Shemos 23:16 refers to Shavuous as the "festival of the harvest" חַ֤ג הַקָּצִיר֙:
And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you will sow in the field, and the festival of the ingathering at the departure of the year, when you gather in [the products of] your labors from the field.
וְחַ֤ג הַקָּצִיר֙ בִּכּוּרֵ֣י מַֽעֲשֶׂ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר תִּזְרַ֖ע בַּשָּׂדֶ֑ה וְחַ֤ג הָֽאָסִף֙ בְּצֵ֣את הַשָּׁנָ֔ה בְּאָסְפְּךָ֥ אֶת־מַֽעֲשֶׂ֖יךָ מִן־הַשָּׂדֶֽה
Calling Shavuous a harvest is not materialistic, or baal ha-batish, or goyish. The Torah calls it this. Shavuous highlights the wheat harvest, which for all you city slickers means the gathering of the wheat that Ha-Shem caused to grow on the fields so that it can be placed in plastic bags in grocery stores so that we can eat and enjoy it and have energy to live and not writhe around in hunger pains as children are experiencing now in Gaza.
Bread doesn't grow in slices from the ground wrapped in plastic bags. It starts as wheat. Actually it starts as seeds that Ha-Shem created, that Ha-Shem turned into wheat stalks from which humans that Ha-Shem created strip off the grain using tools that Ha-Shem guided humans to manufacture using materials that Ha-Shem put in the earth. The Divinely created humans ground the grain, mix with water and yeast, and bake in ovens that Ha-Shem made possible. The Divinely created humans slice the bread and put it into plastic bags, which are formed via a Divinely guided process of their own, then ship them to the grocery store in trucks, which are formed via a Divinely guided process of their own, driven by drivers created by Ha-Shem. Ha-Shem causes all of this to happen for the benefit of the human race (yes, goyim too). As we know from the rules of the MITZVAH of birchos ha-mazon, bread symbolizes all food.
Exodus 34:22 terms the holiday "Weeks," the time of the wheat harvest.
And you shall make for yourself a Festival of Weeks, the first of the wheat harvest, and the festival of the ingathering, at the turn of the year.
וְחַ֤ג שָֽׁבֻעֹת֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֣ה לְךָ֔ בִּכּוּרֵ֖י קְצִ֣יר חִטִּ֑ים וְחַג֙ הָ֣אָסִ֔יף תְּקוּפַ֖ת הַשָּׁנָֽה
So which is it, a festival of the harvest or weeks? Why two terms? Is that just to confuse us? And why call it "weeks"? What does that mean? Leviticus 23:16 provides an answer as it tells us to count the days and weeks between the barley harvest (which happens at Pesach) and the wheat harvest (which happens on Shavuous):
You shall count until the day after the seventh week, [namely,] the fiftieth day, [on which] you shall bring a new meal offering to the Lord.
עַ֣ד מִמָּֽחֳרַ֤ת הַשַּׁבָּת֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔ת תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֛ם מִנְחָ֥ה חֲדָשָׁ֖ה לַֽיהֹוָֽה
On the holiday of "Weeks" we finalize the MITZVAH of counting the days and weeks between these two periods of time where we gather in the food that Ha-Shem prepared for us. That is why the holiday is called "Weeks."
Why are we counting these weeks? Rabbi Avigdor Miller explains that Shavuous is a time of gratitude. On Shavuous we engage in the MITZVAH of gratitude to the Almighty G-d Who feeds us out of love. He says that is why we count up instead of down. Usually people say, it's three days until my birthday. Two days. We count down for something exciting. Here, we count up, because we are counting up all the food that Ha-Shem has given us. On Shavuous, we contemplate our dependency on Ha-Shem, our trust in Him, His love for us, His characteristic of loving-kindness for all His creatures, and the infinite genius involved in His creation of the world and His generation of food. All of this contemplation involves MITZVAH after MITZVAH.
We commonly refer to this MITZVAH of counting as the counting of the Omer. What is that? The word omer literally refers to an ancient dry measure of grain. See how Judaism is a religion that doesn't retreat from the world, from "prosaic" life. It is a religion that engages all of life and doesn't take place merely in a monastery or yeshiva.
In addition to the many MITZVOS of contemplating Ha-Shem and expressing gratitude to Him, we have the MITZVAH of bringing special offerings at both ends of this period of time:
On both occasions, special grain offerings were brought in the ancient Temple — on Passover a barley offering, and on Shavuot loaves of bread from choice flour. (korban of the Shtei HaLechem). The word omer literally refers to an ancient dry measure of grain. (My Jewish Learning)
Thus, the MITZVAH of counting is sandwiched between the MITZVAH of the barley offering and the MITZVAH of the bread offering.
But there's more. On Shavuous, all men above age 13 have the MITZVAH of traveling to Jerusalem to the Temple where Ha-Shem's presence is more evident and we where we do not arrive empty handed. Rather, we engage in the MITZVAH of bringing a burnt offering and the MITZVAH of bringing various peace offerings (Exodus 23:14-17, 34:23-24, Deut. 16:16-17). Men would travel as much as 15 days for this journey. (Mishna Ta’anit 1:3; article from Aish)
MITZVOS, upon MITZVOS, upon MITZVOS. And where do we learn about these MITZVOS. The Torah teaches us about them. And so it happens that Shavuous is also a holiday where we commemorate the receiving of the Torah, that guidebook that teaches us about the MITZVOS that we perform. (Pesachim 68b, Shabbat 86b, article from YU)
On the day at the end of the counting we received the Torah which means we received the imperative to engage in all these MITZVOS, one of which is to learn about them.
But what has Shavuous become in our times? In almost every place you will go it is the day where we received the Torah that we study. It's like the first day of college where you go and buy all your textbooks and course packs. Then you go the pub and try to meet someone of the opposite sex, or in our times, even the same sex. In colleges today you study, you don't develop character or learn manners as they did 80 years ago. That's what Shavuous has become.
A custom developed several centuries ago to study on Shavuous excerpts from all twenty-four books of the Tanach and all sixty-three tractates of the Mishna, all of which teach us about MITZVOS, including basic principles of emunah which is a MITZVAH.In Modern Orthodox circles, you go to synagogue and hear classes about the state of Israel and perhaps something about halachic questions such as should hostages be traded for terrorists.
Baalei tshuvah come into the religion and absorb these messages. Becoming frum means either learning to engage in pilpul or moving to Israel. Just as most so-called frum people today observe the commandments of the Torah only superficially, the chozer b'teshuvah doesn't really become a baal teshuvah, doesn't really experience the revelation of Torah and acceptance of its yoke.
Their yeshivish handlers tell them to move to Brooklyn so they can "soar" in Torah study, ie. pilpul, and the Modern ones tell them to move to Israel where they can participate in the building of the state.
But what about all those MITZVOS? The main task of the Jew is MITZVOS! You see that by the way the Torah talks about Shavuous. You see it also in Koheles. Shlomo, at the end of the book the wisest man says, "The end of the matter is to fear Ha-Shem and keep His COMMANDMENTS. That is the sum of the man." (13:12)
Thus, when we go about our lives, we must determine how can I best observe the COMMANDMENTS. If I move to Israel and live in poverty in a tiny apartment where the children have no room to play and beat each other up instead, to Israel where arrogance and chutzpah pour down the street like water during a flood, to Israel where the government and non-religious Jewish sinners are obsessed with the notion of drafting all Haredim into the anti-religious brainwashing machine that today engages in horrible violence -- if I move to this place what will happen to my MITZVOS?
If you live in New York, where houses cost $1 million and you or your spouse or both of you have to work 60 hours a week in a brutal, stressful job and come home and collapse on the floor in a knot of tension, will that help my performance of MITZVOS?
It doesn't matter if every person you know talks about moving to Israel or living in New York where you came for shiduchim. You have a job to do and that's to observe the COMMANDMENTS. When you go upstairs for judgement, all the people that pushed your brain this way and that will be gone. They are probably gone even now. It's between you and Ha-Shem Who gives you all your bread and everything else. Where will you, your spouse, and your children function best as Jews, which means observing the COMMANDMENTS. Where is that place?If it's New York, fine. If it's Israel, fine. But for many people, those are not the right places. If you are not rich, they probably are not the right places. If you don't have family there, they are probably not the right places. If you or your children are not hard-edged and aggressive, they probably are not the right places, If you have a nervous disorder, they are definitely not the right places. If you don't speak Hebrew, Israel is not the right place. If you are Haredi, Israel is not the right place. In general, if you are not from those places, then they are not the right places. People function best in the culture that they were raised in.
What kind of parnassah should I engage in? If it's one that makes you miserable then you will not be a position to perform the COMMANDMENTS. If you operate according to the yeshivish attitude where nothing matters in life other than Torah study, then you'll only try to become rich so that you can retire and study Torah or support yeshivas now. But that might be harmful to your observance of MITZVOS.
If you pursue a religious derech such as yeshivism just because that's what everyone around you does or because that happens to be the derech of the yeshiva that you were coaxed into attending but it doesn't suit your nature, then it will prove an obstruction to performance of MITZVOS. If the idea of hating all goyim or secular studies bothers you substantially, then you can't be yeshivish. If you have a feeling for Chassidic warmth or kiddushah or tzadickim or thought about Ha-Shem, then you can't be yeshivish no matter the busy bodies around you push on you. What is best for your performance of MITZVOS? What is best for your spouse and children?
If you are a woman your primary question is what is best for your husband and children? Ha-Shem told Chava told to be a helpmate and mother. That is her job in life. Doesn't matter if you always wanted to live in Israel just because your reform Hebrew school considered that and the Holocaust the only worthy topics.
A parent's job is to apply Torah ideals to practical life and do what's best for the children. Living in a dream land doesn't qualify. You must live in the real world, where the wheat and barely are grown, and make good decisions. If you "follow a rav" who lives in fantasy land then you have chosen to live in fantasy land and will suffer as a result.
Most rabbis live in fantasy land. The baal teshuvah comes into the religion, is told that he is ignorant and stupid and that he must follow a rav. But most rabbis live in fantasy land, either yeshivish or modern orthodox Disneyland where Torah observance is displaced by pilpul or modern Israel respectively or some combination of the two. As a result, most BTs never become truly observant. They never encounter Ha-Shem at Har Sinai. That's because most so-called FFBs are not Torah observant.
But the BTs operate under the illusion that they have become observant because their lives are so much different than they used to be. I say, if you became a Muslim your life also would be different. It's not enough that it's different. It is Torah?
What is Shavuous? It's the time that we receive the Torah, which means primarily to receive the mandate of Torah observance. Most people are not meaningfully Torah observant. They are pilpul observant or Medinas Israel observant. They might as well be Christians, because that's what Xianity is, replacing MITZVAH observance with an idea, a mental thing.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch planned two write two books about Torah observance, one about ideology which he'd call Moriah, and one about practice, which he'd call Horeb. He wrote the second and not the first. Historians of Hirsch tell us that he refrained from writing Moriah because he feared people reading only that one and seeing Judaism as an ideology and not a practice.
Judaism is primarily a practice, and we must make life decisions with that practice as our primary goal. Take that as the lesson of Shavuous.
If you never truly received the Torah before, if you received pilpulism or zionism and remained pretty much what you always were, say a feminist, a materialist, a loud mouth, or a lover of the state of Israel, a place you really knew nothing about, then it's time to accept the Torah for the first time and become Torah observant.
No comments:
Post a Comment