Emor 5772

The association of Shavuos with the giving of the Torah is well established; the wording of the Amida prayer and the Torah Reading reflect this. Yet, surprisingly, in Parshas Emor (Vayikra 23:17-22), Shavuos is ordained as Mikra Kodesh – a day of Holy Assembly – only in consideration of the fact that it is the day on which two loaves of newly grown wheat are offered as a sacrifice to Hashem. Thus, Shavuos is the culmination of an agricultural celebration which begins with the second day of Pesach (on which the Omer of the new barley is brought), continues through the seven weeks of Sefira, and concludes with the above-mentioned loaves, the Shtei HaLechem. What happened to the celebration of the Torah?

It is also noteworthy that Shavuos does not always fall on the anniversary of the revelation at Sinai. There is a dispute in the Talmud (Shabbos 86b) as to whether the revelation took place on the sixth or the seventh day of Sivan. Shavuos, on the other hand, really has no fixed calendar date. It is always the fiftieth day of the Sefira counting which begins on the second day of Pesach.

Originally, the length of months was not fixed as the declaration of Rosh Chodesh was based on the observation of the new moon. Thus, if the months of Iyar and Sivan were both “complete” months (that is, 30 days long), the fiftieth day would fall on the fifth of Sivan. If Iyar and Sivan were both “defective” (that is, 29 days long), the fiftieth day would fall on the seventh of Sivan. If one month is complete and the other is defective, then the fiftieth day falls on the sixth of Sivan. In any case, there was no guarantee that Shavuos would fall on the anniversary of revelation. (See Rosh Hashana 6b.)

(One would be tempted to make the following argument: Granted that the calendar dates do not match, but wasn’t the Torah given on the fiftieth day, which is exactly when Shavuos occurs? Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Talmud (Shabbos 86b) clearly states that the day of the Exodus was a Thursday and the day of Matan Torah was Shabbos. Do the calculation and you will discover that the Torah was on the fifty-first day!)

If Hashem really wanted to connect Shavuos to the giving of the Torah, it would seem that the fixing of dates should have been a bit more precise. How do we reconcile this imprecision with that which we know to be true, that Shavuos does celebrate the giving of the Torah?

I believe that we are compelled to come to a curious conclusion: From Hashem’s perspective, Shavuos has nothing to do with the giving of the Torah. It is simply a celebration of the harvest sacrifices, despite the fact that it falls (approximately) at the time the Torah was given. The Jewish people, however, transformed the nature of the day, connecting it to the Matan Torah, resulting in the Rabbinic ordinances of the Amida and Torah Reading reflecting this new association.

The explanation of this curiosity is both simple and profound.

The Torah makes many demands of the Jewish people, both as individuals and as a community. It regulates what we eat and what we wear; how we think and how we speak; our social lives and our professional lives; our relationships to parents, spouses, and children; how we earn our money and how we spend it; and much, much more. Hashem, from His perspective, understanding that, as humans, we may find these rules overly restrictive, would not demand that we celebrate their being given to us. He will demand that we comply and live by them, but he will not insist that we feast joyously at the prospect of being given such a burden.

Through our experiences, however, we come to the conclusion that the Torah is actually the greatest source of satisfaction in life. It gives our lives purpose and direction. It facilitates the most powerful and meaningful relationship that a human being could possibly have; a relationship with Hashem. The collective genius of the Jewish people sensed that at this time of year we should be celebrating the gift of Torah, and thus our Sages blended into the agricultural holiday an additional spiritual dimension which ultimately eclipsed – in our conventional thinking – the harvest aspect.

Thus the celebration of Matan Torah on Shavuos is not an obligation that was imposed on us. It is rather the expression of a voluntary sentiment that emerged from the grassroots of the Jewish people.