The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Shavuos [etzbah]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: 1. "Chag Shavuot" The Feast (or Holiday) of Weeks 2. "Zman" Matan Torateinu The Time of the Giving of Our Torah 3. "Chag HaBikkurim" The Holiday of the First Fruits 4. "Atzeret" ? The Holiday of "Being Held Back, or Restrained, Close to Hashem, in the Temple" 5. "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 that make up the Sefirat Ha?Omer. Sefirat Ha?Omer 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 were not 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 that began on "Pesach". 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." (This material has been borrowed from Sefer HaTodaah of Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov) Akdamus [anochi]From one end of the Diaspora to the other, a need was felt to add components to the Service of Shavuos. One of those components was, "Akdamus". "Akdamus" - The Background Akdamus 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 that happened to be on their route. It was a time of oppression, of cruelty, of ignorance on the part of the Jews' neighbours. 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 Akdamus was the unwilling participant in such a "debate." This then was the background of Akdamus, 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 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 Akdamus. The practice began to chant Akdamus on Shavuos, with its characteristic melody, at the beginning of the public reading that includes the "Aseres HaDibros," the Ten Commandments. "Akdamus" - The Structure Akdamus 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." (This material borrowed from "Sefer HaTodaah," by Rabbi Eliahu Kitov) A YOM TOV THOUGHT Pesach, Shavuos & Sukkos What connects the three holidays? If we look in the siddur we see that as part of Sefiras Ha'Omer we have a description of each day that we count. Starting with Chesed of Chesed on the first day and ending with Kingship of Kingship. Each of the seven Midos are repeated seven times giving us a total of 49. It is like a seven storey building with seven steps on each level. To get from the first floor to the top we have to add on to what we already have. The only way to rise the 49 levels is by consciously developing all the Midos to their maximum in order to be able to receive the Torah. The Ushpizin of Sukkos again brings this into focus. On the first night Avraham Chesed and David represents kingship. After completing the cycle of 7 Midos, we are ready for Simchas Torah, the high point of Sukkos. (The Mictar MiEliyahu, Book 2, page 110 explains the Ushpizin). Submitted by: Zechariah Simon Pellman A Lesson from a Date - Shavuos by Rabbi Yehudah Prero Paroches Shavuos, is the holiday on which we celebrate the giving of the Torah to the nation of Israel. Upon examination, one would find that the Torah usually lists exactly what day a holiday begins. For example, by Pesach the Torah tells us (Vayikra 23:6) that "On the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Matzos." However, come Shavuos we find something different. The Torah writes (Vayikra 23: 15) "and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbos . . . you shall count 50 days and you shall bring a new Mincha offering to Hashem . . . and you shall convoke on this very day - there shall be a holy convocation for yourselves." Why does the Torah not tell us the date of Shavuos? Why does the Torah force us to calculate 50 days from the start of our counting of the Omer to figure out when Shavuos is? The Torah is composed of two parts: The written law, the Torah as we see it written in Tanach, and the Oral law, the elaborations, explanations and clarifications of that found in the Tanach, which we have nowadays as the Talmud. G-d gave both the Oral and the Written law to the nation of Israel at Sinai. The Oral law was transmitted from generation to generation until the point where the Sages were worried that we would forget it. They preserved it first as the Mishna, which was a concise, systematic compilation that was to serve as a memory device for later generations. However, later generations began to forget even more, and the Sages determined that writing down even more was necessary. Today, we have this as Gemora. Hashem gave these two parts of the Torah, as mentioned, to us at Sinai. That we acknowledge and believe that G-d gave the Torah in its entirety to us at Sinai is essential. It is to illustrate how central a role the Oral Law plays that the Torah does not mention the date of Shavuos. The Torah terms the starting date for the count of the 50 days "macharas HaShabbos," "the day after the Shabbos." The Oral law tells us that this is the second day of Pesach, the "Shabbos" referred to in the verse being the first day of Pesach. The Tzedukim, Sadducees, who did not give credence to the Oral law, explained this verse differently. They explained it to mean literally the day after Shabbos. So, they began counting from the first Sunday after Pesach. (See I: 16) When we celebrate Shavuos on the day that we do, we are simultaneously affirming our belief in the Oral law. After all, it is only with the clarification that the Oral law provides that we know when Shavuos falls. Shavuos, the holiday on which we celebrate the fact that we have the Torah, is the day on which we acknowledge that we received all of the Torah, both oral and written. (See II: 12) To be sure that we recognize the entirety of the Torah, G-d omitted the exact date on which we celebrate from the written Torah. Only by relying upon the Oral law can we celebrate Shavuos in its proper time. This Shavuos, we should all merit inspiration by the realization that G-d entrusted us with an amazing gift: the Torah. The ninth of Av is a major fast day in the Jewish calendar, when we lament the date of the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, with the subsequent loss of national sovereignty and exile from the Holy Land. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [http://www.bayt.org Prepared by team of [http://www.bayt.org/] Beth /] BAYT Avraham Yosef of Toronto ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Please visit our web page http://www.kehilasmy.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Buy books with 10% off from Artscroll and Artscroll will donate us 5% of your purchase: http://artscroll.com/linker/kehilasmy/home -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=lit.kehilasmy http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com