ZMAN MATAN AND LIMUD TORAHTEINU

Rabbi Joshua Greenberg, Rabbi, Congregation Sons of Israel, Upper Nyack, NY

The holiday of Shavuot is probably the least celebrated of the three pilgrimage festivals.  We know that Passover, specifically the Seder, is the most observed Jewish holiday around the world.  The holiday of Sukkot, while not observed at the same level as Passover, certainly is more observed and well known than Shavuot.

Shavuot is different from the other two pilgrimage festivals in distinct ways.  Unlike the others, there is no noticeable change in the way we do things.  In other words, we do not prohibit what or where we are allowed to eat as we do on Passover and Sukkot.  Shavuot is shorter than the other two festivals, and has no intermediate days.  Finally, there is no real tangible symbol for the holiday of Shavuot like the matzah on Passover or the lulav on Sukkot.

Why the differences?  They are established biblically and we have little explanation.  Shavuot remains somewhat of a mysterious holiday that many people know little about and I must confess two dark secrets from my past about the holiday of Shavuot.  First, while growing up, Shavuot was my least favorite holiday, which probably had little to do with the holiday and more to do with the custom of eating dairy products and not meat on Shavuot.  The second is that even as a Jew of bar mitzvah age, it was not until I had been at rabbinical school for a few years that I really understood how the holiday of Shavuot could be so special.

Perhaps the greatest and most widely known fact about this holiday is that it marks the act of giving the Torah on Mount Sinai, Z'man Matan Torahteinu, the time of the giving of our Torah.  This is a great platform from which to base a holiday.  The Torah is the lifeblood of the Jewish people, and a holiday to celebrate the giving of the law is a great idea.  When we celebrate Shavuot, we celebrate our Torah and the uniqueness that we are blessed with as a result of this gift.  We celebrate all the lessons and morals that the Torah teaches us, and the guide that Torah can be for us in our lives.  There is much to celebrate on Shavuot.

However when we celebrate and embrace all that is great in our Torah, we must also struggle with that which we believe to be unsatisfactory as well.  I had a Bible Professor in rabbinical school who became an expert in Biblical criticism.  He basically had a knack for completely tearing apart a text based on various forms of criticism and then reconstructing the text.  You can imagine my class' surprise when we found out that this professor was a rabbi as well.  You see this kind of critical method is prevalent in the Bible Department at JTS, but not always amongst rabbis.  When I finally got up the courage to ask him how he maintains any authenticity and meaning in the text as a rabbi, his answer amazed me.

He described to the class that for him the meaning in the Biblical text was gained through tearing it apart and building it back up.  That is how he found authenticity.  "The meaning comes from the struggle and the process of finding the message contained within".  He said, "For others, the meaning comes from what they perceive to be the simple meaning of the text."  For him this was not enough.  Different people find meaning in the text in different ways.  Many people have great difficulty with parts of the text, and in their struggle, they find meaning.

It was after this day in Biblical Religion that I began to understand just one of the great many splendors of the holiday of Shavuot.  Shavuot is not only Z'man Matan Torahteinu, the giving of Torah, Shavuot is also Z'man Limud Torahteinu, the time of the study of our Torah.

The custom of tikkun leyl Shavuot (study on the night of Shavuot) lends credence to this alternate name.  If we are celebrating and learning Torah, then the celebration and learning must also include texts with which we do not agree, and with which our struggle to find new meaning is one of the greatest gifts inherent in the study of Torah.