Shavuot 5786: The Peak of Weeks

GOOD MORNING! This week we experience a unique quirk of the Jewish calendar that throws Jewish communities into misalignment.

The holiday of Shavuot begins this week on Thursday, May 21st at sundown. In Israel, Shavuot is a one-day holiday, meaning it ends at sundown on Friday and then a regular Shabbat begins. However, outside of Israel the major Biblical holidays are observed for two days (as discussed in prior columns). Thus, the rest of the Jewish world will be celebrating it also as the second day of Shavuot, as opposed to a “regular” Shabbat.

This results in a divergence in the congregational readings of the weekly Torah portions. In Israel, because Shabbat is not Shavuot, the portion Naso is read, while the rest of the world’s Jewish communities read a special Torah portion for the holiday. This results in congregations in Israel moving ahead by one weekly Torah portion while in the diaspora congregations fall one week behind Israel.

Those traveling to or from Israel during this period suddenly find themselves either “ahead” or “behind” the local Torah reading cycle. It is also a little disorienting for those who are not traveling. For example, if I want to discuss the weekly Torah portion with my son who is studying in Israel it can be confusing as our Torah portions are not aligned.

On the other hand, people who regularly feel that they are a week behind the rest of civilization might feel right at home during this divergence.

This year the misalignment lasts about a month; on the Shabbat of June 27th Israeli communities read the Torah portion Balak. Meanwhile, the rest of the Jewish world will read two portions that week: Chukat and Balak. After that, everyone is back in alignment. Believe it or not, this alignment discussion is particularly relevant to the theme of Shavuot.

Of the three “major” festivals, Shavuot is perhaps the least appreciated. The Torah refers to it as a “harvest festival,” which commemorates the end of the grain harvest that began with barley during Passover and ends with the wheat harvest at the time of Shavuot.

In Jewish tradition Shavuot also has several, interchangeable, nomenclatures; each representing a different aspect of the holiday. The literal translation of Shavuot is “weeks,” and this name first appears in the verse: “You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest […]” (Exodus 34:22).

The reason it is called “weeks” is because we are commanded to count seven days of seven weeks from the second day of Passover and the fiftieth day is celebrated as a holiday (Leviticus 23:15). This also explains why the English name for Shavuot is “Pentecost,” which in Greek means fiftieth.

(As an aside: this is also the source for the Christian day of Pentecost. Early Christianity was preoccupied with establishing a religion that was familiar to the people they were trying to convert – the local Jewish population. Thus, they copied many of the traditions that were already familiar to Judaism; Passover therefore became Easter and in Spanish the similarity in name is unmistakable – Easter is “Pascua,” a clear derivative of “Pesach.” So too, just as in the Jewish tradition, the Christian day called Pentecost is the fiftieth day from Easter.)

Because it is a harvest festival it is also known by its Hebrew equivalent “Chag Hakatzir” (Exodus 22:16). In the times of the Holy Temple, the Jewish nation was charged with gathering the “bikkurim – first fruits” of the Seven Species for which the land of Israel is specifically blessed: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olive oil, and date honey. These first fruits were brought to the Temple and offered to the priests there. Thus, the holiday is also called “Yom HaBikkurim – Day of First Fruits.”

But the most significant aspect of the holiday of Shavuot is that it is the day that the Almighty gave the Torah to the Jewish nation. On this day Moses ascended Mount Sinai and received The Ten Commandments (according to the dates in Exodus 19:1-20 and clearly articulated in the Talmud).

Thus, another name – the one we use most prominently in the liturgy – is “Zman Matan Toraseinu – The Time of the Giving of Our Torah.” Clearly, it is impossible to overstate the significance of this holiday.

According to Jewish tradition, The Ten Commandments listed in the book of Exodus are purposefully made up of 620 letters (yes, I counted them). There are 613 letters until the last two words of The Ten Commandments: “asher l’reiecha – those of your friend.”

According to our sages, this corresponds to the 613 mitzvot or “commandments” in the Torah, which the Jewish nation accepted upon themselves at Mount Sinai. Various reasons have been suggested as to the significance of the remaining seven letters that make up The Ten Commandments.

Rabbi Yaakov Ben Asher (1269-1343) said that these seven letters represent the seven Noachide Laws: (1) the prohibition against idol worship; (2) the prohibition against murder; (3) the prohibition against adultery; (4) the prohibition against blasphemy; (5) the prohibition against theft; (6) the prohibition against certain forms of animal cruelty; (7) the obligation to establish courts of justice (Bal Haturim Exodus 20:14).

Fascinatingly, the last two words of The Ten Commandments that comprise the seven letters (“asher l’reyecha – those of your friend”) now take on a deeper meaning.

Included within the scope of Torah is a universal obligation of morality for the entire world. Even though the Torah was only accepted as a sacred responsibility by the Jewish people, we are not the only ones bound to live by God’s laws. In fact, the laws of the nations of the world are referred to here as “those of your friend.”

This unifying aspect of Torah is actually the basis on which the Torah was given to the Jewish people. When the Jewish people arrived at Mount Sinai we find a remarkable attitude among the newly formed nation; “and there Israel camped before the mountain” (Shemos 19:2). Rashi (ad loc) explains that the people had adopted a rather unique mindset to one another – “It was like a single man with a single purpose.”

In general, there are two methods in which groups of people can unify. The first is when a disparate set of personalities unite because they have a singular purpose; this is how Rashi describes Pharaoh rallying his Egyptian nation to chase down the Jewish people who were escaping Egypt – “a single purpose, a single man” (Shemos 14:10).

The second way is when people come together and unite as individuals and merge their identities into “a one,” and then afterwards find a common purpose to fulfill the desires of the merged identity. This second method is what happened at Mount Sinai. Rashi explains that the encampment at Mount Sinai was without any fighting or bickering; there was no feeling of imposing on another’s space.

Often when we come into close physical proximity with strangers, we feel uncomfortable. For example, it is very awkward to come into physical contact with the passenger beside you on a plane or bus. However, if the passenger beside you is a relative, then it is common to lean on one another given the lack of space. When there is a unique connection there is no feeling of imposition.

So too, at Mount Sinai the Jewish people merged their identities into a unified oneness that allowed them to live together in absolute harmony as one big happy family. This was the backdrop for the events leading to God gifting the Torah to the Jewish people, and their unity was a key element of the story.

One of the more painful experiences for parents is watching their adult children not get along and fight. This truth may be applied to the Almighty as well. After all, the Master of the Universe is also known as our Father. The Talmud asks (Yoma 9b); “Why was the Second Temple destroyed, seeing that in its time they occupied themselves with Torah, mitzvot, and acts of kindness? Because baseless hatred prevailed.”

According to the Talmud, the Second Temple was destroyed for baseless hatred between Jews. Two millennia later we are in the very same exile stretching back to that terrible tragedy. But what exactly is baseless hatred? After all, there must be some reason for hatred!

Baseless hatred is loathing someone simply because they are different from you. You begin to rationalize that they are evil and thus worthy of your scorn. An egocentric person begins to believe that everything revolves around him and that he alone knows the just path. He begins to disparage, discredit, and delegitimize anything that is different from him.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, who was the Chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem in the 1920’s, writes about this very issue. Rabbi Kook himself was a target of much derision and animosity – he suffered greatly for being one of the first religious Zionists and for trying to see the good in all types of Jews. He writes; “The Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred, and it will only be rebuilt through baseless love!” Quite tellingly, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for love (ahava) is the same as the numerical value as the Hebrew word for one (echad).

That is the message of Shavuot. We received the Torah as a unified entity, and we must once again unify to fulfill God’s plan for the world. We must never forget that we are all in the service of the Almighty and we must therefore strive to fulfill God’s mission for the world together.

Because the holiday of Shavuot is all about the Almighty giving the Torah, I am once again offering a free copy of what I consider to be the best English translation: The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. This holy book is being offered free of charge to anyone who commits to studying from it on a weekly basis. An appropriate goal would be to spend a few minutes each day and try to finish the weekly portion by Shabbat. That way you experience the special message of the holiday of Shavuot all year! Click here for your free copy of The Living Torah.