Sparks for Discussion The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism As our verse makes clear, Shavuot has the same Torah status as Pesah and Rapaport House, 820 Second Ave., New York, NY 10017 Sukkot. However, in practice, Shavuot is the Rodney Dangerfield of Jewish Tel: 212-533-7800 Fax: 212-353-9439 holidays. Chancellor Schorsch attributes this to the lack of distinctive home E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.uscj.org rituals. Do you agree? What do you think of Marshall Sklare’s analysis of why people choose to observe as they do? Can you think of ways to increase the popularity and observance of Shavuot? TORAH SPARKS vru, ,umumhb nd TORAH READING FOR SHAVUOT 2 Day May 30 2009 – 7 Sivan 5769 - y”xa, iuhx ”z Annual: Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17 (Etz Hayim, p. 1074; Hertz p. 810) Torah Sparks is a project of United Synagogue’s Program Development Department. For more information, to offer comments or for subscription Maftir : Numbers 28:26 - 31 (Etz Hayim, p. 932; Hertz p. 696) information please call Rabbi Paul Drazen at 646-519-9310 or email him at Haftarah: Habakuk 3:1 – 19 (Etz Hayim, p. 1326; Hertz p. 1032) [email protected]. Torah Sparks archives are available online at www.uscj.org (click on Jewish Prepared by Rabbi Joyce Newmark Living). Teaneck, New Jersey ©Copyright 2009, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Torah Reading Each Israelite farmer was to set aside one tenth of his annual produce and bring it, or its monetary equivalent, to Jerusalem as a tithe. He was to use it for a celebratory feast in the first, second, fourth and fifth years of the seven-year agricultural cycle. In the third and sixth years, this tithe was to be given to the poor. The seventh year was the Shemittah and the Israelites were not to engage in agriculture. Laws about the remission of debts, support for the poor, and the freeing of indentured servants are given. The three pilgrimage festivals are described. The maftir reading describes the offerings that were to be brought to the Temple on Shavuot. 1. Zeman Mattan Torateinu – The Occasion of the Giving of Our Torah Then you shall observe [v’asita – in the singular] the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God, offering your freewill contribution according as the Lord your God has blessed you. Deuteronomy 16:10 A. Why were the Ten Commandments addressed in the singular? So that each person would think that he alone, in the whole world, was responsible for studying, performing, and upholding all the words of the Torah. Various sources, cited in S.Y. Agnon, Present at Sinai, translated by Michael Swirsky, p. A. Shavuot is not as widely observed by contemporary Jews as Passover or Yom 243 Kippur, yet it celebrates the most important event in Jewish history: the giving B. Why are the Ten Commandments addressed in the singular? To teach us that of the Torah. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy, p. 592 every Jew should say, “It was for me that the Ten Commandments were given, B. If observance were a function of theology, Shavuot would be the most widely and I am obligated to fulfill them,” rather than saying, “The Torah can just as observed of Jewish holidays. But precisely the opposite is the case among well be fulfilled by other people.” Midrash Lekakh Tov modern Jews. No major festival suffers from greater neglect. Yet Shavuot, C. “The voice of the Lord is power [alternate translation – strength]; the voice of which caps the period of seven weeks since the second Passover seder and the Lord is majesty” (Psalm 29:4). Rabbi Levi said: Had it been written, “The simply means “weeks,” is rife with gravity. As the liturgy for the day constantly voice of the Lord is in His strength,” the world could not have stood it. Hence, reminds us, Shavuot commemorates the divine gift of Torah received at Mount Scripture says, “The voice of the Lord is fitted to the strength,” that is to say, to Sinai, in consequence of which Judaism spawned a text-centered religious the strength of each and every person – the young, according to their strength; community, possibly the first in human history. Shavuot, then, is about the the aged, according to their strength; the little ones, according to their strength; essential and unique nature of Judaism, a portable religion based on a canon the infants, according to their strength; the women, according to their strength. susceptible to unending interpretation. At Sinai freedom from slavery was Shir HaShirim Rabbah, 5:16 recast into fidelity to law and literacy. D. Our rabbis, the authors of the aggadah, said: Had only one of them been But that defining content is not enough to imbue Shavuot with power or absent the Torah would not have been given. Rabbi Aharon Halevi, may his popularity. And the reason tells us something about the workings of Judaism. memory be a blessing, wrote: It is for this reason that the Torah was given to six Shavuot is ritually bereft. Unlike Pesah or Sukkot, it lacks a set of distinctive hundred thousand people. It was the will of the Holy Blessed One that the practices that would convey experientially its meaning and message. There is Torah be accepted by all factions, and the six hundred thousand included all nothing comparable to the seder or sukkah for Shavuot, no absorbing home factions and opinions. Pekudat Halevi’im (Rabbi Yitzhak ben Yaakov Alfasi), ritual that might unite family and friends in preparation and observance. Rabbi 1013-1103, Morocco Ismar Schorsch, “Weekly Torah Commentary from Chancellor Schorsch,” 2000 E. Why is it called the Occasion of the Giving of Our Torah and not the C. Perhaps most important, for many second generation Americans, the more Occasion of the Receiving of Our Torah? Said Rabbi Menahem of Kotzk, in the frequent demands of Jewish observances seemed antithetical to modern name of Rabbi Simhah Bunem of Przysucha: The Giving of the Torah took American life, and they opted for the more streamlined modes of observance place in the month of Sivan, but the receiving of the Torah takes place every that emphasized yearly festivities such as the High Holidays, Hanukkah, and day. Rabbi Menahem of Kotzk said further: the Giving of the Torah was the Passover. As Marshall Sklare commented about Jews at mid-century in same for everyone, but the receiving is different for each person according to his America’s suburban heartland: ability to understand. Emet ve’Emunah (Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk), The highest degree of retention will occur when a ritual: (1) is capable of 1787-1854, Poland effective redefinition in modern terms; (2) does not demand social isolation or Sparks for Discussion the adoption of a unique life style; (3) accords with the religious culture of the larger community while providing a “Jewish” alternative when such is felt to be In this section of the Torah, the commandment to observe Shavuot is given in needed; (4) is centered on the child; and (5) is performed annually or the singular, as are the Ten Commandments. Why? Our commentators offer infrequently. several reasons; can you think of others? If the receiving of Torah is different for each person, what holds us together as a religious community? What Sklare’s observations have been borne out over the passage of time. prevents each one of us from simply deciding to follow his or her own personal Hanukkah has been celebrated as the Jewish winter festival of lights, which may religion? How do you understand Rabbi Simhah Bunem’s teaching, “the partially insulate children from the pervasive Christmas presence in American receiving of the Torah takes place every day?” culture. The Passover seder service-meal has emerged as the family holiday par excellence, with the additional benefit that its official rationale is a celebration of freedom, which most Americans value. Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman, “Jewish 2. Shelosh Regalim – The Three Pilgrimage Festivals Life and American Culture,” pp. 125-126 Three times a year – on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths – all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Deuteronomy 16:16 .