaf Prayer of Rosh HaShanah)
The following is the translation of the introduction to the "Shofarot" Prayer, which is one of three special prayers: "Malchiyot" (Kingliness), "Zichronot" (Remembrances) and "Shofarot" (Sounds of the Shofar) incorporated into the Mussaf Prayer of Rosh HaShanah:
"You were revealed in Your cloud of glory, to Your People, to speak with them. From heaven You made them hear Your voice, and were revealed to them in clouds of purity. The whole world as well was terrified of You, and creatures present at the Beginning trembled before You; When You revealed Yourself, our King, over Mount Sinai, to teach Your People the Torah and its Commandments. You made them hear the majesty of Your voice, and Your Holy Utterances from flames of fire."
"In thunder and lightning You were revealed to them, and with the sound of the Shofar You appeared to them, as it is written in Your Torah: 'And it was on the third day, as morning arrived, and there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the Shofar very strong, and all the people in the camp trembled.' (Shemot 19:16)"
"And it is said, 'And the sound of the Shofar became stronger and exceedingly stronger; Moshe would speak, and the L-rd would respond in thunder.' (Shemot 19:19)"
"And it is said, 'The entire People saw the thunder, and the flashes of lightning, and the sound of the Shofar, and the smoking mountain. And the People saw and trembled, and they stood from afar.' (Shemot 20:15)"
Offering the Torah to the Nations
The Torah was Offered to the Nations
"Hashem miSinai ba VeZarach miSeir lamo, hofia meHar Paran…"
"Hashem Came from Mt. Sinai - Having Shone Forth from Mt. Seir, and Appeared at Mt. Paran" (Devarim 33:2)
Lest the nations of the World complain that Hashem was unfair in not offering the Torah to the rest of the world, Hashem did in fact offer it to all the other nations of the world, and was turned down by all.
Hashem first offered it to the descendants of Esav, who lived in the area of Mt. Seir, in accordance with the inheritance that Hashem had given them. When he offered them the Torah, they asked, "What are its laws?" When Hashem told them that one of its laws was "You shall not murder," they said, "How can we accept the Torah? That law goes against our very nature, as Yitzchak said to our father, Esav, "And you will live by the Sword!" (Bereshit 27:40)
He next offered it to Amon and Moav, who likewise turned it down. They asked, "What are the laws of the Torah?" When they heard that immorality was one of its main prohibitions, they said, "Our national origins are bound up with a story of immorality between Lot's daughters and their sleeping father. (Bereshit 19:30-38) Immorality has become part and parcel of our national character.
When he offered it to the descendants of Yishmael, they could not then, and they cannot now, deal with the prohibition against stealing (Vayikra 19:11), as the Angel of the L-rd said to our mother Hagar about our ancestor, Yishmael, "He will be a person without self-control, with his hand in everyone else's property, and everyone else's hand in his property, and he will camp on the borders of everyone else's land." (Bereshit 15:12)
It was only when He offered the Torah to the Jewish People that He found a Nation with the potential to live according to all the laws of the Torah. And they realized this potential by saying to Hashem, "Naaseh V'nishma, "We will first obey, and then understand," (Shemot 23:7), when He offered them His holy Torah.
The Heavenly Debate
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, "When Moshe was in Heaven (for all practical purposes, the top of Mt. Sinai was the same as Heaven, when Moshe went up to receive the Torah), the Angels protested before G-d, "What is the son of a woman doing up here?" G-d answered them, "He is here to take the Torah."
The Angels continued to protest, "Do You really want to give the Torah, which You created long before You created the World, to mortal Man? 'Hashem, our Master, How glorious is Your Name in all the Earth, that Your splendor is far above all the heavens - what is Man, that You make mention of him, the Son of Man, that You should take notice of him?" (Psalms, 8)
G-d turned to Moshe and said, "Answer them!"
Moshe said, "Master of the Universe, I am afraid that they will burn me up with the flames in their mouths!"
G-d said, "Hold onto my Throne of Glory, and answer them!
Moshe then said to G-d, "The Torah which You are going to give me, what is written in it?"
G-d answered, "I Am the L-rd your G-d Who took you out of Egypt?"
Moshe turned to the angels, "Did you go down to Egypt? Were you enslaved there? What do you need the Torah for?"
He asked G-d, "What else is in it?"
Hashem answered, "You shall have no other gods!"
Moshe asked the Angels, "Are you living among the non-Jews, who worship idols?"
"What else is in it?"
"Do not take My Name in vain!"
"Are you Angels engaged in commerce, that you should be involved with swearing?"
"Remember the Shabbat to keep it holy!"
"Do you Angels do laborious work, that you should have to be warned not to do it on Shabbat?"
"Honor your father and your mother!"
"Do you angels have parents that you should honor?"
"Don't murder! Don't steal! Don't be immoral!"
"Do any of these apply to you? (Do you eat apples that you should have to make a blessing before you eat them? Do you ride on donkeys that you should have to be warned against wanting to steal the other angel's donkey?" - the last two not said by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, but they seem to be along the same lines)
Immediately, the Angels conceded to Moshe. And each one became a friend of Moshe, and gave him a gift, as it is said, "You went up to heaven, you gathered booty; you took presents for Man." (Psalms, 68) And even the Angel of Death gave Moshe a present - the incense, which wards off plague.
Basically, as Francis Bacon said, "The Proper Study of Man is Man."
The Torah is the set of G-d's instructions for Man and Woman, as to how to lead their lives. It is their Proper Study.
Bringing the First Fruit
"You shall bring the First-Fruits of your Land to the House of Hashem your G-d…" (Shemot 23,19)
One of the names of the Holiday of Shavuot, is "Chag HaBikkurim," "The Holiday of the First Fruits." This refers to the "mitzvah," or Torah-command, to Jewish farmers to bring to the Temple their first fruits, from the seven species with which "Eretz Yisrael" is blessed: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. In addition to bringing the First Fruits, the farmer is required to recite a declaration of gratitude to Hashem for bestowing His blessings upon Eretz Yisrael.
Biblical Source
Description of the Procedure
Biblical Source
In addition to the partial verse cited above, there is another section of the Torah, in Devarim 26: 1-11, which is devoted to this subject:
"And it shall be, when you enter the Land which the L-rd your G-d is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it and begin to set up permanent residence in it. Then you shall take all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring from your land, which Hashem your G-d is giving you; you shall put it into a basket, and you shall go to the place which Hashem your G-d will choose as a residence for His Divine Name."
"And you shall come to the priest who will be serving at that time and you shall say to him, 'I have declared today before Hashem your G-d that I have come to the Land which He swore to our fathers to give to us.' "
"And the priest will take the basket from your hand and shall place it before the altar of Hashem your G-d. And you shall respond and declare, before Hashem your G-d, 'A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down to Egypt and set up temporary residence with but a few souls, and he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.' "
"And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and they tortured us, and they made us do hard labor. And we cried out to Hashem, the G-d of our fathers, and Hashem heard our voices, and He realized our suffering, and our great trouble, and our oppression."
"And Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm and with great Awesomeness, and with signs and with wonders. And He brought us to this place, and He gave us this Land, a Land flowing with milk and date-honey."
"And now I have brought the first of the fruits of the Land which You have given me, O G-d."
"And you should place it before Hashem your G-d, and you shall prostrate yourself before Hashem, your G-d."
Description of the Procedure
The description of the Procedure for bringing the First Fruits is given in the Mishnah of Bikkurim. A brief description is found in the following extract from that source:
Chapter 3; Mishnah 3
"Those who came from near to Yerushalayim would bring figs and grapes (because they would not be spoiled on a short journey); those who came from far from Yerushalayim would bring dried figs and raisins."
"An ox went before them with its horns overlaid with gold, and a crown of olive leaves was upon its head. The flute was played before them until they approached Yerushalayim. When they came close to Yerushalayim, they sent messengers before them, and they would decorate their First-Fruits."
"The governors, the chiefs and the treasurers went out to meet them. According to the rank of the arrivals, was the rank of those who came out to greet them. And all the craftsmen of Yerushalayim would stand before them and inquire concerning their welfare, 'Our brothers, from Place So-and-So, welcome!' "
Chapter 3; Mishnah 4:
"The flute was played before them until they reached the Temple Mount. Once they reached the Temple Mount, even Agrippas the King would carry the basket on his shoulder and go in as far as the Azarah. Once they reached the Azarah, the Leviim would sing, 'I will praise You, O G-d, for You have raised me up, and You have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me!' "
The Laws and the Service of Shavuot
Rabbi Shimon said, 'Pesach and Sukkot, which do not fall during times that work is done in the fields, this one (Pesach) is seven days, and the other (Sukkot), eight. Atzeret (Shavuot), which falls at a time when work is done in the fields, is only one day - to teach that the Torah has mercy on the Jewish People.' " (Sifri, Parshat Re'eh)
What are the Laws and Service of Shavuot?
As with all of the Jewish Holidays, the Laws and Service of the Day are intertwined. For our holidays are days of special service to the "Ribbono shel Olam," the Master of the Universe, Whose Written Torah decreed, and Whose Oral Torah defined and expanded upon, the
Laws associated with those days.
Z'man Matan Torateinu
The Time of the Giving of Our Torah
All the prayers and the Kiddush of this holiday are similar to the prayers and the Kiddush of the others of the Three Regalim (the others: Pesach and Sukkot), with the exception that Shavuot too has its own unique description: "et yom chag HaShavuot hazeh, zeman matan torateinu," "this Day of Shavuot, the time of the Giving of the Torah."
In the Mussaf Prayer, the Additional Prayers include mention of the unique sacrifice associated with Shavuot, including the "Two Breads," the Grain Offering brought on the "fiftieth day," so to speak, after the bringing of the Omer on the second day of Pesach. This Offering was brought from "new wheat."
Mussaf Prayer
Additional Prayer
The description of the Additional Offering of Shavuot is introduced by the following paragraph: (transliteration and translation of the paragraph taken, with permission, from the Seif Edition of the SABBATH AND FESTIVAL SIDDUR, published by ArtScroll as an Orthodox Union Centennial Publication, with Introductory Essays and Comments by Rabbi Benjamin Yudin)
UVYOM HABIKURIM,
And on the day of the first fruits,
B'hak-riv'chem mincho chadosho Ladonoy,
When you bring a new meal offering to Hashem,
B'shovu-osaychem,
On your Festival of Weeks;
Mikro kodesh yih-ye lochem,
There shall be a holy convocation for you,
Kol m'leches avodo lo sa-asu.
You may not do any laborious work.
Other Prayer-ful Features of Shavuot
Hallel is completed, as it is on the other "Regalim."
When the Kiddush is recited, the "bracha," or blessing, of "She-he-cheyanu," "the One Who kept us alive," is included. When the woman-of-the-house, in general, makes the blessings on the candles, she includes that bracha as well, before the candles are lit.
Even though on every other "Erev Yom Tov," Holiday Eve, the Evening Services are begun somewhat earlier, in order to be "mosif min ha-chol al ha-kodesh," "to add from the mundane time to the holy time," on Shavuot we specifically do not do that!
Why not?
Because the Torah says that "sheva shabbatot t'mimot," "seven complete weeks" should transpire before Shavuot, and if we start early, that "t'mimiyut," or "completeness" will be lacking!
Kiddush should also not be recited before it is definitely night-time (three medium-size stars should be visible in the sky).
No "Chol HaMoed"
No Intermediate Days
One way in which Shavuot differs from the other Regalim is in its length. Pesach, in the Torah (and as celebrated in Israel) is defined as a seven-day celebration. Sukkot (including Shmini Atzeret), in the Torah (and as celebrated in Israel) is defined as an eight-day holiday. Shavuot is only celebrated, again, as defined in the Torah and as celebrated in Israel, as a one-day holiday.
Why is this so?
A possibility for the "why" behind this fact is, as mentioned in the header citation of this page, that the Torah does not want to keep the Jewish farmer, who has so much to do during this season, the season of the cutting of wheat and barley, away from his farm for longer than necessary. On the other hand, It is considered "necessary" for the farmer, as well as all Jews, to put in at least a brief appearance at the Temple, to "be seen" by G-d, in Jerusalem.
What has been surgically removed by Hashem, for the benefit of the Jew, is the period of "Chol HaMoed," the Days of "Chol," relative mundane-ness (eh?); that is, like weekdays, within the "Moed," the "bookends" of holy time. This period of Intermediate Days does not carry the same work restrictions as the holiday itself. The Period of Chol HaMoed is a combination of "Kodesh," holy and "Chol," mundane or less holy, which deserves, and which will receive a separate discussion. But this is not the place, especially because Shavuot does not have any Chol HaMoed.
"Yom Tov Sheni shel Galuyot" -
"Second Day of the Holiday" (Celebrated Only in Diaspora)
The meaning of this concept is that in the Diaspora, two days of holiday are celebrated where the Torah speaks of only one. The reason for this is that in the time of the Talmud, when communications were a very, very far cry from what they are now and, even when a procedure was initiated which could achieve fast communications, it was undermined by forces hostile to the Talmud and to the Rabbis.
What had to be communicated?
What needed to be communicated was the time of Rosh Chodesh because the entire Hebrew Calendar is based on lunar calculations. A means was devised to communicate this information swiftly throughout Israel (nearly at the speed of light) and to the edge of the "Golah," the Diaspora, by means of the chain-lighting of torches on mountain-tops between Jerusalem and the outer limits of that area. But the method was sabotaged by the "Tzedukim," the Sadducees, who were not at all interested in helping the "Sanhedrin," the Jewish Supreme Court, where testimony concerning Rosh Chodesh was taken, solve its practical problems.
As a result, the solution settled upon was that messengers went out from the Sanhedrin to the outer limits of Israel and to the Diaspora to communicate when Rosh Chodesh had taken place. But this introduced an element of uncertainty in the Diaspora as to when Rosh Chodesh had taken place, and hence when the holiday should take place.
So the device of instituting a Second Day of Celebration in the Diaspora was introduced, whereby the "Second Day" was accorded the same significance as the First Day by decree of the Rabbis, into whose hands the scheduling of the holidays had, in any case, been placed by G-d, the One Who sanctifies Israel and the Holidays.
Nowadays, when there is no uncertainty as to when astronomical events take place, we still maintain the original custom instituted when there existed that uncertainty. This is called the Principle (the Uncertainty Principle?) of "Minhag Avoteinu B'Yadenu," "We continue to maintain the custom of our ancestors."
Shavuot Torah Readings, Haftarot and Megillat Ruth
On the first day of Shavuot, the reading is from Parshat Yitro, in the Book of Shemot, from "In the third month after the Jewish People left Egypt" till the end of the Parshah. This reading covers the event of "Maamad Har Sinai," the stand of the Jewish People at Mt. Sinai, to receive the Torah.
The Maftir, the Second Torah Reading of the Holiday, comes from one of the sections of the Torah which deals directly with the Holiday of Shavuot, beginning "Uv'yom HaBikkurim," "The Day of the Bringing of the First Fruits."
The Reading from the Prophets on the first day of Shavuot comes from Yechezkel which deals with the mystical subject of the "Divine Chariot," which also deals with a Revelation of G-d in prophecy to an individual but, through his book, to all of Israel.
On the Second day in the Diaspora, the First Torah Reading is from "All the First Born," which deals with the various holidays, the second again from "Uv'yom HaBikkurim," and the Reading from the Prophets from Chavakuk, which deals with a vision of Hashem in His holy Palace.
On the Second Day in the Diaspora, and on the one day of Shavuot in Eretz Yisrael, Megillat Ruth is read after Hallel. Various reasons for reading the Megillah on Shavuot are given. Some are as follows:
The conversion of Ruth to Judaism was by a painful route, as seen in the Story of Ruth, just as the acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish People was via the painful route of years of slavery in Egypt!
The time of the year in which the events of the Megillah took place was in the grain-cutting season, as it says "in the beginning of the cutting of barley," and one of the names of Shavuot is "Chag HaKatzir," the Holiday of Grain Cutting.
The law that allowed Ruth to join the Jewish People was based on the Oral Law. Because according to the Written Law, "No Amonite or Moabite may enter the Jewish People (by marriage)." The Oral Law differentiated between the male Moabite and the female Moabitess, because the exclusion was tied to the cruelty of those nations, and those cruel decisions were made exclusively by the males - to show the importance of the Oral Law in the Jewish System, in the role of providing definition and explication of the Written Law.
“Akdamut” and “Ketuvah”
"Akdamut" and "Ketuvah"
From one end of the Diaspora to the other, a need was felt to add components to the Service of Shavuot. The components added, "Akdamut," "Before I Speak," created in and added throughout the world of Ashkenazic Jewry, and "Ketuvah," "The Marriage Contract," created in and very popular in the world of Sefardic Jewry, were expressions of the unique conditions existing in those areas of the Exile.
"Akdamut" - The Background
Akdamut is a "piyut," a religious poem, which was composed during the First Crusade, which began in 1096, as an effort by Christian Europe to recapture the "Holy Land" from the Moslem "infidels" who had seized it. On their way to the Middle East, the Christian knights would, in general, visit terror if not outright destruction upon the Jewish communities which happened to be on their route. It was a time of oppression, of cruelty, of ignorance on the part of the Jews' neighbors. There was absolutely nothing attractive in the dominant culture in Europe at that time.
Nevertheless, the Christians tried to force their religion upon their Jewish neighbors, often at the threat of death. Sometimes, mock "debates" were held, in which Jewish rabbis were forced to participate, knowing that the juries, consisting of church officials, were rigged against them, and that nothing they said would have any effect on their listeners, or upon their own fate. The author of Akdamut was the unwilling participant in such a "debate."
This then was the background of Akdamut, composed at that time by Rabbi Meir son of Rabbi Yitzchak, who was the "Chazan" of the City of Vermaiza, in Germany. The position "Chazan" is not directly translatable as "Cantor," which is its current meaning, for at that time, there was the additional connotation of great Talmudic scholarship associated with the position and, indeed, this particular Chazan is supposed to have been one of the teachers of the great Bible and Talmud Commentator, RASHI.
The poem describes the words of the author as he "debated" the truths of Judaism to a hostile audience. But they are disguised for posterity in the Aramaic language, which was not understood by the Christian world or its censors. The author, who died shortly after the "debate," left behind a priceless inheritance for the Jewish People, the piyut of Akdamut. The practice began to chant Akdamut on Shavuot, with its characteristic melody, at the beginning of the public reading which includes the "Aseret HaDibrot," the Ten Commandments.
"Akdamut" - The Structure
Akdamut has ninety lines; the first forty-four begin with a double Aleph-Bet; Aleph, Aleph, Bet, Bet, and so on. The first letters of the next forty-six lines make up an acrostic in which the author expresses the prayer that the L-rd will bless him with the ability and opportunity, even in the extremely hostile environment in which he found himself, to grow in knowledge of Torah and in the performance of good deeds.
Each line of the poem, written in Aramaic, as mentioned above, ended in the letters "Tav," the last letter of the Aleph Bet, and "Aleph," the first letter of the Aleph-Bet, to show that when one reaches the last letter, the "end" of the Torah, so to speak, one immediately turns and restarts the Torah from its "beginning."
"Akdamut" - Free Translation of Content
Before I begin to read his Words (The Ten Commandments),
I will ask Permission,
Of the One Whose Might is such that -
Even if all the heavens were parchment,
And all the reeds pens,
And all the oceans ink,
And all people were scribes,
It would be impossible to record
the Greatness of the Creator,
Who Created the World with a soft utterance,
And with a single letter, the letter "heh,"
The lightest of the letters.
And Angels of Heaven of all kinds,
All full of fear and terror of their Master,
Have permission to praise him only at set times,
Some once in seven years, Others once and no more,
How beloved is Israel!
For the Holy One leaves the Angels on High,
To take the People of Israel as His lot -
And they make Him their King,
And declare, "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
Twice a day, Morning and Evening -
And all His Desire is that His Chosen People
Will study His Torah and pray to Him,
For they are inscribed in His Tefillin,
"Who is like Your People, Israel,
One nation in the World!"
Thus it is the will of the Holy One,
That I speak in praise of Israel,
And though all the nations come and ask,
Who can it Be, for Whom you give up your lives,
O most beautiful of the nations?
But come with us,
And we'll satisfy all your desires!
And Israel responds with wisdom,
Only a bit of the truth do they reveal,
What is your greatness, say they to the nations,
Compared to the reward that He has in store for us!
And when He sheds upon us His great light,
While you go, then are destroyed in darkness!
Yerushalayim will be rebuilt!
The Exiles will return,
The Gates of Gan Eden will Re-Open,
And all their Brilliance will be Revealed to us -
We will enter those Gates and take Pleasure,
In the Radiance of the Divine Presence,
Whom we will point to, and say -
Here is our G-d, in Whom we hoped,
He will save us!
And each righteous one under his canopy will sit,
In the Sukkah made from the skin of Leviathan,
And in the future
He will make a dance for the righteous ones,
And a banquet in Paradise,
From that Great Fish and the Wild Ox ,
And from the Wine preserved from the Creation -
Happy are those who believe and hope and
Never abandon their faith forever!
Now you my listeners,
When you hear your praise in this song,
Be strong in your faith!
And you will merit to sit in the company
Of the holy and righteous ones
In the World-to-Come!
If you've listened well to my words,
Which were uttered in holy majesty -
Great is our G-d!
The First and the Last!
Happy are we, for He loved us,
And gave us His Torah.
"Ketuvah" - The Background
This "piyut," actually a love song, modelled after Shir HaShirim, the Book of the Bible which is a metaphor for the relationship between the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and the People of Israel. The poem takes on the form of a marriage contract between Israel and the Torah, composed by Rabbi Yisrael Najara.
It emerged from the world of Sefardic Jewry, which at that time was radically different from Christian Europe. The Sefardic World, ruled mainly by the Moslems, had many features which were attractive to the Jewish communities which lived among them. The Moslems at that time were world leaders in Poetry, Philosophy, Grammar, Mathematics and many other cultural expressions. This caused a reaction in the Jewish communities, which took the form of an unprecedented focus on such areas as, essentially, all the branches of culture cited above, as illustrative of the Moslem world. The time of Rabbi Yisrael Najara, a great Jewish Grammarian and Poet, was indeed a Golden Age, unprecedented perhaps, in the range of opportunities available to Jews, and taken advantage of by Jews, till the Golden Age of America.
"Ketuvah" - (More-or-Less) Free Translation of Content
Segment One
My Beloved went down to His garden, to His bed of spices,
To delight in the princess, and to spread over her the canopy of His peace;
"King Solomon made for Himself a Palace."
Serafim and Ophanim He abandoned, and His Horsemen and Chariot,
And with the beloved doe, He observed His banquet;
"On the day of His wedding and the rejoicing of His heart."
My beloved, My doe, Come with Me to My chamber, my hall,
For your sake I have left all the legions above, and their host;
"And I have betrothed you unto Me forever."
Said the Awesome One,
You Who from the time of love I have heard Him,
And I love Him with an Eternal love,
"May He kiss me with the kisses of His Mouth!"
To go to the wedding canopy, agreed the dancer of the camps,
And for her "We will do, and then obey"
merited six hundred thousand crowns;
"In the third month, from the time
That Israel left Mitzrayim."
And the connection was strong
With this Nation, which He acquired at Sinai,
And the Deed of Purchase and the Signature
I read for My throngs,
"Behold! It is written before Me."
On the Sixth Day I will read what is written in the Letter,
A day on which to bequeath to His beloved ones the Torah,
The Living G-d did Intend,
"Six Days in the Month of Sivan."
The Last Segment
"…That He should not travel far away,
Or make His way in the sea,
Without the Torah placed near His heart;
"It should be with Him, and He shall read from it"
"And all these conditions are strong and stand fast,"
As the host of heaven in the sky is arrayed,
"Forever and ever, and for Eternity."
And the Groom swears to fulfill them all for His congregation,
And to bequeath "Yesh," "Substance" to those who love Him
And who do His will,
"The L-rd swore with His Right Hand."
And the Bridegroom Acquired five Possessions,
And among them were the Torah and the Testimony,
And the Treasure betrothed,
"And He laid the corner-stone."
Let the righteous see and rejoice,
And let them enjoy their reward,
Of a Testimony that is "longer as the land,
And wider than the sea,"
"And all is strong, and clear, and steadfast!
And He established the Torah in Yaakov with vigor,
And He commanded to erect its fences
So no one would break through!
"And I established faithful witnesses,
The Heavens and the Earth!
Let the Bridegroom rejoice with the Bride,
To take for his possession,
And let the heart of the Bride rejoice
With the husband of her youth,
And let her say to the one who sings His praises,
"Happy is the People for whom it is so!"
The Story of Ruth
"Your People is my People, and your G-d my G-d" (Ruth 1,16)
What is the Story of Ruth?
Our story begins in the Land of Israel, during the Period of the Rule of the Judges, leaders of the Jewish People who preceded the Kings, towards the beginning of their national residence in the Land of Israel. The set of characters initially is Elimelech, his wife Naami and their two sons, called Machlon and Kilyon, though it is doubtful that these are their real names, because those names mean "destruction," and it is doubtful that any parents would give their children such names.
The Story of Ruth is also the classic Jewish "mother-in-law" - "daughter-in-law" story, in that it is the story of a relationship of great love, loyalty and devotion which develops between the two female heroines of the story.
The family of Elimelech has moved to the "fields of Moav" in order to escape the effects of a famine which has broken out in the Land of Israel. This does not sound like an extremely worthy or public-spirited thing for Elimelech and his family, who were quite affluent, to have done, and perhaps that is why Elimelech and his two sons died in Moav, after the sons had married into the royal family of that country.
News comes from Israel that the famine has lifted. Naami, feeling nearly totally bereft, decides to return to her home in Beit Lechem, Yehudah. Her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, say initially that they want to remain with her and return to the land they have never seen, and to the Jewish lifestyle. Naami discourages them, telling them of the difficulties of Jewish life, and that they would definitely be better off if they returned to the palaces from which they'd come. It is from here, incidentally, that we learn the attitude of Judaism towards potential converts, namely "Let your left hand push away while your right hand attracts."
Orpah eventually decides to leave, but Ruth will not be dissuaded, and says to Naami, "Do not urge me to leave you, to go back from following you - for wherever you go, I will go, where you lie down, I will lie down. Your people is my people, and your G-d is my G-d. Where you will die, I will die, and there be buried; may Hashem punish me greatly if I allow anything but death to separate between me and you." (Ruth 1:16-17)
Naami accepts her sincerity and agrees to allow Ruth to accompany her on the road back to Beit-Lechem. When the two women arrive, the townspeople hardly recognize Naami, for she left as a wife, and as a mother, of a very affluent family. But now she has been reduced to poverty and loneliness. Naami says to them, "Don't call me Naami [which means "pleasantness"], for Hashem has (justifiably) made my life bitter."
Lacking any other source of income, Ruth offers to become a gleaner, picking up grain behind the cutting crew in the fields with the other poor, according to the Law of the Torah. Naami agrees to let her do this.
When Ruth chooses a field among the many possibilities to glean in, the Megillah uses an expression which is probably a thinly-veiled reference to "hashgachah pratit," supervision by Hashem over events in the lives of individuals, a basic assumption of the Jewish faith. The verse says, ironically, she "just happened" to find herself in the fields of Boaz. Now this Boaz was a great scholar in Israel, and was also a relative of the deceased Elimelech, which placed him in line to be a "redeemer" of the property of Elimelech, and to marry Ruth, according to the Laws of the Torah - with one problem!
The Torah excludes the nations Amon and Moav from eligibility for marriage within the Jewish People, because they had denied bread and water to the Jewish People when they wanted to travel through their territory on the way to the Land of Israel. Not only that, but Balak, the King of Moav, had also hired the Midianite Prophet, Bilaam, to curse the Jewish People, because that was his specialty. This would have excluded Ruth, a Moabite princess, from the possibility of marriage with Boaz, if not for a little known oral tradition which excluded female Moabites and Amonites from the marriage-exclusion principle, because they had not participated in any way in the anti-Israel crimes mentioned above.
Ruth begins to work in the fields of Boaz. Boaz arrives in the fields, greeting his workers with "May Hashem be with you!" and receiving the response of "May Hashem bless you!" His attention is attracted by Ruth because she is going about her business in a very quiet, modest manner, unlike the behavior of the other gleaners. He learns her identity from the foreman of the fields, and invites her to remain on his fields till the end of the harvest.
When Ruth returns to Naami, and informs her where she has been working, Naami realizes that Hashem has been working here from behind the scenes to bring Ruth and Boaz together. At the end of the harvest, she advises Ruth to dress in her finery and go to Boaz, who is working in his threshing barn, to ask him during the night to be the redeemer of the property of Elimelech, and to marry Ruth. Ruth agrees to do so.
In the middle of the night, Boaz realizes that a woman is present, and asks her, in the dark, to reveal her identity. Ruth does so, and makes her request. In formulating his response, Boaz decides that it is time for the male/female distinction with regard to the Moabite exclusion to become more widely known.
However, there was another Jew who was a closer relative, and who therefore was first in line to be the redeemer. This individual, at this stage in the story, is referred to by the name "Tov," which may or may not, again, have been his real name but, in any case, means "good." When a person still has the opportunity to fulfill a responsibility, he is considered good. However, when confronted with the possibility of redemption, and advised that Ruth is also involved, Tov declines to accept the role because he is afraid to get involved with the Moabite controversy, and is referred to as "Ploni-Almoni," Mr. So-and-So.
When Boaz heard the refusal of Ploni-Almoni, he announced that he himself was ready to act as the redeemer. He invited ten people to be witnesses to the wedding (from which we learn that ten witnesses are required to be present at a wedding). The congregation blessed the couple: Boaz, the great scholar and leader of Israel, himself one of the Judges, and Ruth, the modest and kind convert to Judaism, who had come from Moav out of love for Naami and for the Torah of Naami.
Soon after the marriage, a son was born to Ruth, and Naami took the child in her bosom. The neighbors said, "A child has been born to Naami," because the mother was Ruth, a daughter-in-law who was more loyal and devoted to Naami than "seven sons."
And they called the name of the son "Oved," which means "one who worships," who was the father of Yishai who, in turn, was the father of "David HaMelech," King David. David, descendant of Ruth, would later meet "Galyat," Goliath, the Giant, descendant of Orpah, on the battlefield between the Philistines and the People of Israel. When Galyat would curse the Jewish People, David would rise up against him, empowered by the Name of the G-d of Israel Whom Galyat had blasphemed, and slay him. It is King David, who was able to combine the characteristics of a great warrior and of the "sweet singer of Israel," from whose descendants ultimately will emerge the "Melech HaMashiach," the Anointed King, the Redeemer of Israel.
CUSTOMS OF SHAVUOT
What are the Customs of Shavuot?
Shavuot has a number of customs which are deeply ingrained in the celebration of the holiday. Among these are the following:
Staying up all night to learn Torah on the first night of Shavuot
Spreading greens and flowers in the synagogue on Shavuot
Eating Dairy Meals on Shavuot
Staying Up (Without NoDoz)
There is a custom among the People of Israel to stay up all night to study the Torah on the first night of Shavuot. One of the reasons given for this custom is that it is to "make up" for the behavior of a large number of Jews who were present at Sinai, at the "main event," so to speak, yet they went to sleep that night. And Hashem had to wake them up with peals of thunder and Shofar blowing, to receive the Torah.
It is said in defense of those Jews that they slept "l'shem shamayim," with good intentions, for they felt that they would be better able to absorb and withstand the experience of Hashem's Revelation, which they knew was coming in the morning.
Those who stay up all night should wash their hands in the morning as usual, but without making the "brachah," or blessing, of "Netilat Yadayim," which is made each morning when one has had a regular night's sleep. Neither should they say the regular "Birchot HaShachar," the Blessings of the Morning, which contain blessings which correspond to the various aspects of "waking up:" opening the eyes, standing up, getting dressed, etc. On Shavuot morning, they should hear these "brachot" from someone who had slept during the night, but who came to "daven," to pray, typically at an early hour, with those who had stayed up to "learn."
Spreading Greens and Flowers
There exists a beautiful custom of decorating the synagogue on Shavuot with flowers and greens, because of the vegetation on Mt. Sinai. Some have the custom of adorning the Sefer Torah with roses. That, in particular, seems to have been an ancient custom, because Haman criticized the Jewish People to Achashverosh because of their observance of that custom.
The custom once existed to bring trees into the synagogue, but the Vilna Gaon basically banned that custom on the basis of it being "chukot ha'goyim," "adopting the customs of the gentiles," who have adopted the custom of celebrating their holiday by the use of trees.
Eating Dairy Meals
There is a tasty custom of eating dairy foods on the first day of Shavuot. Some simply eat a dairy meal. Many observe this custom by beginning with dairy foods, and following it by meat, to fulfill the commandment of "And you shall rejoice," and for most people, "there is no 'rejoicing' without meat."
In this case, one has to be very careful to rinse the mouth carefully, and to wait an hour between eating the dairy and eating the meat! In the other direction, of course; that is, meat first, then dairy, rinsing the mouth and waiting one hour is not sufficient (unless one is Dutch)! Then, one must wait several hours between meat and dairy. The number of hours is determined, again, by custom. The time interval varies from six hours to three hours (German Jewish custom) to one hour (Dutch Jews).
When having dairy followed by meat in relatively close succession, one must also say Birchat HaMazon (the blessing after a meal), spread a different table cover and reset the table for meat. A hint that this is the procedure to be followed is the Shavuot-related verse, "Bring the first fruits of your Land to the House of the L-rd - Do not cook a lamb in its mother's milk" (the three-fold repetition of the latter part of the verse being the source for the prohibition of the meat and dairy combination).
There are a number of reasons offered for this custom, but, whatever the reason, it is an established custom, and as long as it is not illegal, immoral or (very) fattening, we continue to abide by it. Some of the reasons given are as follows:
The day that Moshe Rabbeinu was pulled from the water by the daughter of Pharaoh, was the Sixth of Sivan, the day on which we celebrate Shavuot. And Baby Moshe refused to nurse from a non-Jewish woman, so that Miriam, Moshe's sister, was able to get Moshe's real mother, Yocheved, to be his nurse.
Until the giving of the Torah, meat was permitted to be eaten without ritual slaughter. Once the Torah was given, all methods of killing the animal for the purpose of eating other than "shechitah," ritual slaughter, were prohibited. Since shechitah could not be done on Shabbat, and everyone agrees that the Torah was given on Shabbat, the Jews had to eat dairy.
The "gematria," sum of the numerical equivalents of the Hebrew letters making up the word, of "chalav," milk, is forty (letter "chet" (8) plus letter "lamed" (30) plus letter "beit" (2) equals forty) which corresponds to the number of days that Moshe studied the Torah with Hashem on the top of Mt. Sinai.
Mount Sinai has eight names, one of which is "gavnunim," because its appearance resembles that of cheese, "gevina," in Hebrew.
Until the giving of the Torah, the Jewish People were afraid that the milk of animals was prohibited under the category of a "limb from a living animal." This is one of the Seven Laws of Noach, which Noach transmitted to his sons, obligatory upon all of humanity, and which is the source of the prohibition of causing excessive pain to living creatures. Once the Torah was given, and "Chalav," milk, was included among the seven types of produce with which the Land of Israel is blessed, the Jewish People realized that milk was indeed permitted.
SHAVUOT TIDBITS
MISC. REVIEW FOR SHAVUOT
Hard to be brief. I'll try. SOP (standard operating procedure) for women lighting Shabbat candles is light them, cover eyes, say Bracha. Should have been Bracha before lighting, but maybe Bracha is acceptance of Shabbat and then lighting would be forbidden.
Yom Tov should be Bracha then light because we can transfer flames on Yom Tov, so there is no problem.
Some authorities say women should light Yom Tov candles the same way they light Shabbat candles.
Others say they should say Bracha first, then light. (If a match was used to light, don't blow it out; put it down safely and let it go out by itself.)
Yom Tov candles should be lit at "regular" candle lighting time. Some have a custom to light Yom Tov candles late, upon return from shul, right before Kiddush.
Anyone lighting late on Yom Tov - by custom or circumstances - must use a pre-existing flame. If a match or toothpick is used to transfer the flame, it may not be extinguished after use. Put it down in a safe place and let it go out by itself. And, in lighting Yom Tov candles after dark, Bracha should definitely be saidfirst and then light. Not the same one the one hand, on the other as above, when lighting at the pre-sunset time.
This year, with Yom Tov on Friday, Shabbat candlkes can be lit only from a pre-existing flame. Otherwise, SOP for Shabbat candles should be followed. Eruv Tavshilin on Thursday allows lighting Shabbat candles. If you didn't make an Eruv, ask a Rav.
No Havdala from Yom Tov to Shabbat (Havdala is between higher K'dusha and lower, not vice versa).
From Z to A...
On Shavuot morning, after the Kohen is called to the Torah, but before the reading begins, it is the Ashkenazic custom to responsively recite AKDAMUT, a 90 line poem praising G-d, His Torah and his People. Written by Rabbi Meir of Worms (one of the teachers of Rashi), the poem conveys the spirit of love of G-d and Judaismeven in adverse conditions. Rabbi Meir's son was killed by Crusaders and he himself died soon after a "forced debate" with the Christian clergy of his town. The poem is a "celebration of Torah" - beautifully appropriate for Shavuot morning.
Each line of Akdamut ends with the syllable TA, spelled TAV- ALEF, the last and first letters of the Alef-bet. Some see this as a reminder of the nature of the Torah itself – as soon as we complete reading or learning the Torah, we immediately begin it again.
Decorations...
It is customary to decorate the shul (and the home) with leaves, verdant branches and flowers. Some say it is commemorative of Har Sinai that was uncharacteristically (miraculously) rich in greenery during Matan Torah. Additionally, decorating with flowers and the like reminds us of the decoration of the Bikurim basketswhich were brought to the Beit HaMikdash starting with Shavuot. (There's the twin message of Shavuot again.)
Tikun Leil Shavuot
The Midrash tells us that some of the People of Israel slept on the night before Matan Torah and G-d had to awaken them in order to give them the Torah. Our Sages do not fault them for sleeping - they were exhausted from their travels. However, a custom developed to spend the night prior to Matan Torah immersed in Torahstudy, as a "better" preparation for the event of the morning. One whose davening would be compromised by having been up all night should rather learn for a few hours and get some sleep.
Those who do stay up all night should carefully avoid wasting time, since it is the learning - and not just being awake - that is significant. When one has stayed up all night, there are a few parts of the pre-Shacharit davening that cannot be said, as follows: MODEH; ELOKAI, NESHAMA; BIRCHOT HATORAH; and the last of BirchotHaShachar - HAMAAVIR SHEINA [through HAGOMEIL CHASADIM...]. One should try to hear these brachot from someone who slept and answer AMEN. Men and boys who have worn their tzitzit all night should hear and answer to someone's talit-bracha in lieu of the tzitzit-bracha.
DAIRY FOODS
Shavuot is a Yom Tov. On Yom Tov we have the mitzva of Simcha. One of the traditional forms of Simchat Yom Tov is festive meals with meat and wine.
(Note for veggies and others who prefer not eating meat: Meat as Simcha is subjective - if you don't like meat, then you need not have it on Yom Tov; if you enjoy eating meat dishes, THEN it is proper to honor and enjoy Yom Tov in that way. This is when we have no Beit HaMikdash. In the time of the Beit HaMikdash, Simchais associated with the korban called Shalmei Simcha.)
Additionally, we all know of the custom of eating dairy foods on Shavuot. Some people will have a dairy meal on Yom Tov night and a meat meal for lunch. This has a certain logic, since the nighttime is "more specifically Shavuot" and the day is "more generically Yom Tov". Other families will have meat at night and dairyduring the day. Still others will make Kiddush and HaMotzi, have some dairy dish (blintzes, perhaps), then bench. Following a short break and a change in table covering, they will wash again, this time for a meat meal. Everyone according to his/her custom.
Some of the reasons might have produced the custom, while others might be merely additional symbolisms after the fact. Further more, some reasons explain why we eat dairy, while others make sense only in the context of having BOTH dairy and meat dishes.
This custom has become so entrenched in our collective practice of Judaism, that it is tantamount to law, and should not be treated lightly.
Shir Hashirim poetically describes those who merit the acquisition of Torah as having "honey and milk under your tongue". This verse is considered one of the sources of having dairy on Shavuot. In addition, it gave rise to the custom of including honey in the preparation of dairy dishes to be eaten on Shavuot.
Having both dairy and meat dishes as mentioned above requires strict attention to the laws of separation of milk and meat. These laws, of course, are based on the Torah's prohibition of "meat in milk" as presented by the phrase "Do not cook a goat in its mother's milk". This phrase (twice) follows, in the same verse, the command to bring Bikurim to the Beit HaMikdash. Shavuot is Yom HaBikurim. Therefore, we eat both dairy and meat dishes, with proper attention to the strictures of halacha, specifically on Shavuot.
Halachically (especially when handling the food with our hands), it is improper to use the same loaf of bread for both meat and dairy meals because of the food residue that might adhere to the bread. Therefore, a dairy meal and a meat meal will require 2 loaves of bread, a reminder of the 2 Loaves offering of Shavuot.
According to tradition, Moshe Rabeinu was born on the seventh of Adar and was successfully hidden by his parents for three months. It was on the sixth (or seventh) of Sivan (future Shavuot) that baby Moshe was placed in the basket on the river and found by the daughter of Par'o. We are taught that Moshe refused to nursefrom an Egyptian woman which led to Miriam's suggestion that Yocheved, Moshe's mother, be his "wet nurse". He, who was to teach all of Israel the Torah, could not drink "mother's milk" from a non-Jew. We commemorate this with dairy dishes on the day of Matan Torah. It might also be suggested that the day of the receivingof the Torah is like the birth of the Nation of Israel, and we have milk to symbolize the spiritual infancy of the People of Israel.
With the receiving of the Torah, the people of Israel officially changed their status from Bnei Noach to Jews. It was therefore impossible to eat meat with its many halachic requirements immediately after receiving the Torah. It takes a few days to kasher our vessels, prepare meat according to halacha, etc. We mark thisby eating dairy foods on Shavuot.
There are sources that suggest that the Children of Israel did not drink milk prior to Matan Torah for fear that it would constitute a violation of Eiver Min HaChai (limb from a living animal), this being forbidden even to a Ben Noach. One of the teachings of the Torah is that milk is indeed permitted to us. This is basedon the Torah's repeated description of Eretz Yisrael as a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. Accordingly, it was on the first Shavuot that we partook of dairy foods.
The Torah commands us to bring in the Beit HaMikdash a Mincha Chadasha LaShem B'Shavuoteichem. The initial letters of this phrase spell the word MICHALAV - "from milk". This, too, is considered one of the origins of the custom. Furthermore, the numeric value of the word CHALAV is 40, a number integrally associated withMatan Torah (forty days and forty nights that Moshe spent on Har Sinai).
The Midrash uses many nicknames for Har Sinai including GAVNUNIM, from the word for cheese, describing the mountain as being white and smooth like cheese.
Whether it is cheese blintzes, yogurt with honey, cheesecake or lasagna, dairy dishes on Shavuot provide us with much food for thought.
What we learned at the Seder table - the value of transmitting Torah knowledge to the next generation via questions and answers - should be applied to all Holidays, Shabbat, and every other opportunity. Spend some quality time at meals or otherwise, evoking questions, explaining things, learning Torah with your spouse and children, guests, etc.
Megilat Ruth
Most communities read Megilat Ruth on Shavuot morning before Torah reading (outside of Israel the custom is to read it on the second day). Some communities read it in the afternoon. When read from a kosher megila scroll (minhag Yerushalayim), the reading is preceded by the brachot ...AL MIKRA MEGILA and SHE'HE'CHEYANU.When it is read from a printed page, no brachot are recited.
Several varied reasons combine to make Ruth the perfect reading for Shavuot. The text itself tells us that the story of the Book takes place at the time of the "cutting of the wheat". Shavuot is CHAG HAKATZIR.
One of the major purposes of the Book of Ruth is to tell us of the lineage of David HaMelech and the Davidic line leading to Moshiach. Tradition tells us that David HaMelech died on Shavuot. (Many people – especially S'faradim – visit Kever David to say T'hilim, on Shavuot.)
Perhaps most significantly, the story of Ruth is the inspiring story of Kabbalat HaTorah of an individual, just as Shavuot is the commemoration of Kabbalat HaTorah of the Nation. All of Israel were like converts at Sinai.
Reminder: Eruv Tavshilin - Thursday, Erev Yom Tov - May 20th
The mitzva is to take a Challah roll or matza plus a cooked food - meat, fish, hard-boiled egg - on Erev Yom Tov, when Friday is Yom Tov, and designate them for Shabbat. The following bracha is recited. (It is advisable - not required - to do the Eruv Tavshilin in front of the family and/or explain it to them, so that theyunderstand what it is.)
BRACHA IN HARD-COPY TT
Following the bracha, one makes the following declaration. Traditionally, it is said in Aramaic (because that was the spoken language among Jews), but because it must be understood; one can/should say it in Hebrew or English (as well) if necessary.
With this ERUV it shall be permitted for us to bake, cook, warm dishes, light candles (from a preexisting flame), and do other Shabbat needs on Yom Tov (Friday) [for us and all Jews living in this city].
In order to "activate" the last phrase of the Eruv declaration and have one's Eruv benefit others if needed, one should take the Eruv foods and give them to a halachic adult (non-family is preferable to a family member) and ask him/her to accept the foods on behalf of other Jews in the city. If not, the Eruv is still goodfor you, but others will have to rely on the Eruv of someone else (which in a big city is not much of a problem).
THREE APPROACHES TO REMEMBERING
Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditshev was asked to explain why Shavuot is also referred to as Atzeret, even though the Torah only uses the term Atzeret in association with Shemini Atzeret, not Shavuot. He offered three explanations. First, all festivals have specific practical mitzvah observances associated with their celebrations, beyond the mere forbiddance of labor on Yom Tov. On Pesach we eat matzah and drink four cups of wine; on Sukkot we dwell in the Sukah and take daled minim, whereas on Shavuot the only actual characteristic of Yom Tov is the cessation of work. Thus, Shavuot is known as Atzeret, signifying its only form of Yom Tov. Moreover, explained the Kedushat Levi, the names of all Yamim Tovim reflect a specific historical event commemorated in subsequent generations in a religious sense.
Shavuot, however, is not a name reflecting any historical event, rather, the completion of the mitzvah of counting Sefirat Ha’Omer. But why would one celebrate a Yom Tov signifying an end? It would seem more logical to celebrate and rejoice in anticipation of fulfilling a mitzvah, rather than its completion. Isn’t this, after all, the reason for reciting the blessing of Shehecheyanu prior to observing a mitzvah, which we have not had the opportunity to experience for an extended period of time! Judaism teaches, however, that joy and religious ecstasy emanate from a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. For the religious and learned Jew, no greater joy and celebration exists than that of a siyum; celebrating the privilege and opportunity in having shared and completed a significant part of Torah. This Jewish expression of joy is unique, however, in that it marks not merely the sense of past accomplishment but also the anxieties of finality, the fears of a point of termination. Thus, the ardent and committed student of Torah proclaims, Hadran halach – “I shall return to you.” For the genuine Jew wants not merely to give vent to the joys of yesterday, but also to the hopes of tomorrow. It’s frightening to contemplate an end! This, then, is the essence of the Shavuot-Atzeret experience.
Rashi comments that it is Shemini Atzeret that zeroes in on the inner need to linger, to continue the joys of celebration and not allow them to come to an abrupt ending – she’kashe alai pe’ridatchem. Shavuot marks the completion of the mitzvah of counting the Omer. Atzeret induces us to continue the effect of the goals towards which we counted.
Finally, says the Kedushat Levi, when a Jew experiences a religious awakening and reaches a spiritual elevation, there is an inner urge to translate the love, ecstasy, and yearning into practical application. The Ramban interprets the verse in the Song of Songs: Mah tairu u’mah teoreru et ha’havah ad shetechpatz –“That you awaken not, nor stir up love, until it pleases,” to mean that free and unfettered love must find a mode of practical expression. One cannot love or worship G-d theoretically. Religious inspiration and exultation demand ad shetechpatz; it calls for a creation of a chefetz, a vessel through which to express and manifest innermost feelings and emotions. The Jews at Sinai obviously reached these highest levels of religious exultation and fervor, but did not as yet possess any practical means of expression, other than the fulfillment of the command to hold back and refrain from “touching the mountain.” Thus the Yom Tov is known as Atzeret, recalling the one and only commandment, the only “vessel” now available to translate their deep and exulted religious feelings.
The three reasons given by Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditschev as to why Shavuot is referred to as Atzeret may also serve as three approaches to the recitation and concept of Yizkor. There are those who view the past merely as history, with no lessons or implications for the present or future. The past is not merely gone, but it has very little relevance for the here and now. Thus, there are Jews for whom tearing k’riah, sitting shiva, and observing the Halachic and historical modes of mourning are archaic. For them, the past is ancient history with no practical way of expression. Their Jewish past is over; it ceased with the passing of past generations. It is abstract. It has no practical methods of contemporary expression.
Then there are Jews who are able to find a more meaningful, yet incomplete method of reciting Yizkor, of remembering the past. Remembering the past brings back warm and tender feelings and sentiments, but only up to a point. That point is their refusal to allow the past to affect their present or future. These are Jews who respect the past, study and analyze it, do research and publish studies and journals about the world of our fathers, the shtetl, the world of yesterday. These are Jews reciting Yizkor describing and recalling a siyum, unable to proclaim Hadran halach, “I shall return to you.” The passing of parents and grandparents is an abrupt end, without anxieties of kashe alai peridatchem – without the inducement to continue the legacy of those who taught us how to count.
The only genuine and authentic method of reciting Yizkor is to be able to translate memories, emotions, and love of the past into new realities. Solomon exclaimed: Why awaken or rouse the love, unless you are willing to create a new vessel to contain it? Recalling the past is meaningful only when one is able to transfer the ahavah into a new chefetz. Genuine and credible tears, memories, and emotions are an acknowledgement that the present has only been made possible because of its connection with the past, and that any future must likewise be connected with the present. Mourning and recalling those who preceded us, with their love and dedication, must include an acknowledgement that our present is not only their past, but also the future of the next generation.
The past, then, is the key to our future.
MEGILLAT RUTH
It is an almost universal Jewish custom to read Megillas Ruth on Shavuos. The most widely-accepted basis for reciting the story of Ruth is her conversion to Judaism, for it was - on a small, personal scale - a recreation of the grandiose acceptance of Torah at Har Sinai by the entire Jewish nation many years prior, which is the theme of Shavuos. Just as Ruth "entered under the wings of the Shechinah" and committed herself to a life of Torah, so did Am Yisroel.
Upon further examination of Megillas Ruth, its connection to Shavuos seems rather weak. Firstly, the text does not clearly narrate the gerus (conversion) process which Ruth underwent; in fact, rabbinic authorities dispute the very point at which the conversion occurred, reflective of its apparent lack of centrality to the story. Futhermore, the bulk of the Megillah is devoted to describing the economic and emotional plight of Ruth and Naomi and their rise to prominence in the Jewish community as a result of their relationship to Boaz; Ruth's gerus experience is not the core theme of the story in any form. Why, then, is Megillas Ruth intrinsically connected to Shavuos?
To answer this question, we need to address another, more basic concept. That is, we need to understand why Shavuos is one of the Shalosh Regalim (Pilgrimage Festivals). Pesach, the first of the Regalim, represents our relationship with God as our redeemer. Sukkos, the last Regel, symbolizes Hashem's role as our protector and caretaker. The unique relationship engendered by each of these festivals merits its own focus and serves as the basis for each Regel. Shavuos, on the other hand, is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. As important as this day was for the Jews who stood at Sinai, and as critical as the Torah is to the fabric of the Jewish People, Shavuos seems to be just a very crucial anniversary; as such, it is somewhat puzzling why it merits the status of a Regel, whereas other extremely important anniversaries in Biblical times were not endowed with this status.
The answer is that Shavuos is not a mere anniversary in the typical sense. Rather, the experience of Matan Torah - the giving of the Torah - forever changed the Jews' relationship with God, transforming and bestowing kedushah upon the nation. We became a "goy kadosh", as the Torah terms it, at Matan Torah, and an unprecedented closeness with Hashem was given rise. Our lives were indescribably altered for eternity.
This is the connection of Megillas Ruth to Shavuos. As a result of her embrace of Torah, Ruth's life was utterly transformed. She rose from the existence of a penniless and barren widow, facing a miserable present and a bleak future, to a life of spiritual richness and fulfillment, leaving an eternal mark as the progenitor of the Davidic dynasty. Just as Ruth's encounter with the Shechinah transformed her existence, so did our encounter with Hashem at the Revelation redefine and recreate our lives and our future, instilling in our souls kedushah, fulfillment and closeness to God.
CHAG SAME’ACH FROM EFRAT
Of all the memorable historical occurrences in the Torah, none is more significant than the day of the revelation at Sinai, when Israel received the Torah from G d.
Nevertheless, unlike the date of the exodus from Egypt (Passover, celebrated on the 15th day of Nissan) and the original date of the clouds of glory (Sukkot, 15th of Tishrei), the date of the Revelation is never specifically recorded within the Bible itself. Why not?
Moreover, although our Sages in the Talmud inform us that the biblical festival of Shavuot (Weeks) is actually the commemoration of the day of the revelation - the "Festival of the Giving of the Torah", as we say in the prayers of that day - when we go to the trouble of checking this out precisely with a calendar and Midrash, something doesn't quite add up.
As we know, Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, which took place on the 15th of Nisan. To find out which day of the week it happened on, all we have to do is remember that the 10th of Nisan, the day on which the paschal lamb was taken in preparation for the redemption, fell on Shabbat, which is why the Sabbath before Passover is called Shabbat HaGadol (the Great Sabbath). Therefore five days later, the 15th, had to have been a Thursday.
Now, given that the only guidelines the Torah provides for designating the festival of Shavuot is to count seven full weeks (49 days) from "the day following the festival" [Lev. 23:15], if the first Passover in history fell on a Thursday (Wednesday night), the count of 49 took place on a Wednesday night; hence the 50th day - when the festival of Shavuot was celebrated - had to have been a Thursday night and Friday.
This would be fine except for the fact that the Sages all agree that the Revelation at Sinai took place on Shabbat and not on Friday! (Indeed, the Amidah of Shabbat morning features the words, "Moses rejoiced in the gift of his portion" - a reference to the gift of Torah which he received on the Sabbath.)
Therefore how can the Festival of Shavuot, which comes exactly fifty days after the first day of Passover, be celebrating the giving of the Torah, which was in fact given on the fifty-first day of our count?
Let's consider several different approaches. The Magen Avraham (Rabbi Abraham Gombiner, 1637-1683), in his commentary to the Orach Chaim section of the Shulchan Aruch (Siman 263), explains that this seeming discrepancy 50th and 51st days of our count (the 6th and 7th days of
Sivan) serves as our source that 'yom tov sheni of galus' (the second day of the festival in the Diaspora) actually has its roots in the Torah. After all, throughout the Diaspora we have a second day of Shavuot - the seventh of Sivan, and the 51st day from Passover - which turns out to be when the Torah was actually given. When we remember that the Torah was indeed given in the desert and not in Israel, it makes sense that we received it on the second day of the Festival, celebrated throughout the Jewish Diaspora.
Hence we have an ingenious source - a biblical source, no less - for the institution of the second day of the festival in the Diaspora (the Talmud in Beitza, 2b and 3a, explains the second day in terms of the Jews of Babylon not always knowing when the month began and when the Festival was supposed to be celebrated).
Fascinatingly enough, the Shelah HaKadosh (R. Isaiah Horowitz, 1565-1630) gave a reason for the second day of the Festival in the Diaspora which fits in very nicely with the Shavuot reckoning. He argues that life in the Diaspora - because it is based upon gentile customs and a gentile calendar - is far more removed from Jewishness than is life in Israel. Hence it is twice as difficult in the Diaspora to feel the exodus, to experience Divine Protection, to sense the revelation, than it is in Israel.
From this perspective, the Book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuot, merely confirms the hardships of remaining Jewish outside of Israel, and thus silently confirms the need for a second day of the Festival outside of Israel. After all, the story of Ruth is not only the tale of a sincere Jew-by-choice who becomes grandmother to King David, progenitor of the Messiah.
The book opens when Elimelech [a nobleman in Israel whose name means, "G d is my King"] leaves famine-ridden Bethlehem in search of greener pastures in Moab. He soon discovers that his decision to leave Israel was a disaster. His two sons, Machlon and Kilyon [whose names mean "illness" and "destruction"] marry Moabite women and die before producing any heirs. He may have saved some money, but he sacrificed Jewish continuity. And so this not untypical family that leaves the 'house of bread' ends up encountering a 'world of death and illusion.'
The tale of Elimelech can be seen as a description of what happens to a Jewish family when they attempt to embrace the Diaspora's values.
Ironically, if not for Ruth it would have been the end of Elimelech's line forever, the Jew who left Israel doomed to historic oblivion.
Ruth's decision is the mirror-image of that of Elimelech, her ill-fated father-in-law. He left his homeland to embrace Moab, Ruth leaves Moab to embrace the people and the G d of Israel.
And so to counter the threat of assimilation that always hangs over a family in the Diaspora, the Torah has provided an extra protective measure, the second day of yom tov.
A second reason why the exact date for the revelation is not revealed - and perhaps not even celebrated -is in order to save the Jews embarrassment for a failed experience. We know that only 40 days after the miraculous event of Sinai, the Israelites soon succumbed to the temptations of the golden calf, returned back to the heat of idolatry.
Apparently G d gave them His gift too soon - before they were really equipped to adequately appreciate it. The Bible, therefore, does not eternalize the day of the Revelation. Shavuot is merely an agricultural Festival - the celebration of the first fruits, and biblically speaking it only coincidentally works out to fall on the day before the Revelation at Sinai.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests that the Torah specifically wants us to purposefully celebrate the Revelation a day before it actually occurred - in order to emphasize the cardinal importance of "the day before".
Ordinarily when an important event is about to take place, only those behind the scenes know how much preparation has gone into the event. For the guest, all that matters is what he experiences at the moment the invitation told him to appear. But for the families and all those involved in preparing a 'great event', the months of careful planning are what truly counts and will determine the proceedings of the evening. This is especially true with regarding to the receiving of the Torah: without adequate preparation, without going through the forty-nine steps of purification leading up to the final climax of the day before, the Torah that descends from Sinai won't find an adequate vessel to contain its infinite blessings. Lack of adequate preparation caused a tragic foul-up the first time. It is crucial that it never happen that way again.
SINAI - REMEMBERING THE MIRACLE
These days, with my hectic schedule, I find that I do almost all of my shopping via catalogs, but over this past Passover I actually had a chance to go shopping in a real live store.
The man who was helping me told me that I should wish him a zissen Pesach, a happy Passover, because he was Jewish.
As we got to talking he told me that he had just celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary and for the occasion, he and his wife had another wedding ceremony. He told me all about it and then told me about something that I found very strange.
It seems that there are Judaica artists that are doing something new. They ask the bride and groom to gather the pieces of the glass that is broken under the chuppah (wedding canopy) and save them. The artist takes all of the pieces and encases them in a beautiful glass cube and inscribes the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date on the piece as a memento of the occasion.
The salesman was very excited about this new art form, but as I left the store, I told my wife, "I don't really understand why anyone would want such a thing." I like the idea of keeping the wine glasses used at your wedding, but why keep the broken glass? Why remember it?
And the truth is that we have to ask the same question about the holiday of Shavuot.
Let me explain.
The anticipation that surrounds Shavuot in many ways is like no other holiday. We literally count down the days from Pesach and the leaving of Egypt, to our becoming true servants of God by receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Shavuot commemorates the highest moment of the history of the Jews, the wedding between the Jewish people and God.
The wedding canopy, Mount Sinai, was smoking; there was fire and the sounding of the shofar. It was there that God gave the ketubah, the marriage contract, over to the Jewish people---the Torah. This is the beautiful and transcendent moment that we remember on Shavuot.
But look what happens so soon afterwards: the Jewish people rebel by deifying the golden calf. Moses reacts. The Torah tells us, (Exodus 32:19) "And it came to pass when he (Moses) came near unto the camp and saw the calf and dancing--then Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tablets out of his joined hands and smashed them beneath the Mount." Moshe took this most precious gift and, and on the seventeenth of Tammuz of that year, destroyed it.
In the next chapter of the Torah we read about the second giving of the tablets. In Exodus 34:1, God said to Moses, "Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones; and I will write on the tablets the words which were on the first tablets that you broke". So Moses did it and Moses once
again had the two tablets. The tablets were in the hands of Moses on the tenth of Tishrei, the day of Yom Kippur.
So, why do we celebrate the Torah on Shavuot? Shavuot was the day that God gave us the tablets that ended up being shattered into pieces. It was on Yom Kippur that the permanent tablets were finally in Moshe's hands and in the hands of the Jewish people for generations to come.
Shouldn't we celebrate the giving of the Torah on Yom Kippur instead?
The answer comes by way of a tradition that tells us that when the Jews transported the tablets in the tabernacle, they not only carried around the intact tablets. They also took the shattered pieces of the original tablets everywhere they went. They did so in order to remind themselves of their past. The broken tablets were not only there to act as a reminder of the event of the golden calf, but more important, they were there to integrate that past experience into their lives. The goal was to integrate the memory
to a point at which the Jewish people could not only remember it, but use it for increased learning, increased awareness of themselves and, most importantly increased connection to God.
This is the message of celebrating the giving of the Torah on Shavuot even though the first giving turned out to be a disappointment for the Jewish people and for God. In our personal lives, it is tempting for all of us to think about broken experiences and want to throw them away. It is tempting to want to completely forget the leaving of a great job, the ending of a close relationship or a death of a loved one.
Among the many lessons of Shavuot, is not to do that. Shavuot teaches us that we can use events that have ended in heartbreak and keep them alive in order to learn from our past and blend it in to make our lives more worthwhile. Shavuot teaches us not to forget our past, but to use our past to make our present lives more valuable.
So now I understand the value of this new trend of Jewish art that my nice Jewish salesman shared with me. I wish I had saved the pieces from the broken glass at my wedding. I would put them right next to our other wine cups because preserving the pieces of the broken glass helps us to imitate the actions of the Jewish people in the desert -- to keep the fragments and to blend them into not only our national religious psyche, but into our personal ones as well.
G-D, SPOUSES AND PREPARATION
It's a big hoax: On the fiftieth day: That's when the Torah, in this week's Parsha tells us to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot.
If you look carefully, though, you realize that it just ain't so.
Follow: According to the Gemara in Shabbat the Torah was given to Bnei Yisrael on Shabbat. We also find in the Talmud that Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim on Thursday. If that is the case the counting of the Omer, the days between leaving Egypt and receiving the Torah, began on Friday. Counting fifty days from the Friday brings one to Friday, one day short of the accepted day, Shabbat, on which the Torah was given.
It turns out that in reality the Torah was given on the fifty-first day.
Of course, then, why would that Torah demand that we celebrate on the fiftieth day? NOTHING HAPPENED ON THE FIFTIETH DAY?
But wait there is more. The fact of the matter is that never in the Torah is there a connection between the holiday of Shavuot and the giving of the Torah. In the Torah the day is called "Chag HaBikkurim, and Chag HaShavuot .
To top it off what really makes Shavuot stand out is that the Torah never once mentions the date of Shavuot. In fact every other holiday has a specific date. Pesach, Sukkot, Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.
Why: Why do we celebrate what apparently is one day too early?
Why is the notion of Matan Torah completely absent from the Torah's mention of the Holiday?
Why is there no specific date written in the Torah?
I believe my mother has taught me the answer to these questions.
My mother used to take our family to many Broadway shows. Weeks before she would buy the tape of the music for the show and that is what we would listen to until we actually went to the show. At home, in the car, if a Broadway show was around the corner, by the time we saw the show, we knew the music by heart. Looking back, there is no question that my mother's pre-planning enhanced my experience at the show.
It seems to me, that in truth we are not celebrating that historical moment of receiving the Torah. Instead we are commemorating the completion of our preparations to get to that moment, the end of the countdown.
It is this notion, says Rav Hirsch, that is worthy of celebration.
"It is not the fact of the revelation of the Torah, but our asking ourselves worthy to receive it, that our Matan Torah festival celebrates. It is the day before the lawgiving……., the day on which the nation finally presented itself as ready and worthy for the great mission to the world, to be receivers and bearers of the Law of God."
It is that preparation that enhances our ability to truly appreciate the Torah and enable us to teach it to others.
Of course, the question is, how? How does one prepare for the Torah.
I would like to look at two possibilities.
Two ways by which our tradition's wisdom has recommended preparing for a relationship with God and Torah.
The truth is, I think that these two impressions can be applied to another very important facet of our lives, that of our interpersonal relationships.
First, though, lets turn our attention to Torah. What are some of it's prerequisites?
The first clue lies in what is missing from the Torah. What the Torah does not say. If you search the Torah, you'll notice that perfection of our Middot, of our characteristics are not detailed. Sure there are references to certain middot, but the Torah certainly does not go into the type of details it does regarding all other Mitzvoth. Why not?
Chassidut suggests a very powerful reason. That is, that middot perfection is not included in the Torah because middot are prerequisites to the Torah.
It's like when an individual wants to go to Medical school, it's a given that the person needs certain prerequisite courses. The same is true for the Torah. Its prerequisites are the simple things like mensclichkeit, kindness and humility. A person cannot be considered a bone fide Torah scholar if first and above all else they are not a bone fide mensch.
Menshlichkeit is part of the definition of a Torah scholar.
They go on to say that before Bnei Yisrael received the Torah they had perfected their middot as well.
There is another preparatory step needed in our preparation to receive the Torah. It is a trick that the Talmud suggests regarding prayer but one that I think we can extend to the realm of the entire Torah.
"The pious men of old used to wait an hour before praying in order to concentrate their thought on their father in heaven."
It was the great Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato who expands this practice to all other realms of our life. "When you rush to do something you will not put yourself into the proper state of mind. Rather prepare yourself. Calmly focus your mind until you enter a reflective state…For this reason righteous people of previous generations would mentally prepare themselves an hour before they prayed…"
The point is that waiting and contemplating what it one is about to do goes a long way toward making the religious experience of prayer or Torah study more complete.
Now, if this is all true when it comes to our relationship Ben Adam LeMakom, between ourselves and God, then I believe that should be said equally for our relationships Ben Adam LeChaveiro, between ourselves and our friends or our spouses or family. Both of these proposals can be
applied to that realm as well.
When it comes to those interpersonal relationships before one can get to the high level courses, so to speak, we need the prerequisites. It's like the commercial that once aired that said something like "between the birthdays, anniversaries and graduations there is something called "the rest of your life." It is the rest of our life moments that really define our interpersonal relationships.
Let me put it to you the way my friend Carey Friedman does in his book "A Table for Two"
"Before you were married the master of the universe didn't particularly care if your bought regular or home style orange juice.
Suppose you liked homestyle, ess gezunter hait. That was essentially a neutral choice outside the sphere of mitzvot.
After you married a wonderful women who happens to hate little pieces of orange pulp in her juice, however, your decision regarding what type of orange juice to buy when you go shopping takes on profound new significance.
Shopping becomes an opportunity for acquiring and demonstrating consideration and selflessness or a dismal exercise in selfishness and inconsideration…
Passing up the home style juice has made you a better man."
That is the first realm in which our relationship to God and Torah is in concert with our interpersonal relationships.
Before the big moment at Har Sinai we had to get the small stuff in synch and in our interpersonal relationships more important than the big moments is what we have called "the rest of your life".
Our second suggestion, that of taking some time to consider what we are about to in the realm of Ben Adam LeMakom, is equally applicable to our interpersonal relationships.
Maybe it would be a good idea to compose a new text of a Hineni Muchan Umezuman, a formula traditionally said before performing Mitzvoth that says something like this… (Thanks to Rabbi Aaron Frank of the HIR for this suggestion) "I am about to engage in the responsibility of balancing the checkbook with my spouse. May no lost check come between us. May we perform this charge with respect and love."
By the way, the same can be said about those times when there are disagreements. Taking a moment before responding definitely takes the edge of. Waiting and considering not only serves to focus us on our task, as in the case of waiting before prayer, it also helps to put that task into perspective. While it may sound silly, it is no coincidence that traditionally our relationship with God has been compared to the relationship between husband and wife. What we need to do develop and perfect our love of God is very much in tune with what we need to do to develop and perfect our love of our friends, family and spouse.
So back to my mom, she had the right idea when she prepared us for those Broadway shows. An experience is only as valuable as the preparation you put into it.
We need to prepare for God and the Torah by fulfilling our prerequisites and taking time to consider what we are doing. We also need to prepare for our interpersonal relationships. The big moments in our lives are framed by all the small moments and of course a moment of thought goes along way toward a peaceful and loving encounter.
We were not hoaxed by being asked to celebrate the day before the Torah was given. We were given a great and valuable gift.
CHAG SAME’ACH FROM RIVERDALE
It was during the time of Shavuot that the Jews at Sinai declared to God, "na'aseh ve-nishma, we will do and we will listen (to the commandments)." (Exodus 24:7) This order is perplexing as one usually does the opposite, and listens before deciding to act.
In his Mikhtav M'Eliyahu, Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler offers an understanding of love that may explain why doing can come before listening. Rabbi Dessler insists that the cornerstone of love is the capacity to give to the loved one. And, he adds, it's not necessarily the case that one first loves and from the loving comes the giving. The reverse is equally true and often even more powerful. One gives, and from the giving, love grows. The more one gives, the more one loves.
Years ago, there was an extraordinarily successful program known as Marriage Encounter. One of its basic teachings was that love is not only a feeling - "it's a decision." After all, feelings change. One morning I may wake up feeling like loving my spouse, child, parent, sibling or friend, and the next morning I may not. But if I've decided to love you-- that is, if love is a decision - from the decision, from the action, the feeling will come. In fact, the real test of love is not simply what I feel toward you, but what I am prepared to do for you.
The idea that love is predicated on action is crucial to a primary expression of our love for God, ritual. Consider prayer: If prayer is an expression of love, why should we be mandated to pray? Why not pray only when we feel like it? It can be argued, however, that we may not feel like praying for long periods of time. But if we're obligated to pray-if, indeed, we make a decision to pray-from placing ourselves in a prayerful mode, feelings of prayer may surface.
This, in fact, is the basic idea of all religious observance. Perform the ritual and from the act, the feeling may come. Hence, Jews at Sinai first proclaimed "we will do." Only afterward did they say, "we will listen."
A favorite personal story reinforces this idea. My mother of blessed memory, and father made aliyah (emigrated to Israel) years ago. Whenever my parents flew to New York, it was my responsibility, as their only child living there, to meet them at the airport.
One time, my father called me to inform me that at the last moment, their arrival was moved up by twenty-four hours. Professing my deep love for my parents, I insisted that I couldn't change my schedule on such short notice.
"You've become a hotshot Rabbi," my father responded, "and don't have time for your parents?" "I love you deeply," I protested, "but it's difficult to alter plans at the last minute."
I'll never forget my father's response. "Don't love me so much, just pick me up at the airport."
My Abba's comments echoed the very essence of "we will do and we will listen" - actions are primary, they are the indicator, the inspiration for true love.
SHAVUOT LESSON
The Torah, in describing the Giving of the Law, says: "And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet G-d, and they stood at the bottom of the mountain" (Exod. 19:17). The actual Hebrew for the last phrase is: "Visyatzvu BESACHTIS hahar", which could be translated more literally as: "they stood UNDER the mountain".
There is a well-known Gemara (Shabbos 88a) that this is in fact the meaning! G-d lifted the mountain like a "gigis" [which Rashi translates as "barrel"] and held it over the people, saying: "If you accept my Torah, good; if not, this will be your grave!" The people thereupon accepted the Torah.
This is a strange story, which we might find hard to believe. Furthermore, we have the following problem: the Jews had just witnessed a series of dramatic incidents around Mount Sinai: thunder and lightning, and the sound of a shofar. Surely they would be prepared to accept the Torah, after such a manifestation! Why should they be forced?
An answer is given by Rabbenu Tam, in his commentary on this Gemara. He says that this description should not be taken literally. The people were FORCED to accept the Torah, not in the sense that someone was holding a gun (or a mountain) to their heads, but in the sense that it was completely obvious to them that that was the right thing to do. The attendant miracles had made this absolutely clear.
Interestingly, the Gemara goes on to say that this was not a satisfactory level of acceptance! That only came later, at the time of Mordecai and Esther, when the Jews re-accepted the Torah. Here there were no dramatic miracles, the Divine intervention remained behind the scenes ["Esther" is related to the word "nistar", meaning "hidden"], and so the acceptance of Torah here really was a result of free choice.
What lesson is there for us here? Many people want a sign from G-d before they will accept the Torah. But the best way, in fact the only way, to accept the Torah is by a process of free will, not as a result of some miracle, but from an intellectual and emotional search for the truth.
A PROPHECY FOR ALL TIMES
The very first Rashi in the Torah makes the following comment. "Really, the Torah should have began with Hachodesh Hazeh Lochem (the Mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh) but a time will come when the nations of the world will call us burglars for taking the land of Israel. At that time we should tell them how the world was created by G-d and the whole world is his."
The Mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh is well into the book of Shmos. If the Torah would have started there we would never have known the story of the creation of the world. We would have never heard of our forefathers, the tribes of Israel, how we descended to Egypt. The story of the Akeidah wouldn't be part of our history. Judaism would have looked completely different. Yet Rashi, with one sweep says, the Torah could have left it all out if not for what seems to be minor, an answer for the nations of the world. I'm not even sure how affective it would actually be to bring this Rashi into the UN, yet seemingly this is the justification for the whole book of Breishis!
The Talmud (Meggilah 14) asks the following question. We know, that the amount of prophets that existed in the history of Israel were twice as many as the amount of Jews that left Egypt. This means that there were well over a million Prophets in the history of the people of Israel. Yet when we count the prophets in the Bible we find 48 prophets. What happened to the rest? Answers the Talmud "A prophecy which will be needed by future generations was included in the Torah, if it won't be needed by future generations it was not included."
I once heard an explanation of this in the name of Rav Elchanan Wasserman, that in order for something to become "Torah" it has to be Netzach. Netzach means eternal. If the message of the Prophets was not needed for future generations then obviously it was not an eternal message and therefore cannot be included in the Torah.
Rashi (Talmud ibid) explains the criteria for eternity "the prophecy is needed for Teshuva (repentance) and for Horaha (decisions of Jewish law)." If it teaches us one of these then it became Torah and therefore was written if not it did not get written. Let us understand this: 1) Teshuva - probably the other million Prophets also spoke of Teshuva and thereby had an eternal message. 2) Horaha - The Talmud says in Chulin that a Prophet had no right to introduce a new Halachah to the Jewish people. Law came from Moses and could not be added upon or subtracted from by any Jew even a Prophet. So what then was the eternal value of Prophecy for Halacha?
The Maharatz Chayos asks a similar question. If it's true that a Prophet has no ability to create new laws for the Jewish people, how is it that there are many laws that we derive only from the prophets. Something as basic as Geirus (conversion) we would know very little about if it weren't for the Book of Ruth. The law that a shochet's knife must be examined before slaughtering is derived from the Book of Joshua, and many more.
The Maharatz Chayos points out that if indeed we are not to learn new Halachos from the Prophets, much of Judaism would look different. The answer is that all the laws that the Prophet taught us were well known to the people of Israel for generations. These laws were given to Moses orally and passed down through the generations. But for some reason, at the time of a particular Prophet it was decided by G-d through the Prophet that the law should transform from Oral Law to Written Law. So the Prophet said nothing new in terms of Halacha but rather made Oral into Written.
In the Sefer Niviei Emes, Rav Wolf Zal writes that he asked his teacher the Chazon Ish to explain this difficult concept. The Chazon Ish replied that this was indeed an ancient concept for the Talmud says that Moses received the whole Torah on Mt. Sinai, but he only wrote down from the beginning until the episode of giving the Torah. He then for the rest of his life prophesized from the tent of meeting. It was there that G-d instructed Moses as to how to write down what he had already known orally. In the words of the Talmud "G-d dictated and Moses repeated then wrote." Hence says the Chazon Ish Oral Law was transformed to Written law.
The question however remains, what is the significance of having the Oral law written? The strength of the Halacha is not affected by whether it is written or not, and certainly there are many Oral Laws which are better known then Written Laws. Why did G-d through his Prophets starting with Moses transfer laws from Oral to written?
We find in the Torah that the Torah itself is called "Sefer HaBris". The Ten commandments are referred to as the "Two tablets of the Bris". Bris means covenant or in simpler terms, contract. The Bris is a two way agreement between G-d and the Jewish people. G-d tells us that if we follow the Torah we will be blessed if we don't we will be cursed, if we didn't we can repent and be forgiven. This is all part of a deal that G-d made with us when we became the chosen people.
If the Torah is a contract, the Torah must be written. This is clear from the Torah itself. "G-d said to Moses, write down what I am telling you because what I am telling you constitutes a Bris." (Shmos 34;27) Rashi quotes the Talmud that from here we learn that the Oral Law must not be written and the written Law should not become oral. (Today we write down the Talmud because of extenuating circumstances.)
According to this it becomes very clear that many of the things which Moses heard on Mt. Sinai and passed on to the people of Israel were decided by G-d to become part of the agreement. Not only directives as per behavior but actually part of our contract as Jews. The Prophets never taught new Halachos but through their prophecy knew what was to become part of the Bris and what wasn't.
Perhaps this could explain that first Rashi in the Torah. Certainly if the Torah would have begun at "Hachodesh Hazeh Lochem" we still would have known all the stories of creation and of our forefathers. It would have and could have been Oral Law.
In fact so many stories of Abraham are not written in the Torah (e.g. jumping into a fiery furnace). By the fact that it was written in the Torah however we could know that its significance is not only historical or even just in its holiness, but it is actually part of the contract between G-d and Israel. In practical terms this means that the behavior of the Avos is credited towards our deeds and that we have an obligation to live up to that which was set forth for us by our forefathers. If the nations of the world, says Rashi, tell us we are thieves insofar as we take the land of Israel undeservedly we should show them the contract we have with G-d and that it was all part of the deal. This is the essence of "a prophecy for all times".