An Open Letter to University Presidents
9 min read
GOOD MORNING! If there was ever a contest for a Jewish holiday that didn’t get the proper respect it deserved, the upcoming holiday of Shavuot would certainly be prominently featured. This “Rodney Dangerfield” of Jewish holidays is actually one of the most significant days on the Jewish calendar as it commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. This is the anniversary and celebration of the day the Jewish people heard the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai 3,334 years ago.
This year, the holiday of Shavuot begins after Shabbat on Saturday night, June 4th. In Israel, Shavuot is a one-day holiday, while in the diaspora it’s celebrated for two days. Shavuot has the same holiness as the more well-known holidays of Pesach and Sukkot, and is similarly celebrated with festive holiday meals and abstention from work.
According to the sages, the Jewish people overslept on the morning that they were supposed to receive the Torah. When the Almighty appeared on Mt. Sinai there was no one there. God lamented, “Why have I come and there is no one to greet me?” (Isiah 50:2). With no small measure of embarrassment, Moses hurriedly roused the nation and gathered them at Mt. Sinai
To rectify the mistake of our ancestors, Jewish communities all over the world have a custom of staying up all night studying Torah on Shavuot night. The all-night study sessions are followed by holiday morning prayers at the break of dawn. The service also includes Yizkor (the memorial service for relatives who passed). In the diaspora Yizkor is recited on the second day of Shavuot (Monday, June 6th).
(If, for whatever reason, you are unable to go to shul then you can arrange to have someone participate in the Yizkor service on your behalf by going to getkaddish.com/yizkor/.)
Seeing as Shavuot is the commemoration of such a special occasion, why is it so unknown to many people?
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons that Shavuot is lesser known is that there are no specific mitzvot associated with the day. All of the other holidays have things that we do that give the holiday a unique identity: Blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, fasting on Yom Kippur, shaking the lulav and etrog and eating in outdoor temporary structures on Sukkot, and eating matzah on Pesach. These acts give each holiday a special identity. Yet we don’t have any specific mitzvah associated with Shavuot. Why not?
According to our tradition, upon learning that they were going to receive the Torah, the Jewish people asked that God Himself speak to them. As a result, the first two of the Ten Commandments were spoken by God, and thus He introduced Himself to the Jewish nation. That is why the first of the Ten Commandments reads, “I am Hashem, your God, who took you out of Egypt [...]” (Exodus 20:2).
Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, who lived approximately eight hundred years ago, in his landmark work on Jewish philosophy known as the Kuzari, poses a fascinating question: Why does God merely introduce Himself as the one who took the Jewish people out of Egypt? A far more impressive accomplishment (and a compelling reason to accept His dominion and law) is that He is the creator of the world!
The reason that God introduced Himself as the one who redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and not as the creator of the world is because God was not trying to display His power and impressive resume as a reason to follow His law. Rather, He was conveying to the Jewish people that He loves and cares for them and that is why He took them out of the slavery of Egypt. Similarly, giving them the Torah was an act of love as well.
The purpose of the Torah is that it serves as a user’s guide for living in this world. The Torah provides mankind with the opportunity to maximize his life-experience; to lead better and more meaningful lives. When the Jewish people received the Torah they were entering into a special love relationship with the Almighty. This is why the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai is described by our sages as a marriage between God and the Jewish people. This is also why, according to our sages, the Jewish people demanded to hear God’s voice: Relationship are about communication.
In Jewish law, any contractual relationship may be cemented without either party verbalizing a commitment; as long as there is a meeting of the minds, there is no need for either party to utter a word. But marriage is different. In order for a marriage to take effect, a verbal statement must be made. A marital relationship transcends contractual and fiscal obligations.
The reason for this is that marriage is an emotional bond between two people and a union of their respective essences. Hearing another party’s voice is a means of getting to know them and an indispensable requirement for forming an emotional bond – think about how you feel when you hear a loved one’s voice after a long absence. This is why speech is a crucial criterion for a marriage ceremony and why marriage is the only partnership in Jewish law that requires a speech communication to be valid (“You are hereby betrothed to me”).
Because this holiday is about celebrating the marital relationship with the Almighty there are no specific commandments (mitzvot) on this holiday. Shavuot does not commemorate the fact that we became God’s servants and assumed the obligation to observe His commandments. Rather, we celebrate the fact that Hashem chose to establish an even more expansive relationship with us, not only defining us as His servants but elevating us to the status of His betrothed, as it were. This bond transcends ritual laws and observances, and therefore it would not be fitting to celebrate it with a specific ritual.
This holiday isn’t about what we have to do for God, it’s about reveling in our relationship. In fact, the Talmud writes that everyone is in agreement that Shavuot is to be celebrated by eating and drinking. This is the party celebrating the union of God and His nation, with the Torah as the vehicle for the betrothal.
Most importantly, as Shavuot is the celebration of the Jewish people receiving the Torah, it is a time of rededication and commitment to learning Torah.
Torah is the life blood of the Jewish people. But one cannot love what he does not know, and without knowledge there is no commitment. Thus, our enemies have always known that when we Jews stop learning Torah assimilation is not far behind and is, in fact, inevitable.
A Jew is commanded to learn Torah every day and to teach it to his children. If a Jew wants his family to be Jewish and his children to marry other Jews, then he must integrate a Torah study program into his life and implement the teachings into his home. You can tell your children anything, but only if they see their parents learning Torah and doing mitzvot will they inherit the love for being Jewish. Remember: A parent only owes his child three things – example, example, example.
How can we utilize this opportunity to grow and strengthen our self-identity as Jews? Just as a baby crawls, then toddles, and then walks, likewise with the mitzvot (commandments). A person should undertake one more mitzvah, do it well, and then build on it.
Here are a few suggestions for some mitzvot that you might enjoy taking on:
For fans of the Torah and Jewish philosophy thoughts that I share with you here in the Shabbat Shalom Fax, you can find the source of much of my material at www.rabbizweig.com – a site dedicated to my father’s classes. There are literally thousands of classes on just about every topic, and there is something for all those who wish to study – beginners, those with some Jewish educational background, and those with advanced Jewish knowledge.
There is plenty of free content available and I would be happy to provide additional free credits to readers of the Shabbat Shalom Fax of Life. Write to me at RabbiZweig@shabbatshalom.org and put in the subject line “free credits.” If you tell me a little about yourself, I will be sure to point you in the direction of classes that may interest you.
So please, take this holiday as an opportunity to reflect upon the importance of Torah study to the many generations that preceded us and why it is crucial to the survival of succeeding generations of proud Jews. Commit to making Torah study an indispensable part of your day. We all must do our part to ensure the continuity of the bond between God and His betrothed – the Jewish people.
Bamidbar, Numbers 1:1 - 4:20
In the second yearof travel in the desert, Moses and Aaron were commanded by the Almighty to count all male Israelites between 20 and 60. There were 603,550 available for military service. The tribe of Levi was exempt because of their special duties as religious leaders. (It is probably from here that countries give divinity deferments to clergy and divinity students.)
The twelve tribes were directed regarding the formation (three tribes were on each side of the Portable Sanctuary) in which they were to camp and travel.
The 22,300 Levites were commanded in the Sanctuary service. The family of Gershon was to transport the coverings of the Sanctuary. The family of Kehos carried the Ark, Table, Menorah, and Altars. The family of Merari transported the boards, pillars, bolts, and sockets.
A single hour in the day, steadily given to the study of an interesting subject, brings unexpected accumulations of knowledge.
— William Ellery Channing
Dedicated with Deep Appreciation to
The Steinberg Family
