Shavuot

A Special CHIZUK and IDUD (for Olim & not-yet-Olim respectively) for Shavuot

Despite its happy ending, there is an element of tragedy in the book of Ruth, for in it we find tragic figures living unfulfilled lives. Elimelech, a wealthy and ostensibly happy man, dies. His two sons marry out of the faith. Ultimately, they too are cut off in the prime of their lives leaving no children.

It is never a good policy to question God's will. Yet our Sages tried to understand how it happened that Elimelech and his family encountered such tragedy. How does a noble Jewish family, steeped in the traditions of Torah, disintegrate into nothingness? Rashi makes an insightful comment: It was a time of famine when many were starving and in need. Elimelech was a provider in his generation, a leader in the community both by virtue of his family lineage and his affluence.

But when too many people knocked on his door, he copped out. He abdicated his responsibilities, abandoned his community in Judea and fled. This was his undoing! His children saw this and learned from him how to shirk responsibility. And he couldn't have taught them better. He must have rationalized his behavior to his two sons, and explained to them that it was for THEIR welfare and THEIR benefit that he fled Israel and made the sacrifice of living in Moab. Elimelech must have known all the excuses. But you can't fool your own children. If Elimelech was able to abandon his responsibilities to the Jewish community, then it became kosher for his children to abandon Judaism and to marry Moabite women. If a father can abandon the Land of Israel in its hour of need, then why wonder that his children can abandon the Children of Israel?

Should we not be thinking of ways to make our OWN lives, our love and concern for the Land of Israel and the People of Israel more fully Jewish in both form and content, so that we are fully worthy of respect and emulation from our children?

Rabbi Macy Gordon , Jerusalem

TORAH THOUGHTS as contributed by Aloh Naaleh members for publication in the Orthodox Union's 'Torah Insights', a weekly Torah publication on Parshat Ha'Shavuah

SHAVUOT falls on the same day of the week as the second day of Pesach. Calendar rule for first day of Pesach is LO B'DU (not on Monday, Wednesday, Friday); therefore rule for Shavuot (meaning the one day of Shavuot in Israel and the first day in Chu"L) is LO G'HaZ (not on Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat).

GREENERY
There is a long-standing custom to decorate the shul and one's home with greenery - grasses and branches (flowers are used, but they are probably a borrowing from other cultures) on Shavuot. Several reasons are given for this custom.

Immediately prior to and during Matan Torah, people and their animals were strictly forbidden to go up Har Sinai, or even to touch it. Our sources tell us that Har Sinai became miraculously adorned with vegetation, the implication being that this was in honor of its function as the venue for Matan Torah. This is why animals had to be specifically banned.

Decorating with tree branches is a reminder that the world is judged by G-d on Shavuot concerning the fruit of the tree. It is appropriate to pray on Shavuot for bountiful yields of fruit.

Moshe Rabeinu was born on 7 Adar and hidden for three months. He was placed in a waterproof basket, floated on the Nile, hidden among the reeds on the day that was to become Shavuot, 80 years later.

Bikurim baskets were adorned and decorated in various ways. Shavuot is Yom HaBikurim.

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, Simcha is 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 Shavuot- specific and the day is more "generically Yom Tov". Other families will have meat at night and dairy during 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.

Each according to his/her custom.

There are many "reasons" for the custom of dairy dishes on Shavuot. Keep in mind that some of the reasons might have produced the custom, while others might be merely additional symbolisms after the fact. Furthermore, some reasons explain why we eat dairy, while others make sense only in the context of having BOTH dairy and meat dishes.

The pasuk in Shir HaShirim (4:11) alludes to Torah as "honey and milk under your tongue". Some mix honey and milk - yogurt or sour cream do well - to match the pasuk.)

To commemorate the first Shavuot celebrated in the Midbar when our ancestors ate only dairy dishes. This is because eating kosher meat after receiving the Torah requires much preparation... (Like a Baal T'shuva eating a lot of cottage cheese until he gets new pots and dishes and kashers his kitchen.)

Mount Sinai is called Har Gavnunim (T'hilim 68:16) and the word GAVNUNIM is similar to G'VINA (cheese).

The numeric value of the word CHALAV (milk) is 40, alluding to the forty days and nights Moshe spent on Har Sinai receiving the Torah.

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 pasuk, the command to bring Bikurim to the Beit HaMikdash. Shavuot, as the beginning of Bikurim-bringing season, 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 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 two loaves of bread, reminiscent of the Two Loaves offering of Shavuot. (In other words, this reason is primarily associated with the Two Loaves offering, the dairy aspect is secondary.)

Some suggest that having a dairy dish and a meat dish is like the "two cooked foods" of the Pesach Seder. Shavuot is not only its own Holiday; it is also the culmination of Pesach - hence, "two foods" on Shavuot as well as Pesach.

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 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 nurse from an Egyptian wetnurse. This led to Miriam's suggestion that Yocheved, Moshe's mother, be hired to nurse him. He, who was to teach all of Israel the Torah, could not drink "mother's milk" from a non-Jew. We remember this with dairy dishes on the day of Matan Torah.

It might also be suggested that the day of the receiving of 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.

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.

How about this one? Sources tell us that Bnei Yisrael refused to drink milk or eat dairy at all, fearing that milk was EIVER MIN HACHAI, limb from a living animal (which is forbidden to all people). It was receiving the Torah and its explanations that clarified the issue and taught them that milk was permitted. We celebrate this discovery of our ancestors with dairy dishes on Shavuot.

Whether it is cheese blintzes, ½% cottage, yogurt with honey, cheese- cake, or lasagna — dairy dishes on Shavuot provide us with much food for thought.

Megilat Ruth
Many 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. (A recent trend in Vatikin (pre-sunrise) minyanim is to read it before davening.) When read from a kosher megila (Minhag Yerushalayim), the reading is preceded by the brachot ...AL MIKRA MEGILA and SHE'HE'CHE- YANU. 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 its story 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 show us of the lineage of David HaMelech and the Davidic line leading to Moshiach. Tradition tells us that David HaMelech died (and was born?) on Shavuot.

Perhaps most significantly, the story of Ruth is the inspiring story of Kabbalat HaTorah on an individual level, just as Shavuot is the commemoration of Kabbalat HaTorah on a national level. All of Israel were like converts at Sinai.

Akdamot Milin
On Shavuot morning, after the Kohen is called to the Torah, but before his bracha and 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 Rashi's teachers), the poem conveys the spirit of love of G-d and Judaism even 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 celebrates Torah. Each line of Akdamut ends with the syllable TA, which is 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.

S'faradim do not read Akdamut, but they have the custom of reading a poem called the KETUBA, composed by Rabbi Yosef Najara, celebrating the marriage, so to speak, of G-d and Bnei Yisrael, or the Torah and Bnei Yisrael. They read the KETUBA when the Ark is opened, before the Torahs are taken out.

SHIR SHEL YOM
According to Minhag Yerushalayim, based on the opinions of the Vilna Gaon, on Yom Tov, a different Psalm replaced the "regular" Psalm of the Day in the Beit HaMikdash. On Shavuot, it is T'hilim 19. On Shavuot morning, some will say only Wednesday's chapter. Some will say only Psalm 19, as per Minhag Yerushalayim. Some will say both. Whichever... remember: Shavuot is the yahrzeit of the composer of T'hilim.

Torah Reading
From the first of two Torahs on Shavuot morning, we read from Parshat Yitro, the account of Ma'amad Har Sinai and Matan Torah, from Sh'mot 19 & 20, a total of 48 p'sukim. The reading is divided among 5 Aliyot, as on all Yom Tov days (that don't fall on Shabbat - which Shavuot doesn't).

The reading begins with the famous pasuk: "In the third month since the Exodus, on THIS day, they (Bnei Yisrael) came to Midbar Sinai." Rashi's two comments on "THIS day" are:

[1] it was Rosh Chodesh Sivan that the People arrived at Sinai, and
[2] the Torah uses the term THIS rather than THAT to teach us that Matan Torah should not be thought of as a "once upon a time, a long time ago" experience, but rather "words of Torah should be fresh in our eyes as if we received it today."

This is such an important concept that it bears constant repeating and constant attention and effort to actualize. Especially when there are so many detractors who proclaim the Torah and its Mitzvot as antiquated, out-dated, and irrelevant, we must be enthusiastic proponents of the opposite view.

EITZ CHAYIM HI...
the Torah is the living, fresh, vibrant, complete source of the way of life that allows us to live in this world and to invest everything we do and are with spirituality and value.

The second pasuk is no less famous. VAYICHAN SHAM YISRAEL... Israel, as one being with one heart and a singular purpose, camped opposite the mountain. The unparalleled experience of Jewish Unity that gave standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai its everlasting significance becomes one of our special goals of Jewish Life.

Aseret HaDibrot is read in the "upper notes", TAAMEI ELYON, even accord- ing to Minhag Yerushalayim. TAAMEI ELYON presents the text as separate commandments, rather than as p'sukim, which is the way we hear it with TAAMEI TACHTON.

Maftir is the Musaf of Shavuot from Parshat Pinchas (Bamidbar 28:26-31).
Haftara is Yechezkel's first chapter and his most vivid and esoteric vision. The level and type of prophecy attained by the the Jews at Sinai has been compared to the visions of Yechezkel.

NAMES
In addition to the various names and nicknames of Shavuot, it is significant to point out that in the main presentation of the cycle of holy days of the year, Vayikra 23, Shavuot has no name of its own, but is presented as the culmination of Pesach-Omer period.

Wordplay on the name: SHAVUOT. With a KAMATZ under the SHIN, pronounced SHAVUOT, the name means WEEKS, as in counting seven weeks from Pesach. With a SH'VA under the SHIN, pronounced SH'VUOT, the name means OATHS, as in the mutual oaths of commitment between G-d and Israel - His promise that we become a Kingdom of Kohanim and a Holy Nation (and many other promises.), our promise to do and understand all that He commands us.

SIMCHA
Remember: Shavu'ot is many things: Dairy foods, Decorations, Learning all night, Megilat Ruth, Akdamut, Aseret HaDibrot - But it is something else too. It is Yom Tov. And that comes with a serious Torah commandment: SIMCHA. Try to see to it that Simcha is on your Shavu'ot agenda.