Exploring the Minhagim of Shavuot | Rabbi Yossi Goldin

was getting ready to prepare this year, and I was planning on going back to return to our usual topic of tfila, I couldn't get myself to do it. I said we have Shavuot coming up and and and and I felt that with a few days left to Shavuot, it was hard for me and I felt like it was just important that we try to learn something connected to Shavuot. So, you'll forgive me if you I hope this isn't going to be Shavuot overload. I hope not all the teachers will do the same thing, but I'd like to think that at least the topic that we're going to be doing is a little bit different than than what you'll be doing with other with other and with with other teachers. So, I just felt like with Shavuot coming up, it's important for us to prepare for Shavuot and next week we will continue and get back to our regular curriculum of tfila. Um so, just a I guess a trivia question not a trivia question throw out a question what we'll play a short game very quick. When I say the a hag, the name of a hag, I want you to just shout out what immediately comes to mind when I when I say that hag. So, for example, Shavuot. A cheesecake, okay, good. Let's start with Suko Suko, what comes to mind with Suko? Arba minim, suka, Hanukkah. Candles, neirot Hanukkah, Purim. Hamantaschen, good, okay, what else? Megillah, okay. What about what about Rosh Hashanah? Shofar, excellent. Now, Shavuot, what did you all say? Cheesecake and Bikurim. Torah, okay. Now, what's interesting, if you paid attention and I actually I meant to do Shavuot at the end, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, is that for all the other hagim, when I asked you to word associate, pretty much all of you associated or shouted out a mitzvah, an actual mitzvah midoraisa or midrabana if we're talking about Hanukkah or Purim that applies to that day. Okay, so many of you mentioned shofar on Rosh Hashanah. You mentioned candle lighting on Hanukkah. You mentioned dalet minim on on on on on Suko or you mentioned suka on Suko. You mentioned neirot on on Hanukkah. yeah, when it comes to Shavuot, the associations we had were cheesecake, which is also very, very important. Uh we also had Matan Torah, which, as we know, is also not written in the Torah. In fact, if you One of the strange aspects of Shavuot is that there are no mitzvot written in the Torah. But someone one of you mentioned Bikurim, which is which is mentioned in the Torah not as a mitzvah for us to do, but it's something that we that was brought around the time of Shavuot. But if you look at the at the Kim Kim there is no what's what is lacking on Shavuot more than anything else is makes no mention of any mitzvah. And therefore, what has come to define Shavuot more than anything else are minhagim. All other hagim are also minhagim, right? We have we have apple and honey on on Rosh Hashanah, and we have latkes on on on on Hanukkah. Every hag has minhagim or has things that we do. Yet, when we think about them, usually our general association is going to be the mitzvah that is associated with that hag. When it comes to Shavuot, almost our entire association is the minhagim of Shavuot. And I'd like to try to answer that question. Why is that? Why is it that Shavuot specifically our association is there a reason why specifically meaning why why is there no mitzvah on Shavuot, no mitzvah d'oraita such that what has become our basic association with Shavuot is basically all the minhagim of Shavuot. I like I like to kind of pack that question, put that to the side, and hopefully we'll get we'll get to that by the end. We'll help we'll develop what I believe to be an interesting perspective as to why that is the case. What I'd like to do now for the next little while is go through the various minhagim, and there are numerous, and try to understand where they come from. To go through each of the minhagim if we have time, each of them, if not only some of them, and to understand there are some of them have more reasons than others that are given, to try to better understand why we do the things that we do specifically on Shavuot because we associate it with with with with with learning Torah, receiving the Torah, staying up all night. We have eating eating dairy on Shavuot. We have the idea of many shuls adorn the the shul with with greenery with flowers on Shavuot. There's the idea we're all our favorite part of Shavuot is right before the right before Torah begins when they we say the Akdamot. I'm just kidding. That was That was facetious. Especially those of us who stay up all night and then all of a sudden you get to you get you get to the Torah reading and it becomes even longer than usual. Right? There are numerous minhagim that we have on Shavuot and I'd like to together explore the basis for those various minhagim and I hope that by the end we'll also come to an understanding as to why minhagim are particularly dominant on on on Shavuot. So, the first the first minhag I'd like to explore with you is what's known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot. Tikkun Leil Shavuot is the minhag to basically stay up all night or at least spend a significant part of Shavuot learning on Shavuot night. Now, the earliest source for this idea seems to be the the Zohar. Okay. Now, I am not someone who is prolific in Zohar, but we will share a little bit of Zohar together today. What the Zohar describes historically how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai would stay up all night the night of Shavuot learning Torah. We'll read a little bit of it. It's written in Aramaic. It's a little harder to understand, but we'll we'll read a little bit together. Source number one. Rabbi Shimon have a yasiv v'ilui b'oraita. Rabbi Shimon would sit and he would involve himself in oraita. Orait is Torah in the study of Torah. B'leilya d'kallah is chabarat b'vala. On the night that nor right the night before that usually a kallah is about to meet her husband. What does a kallah do before the night before she meets her husband or at least getting up very very early in the morning before she She adorns herself. She wakes up very early in the morning. From all my my memories I don't remember I I know about my wedding what what time my wife got up, but I know all the weddings that we've ever had in the family since then, the women always have to get up much earlier because they got to get their hair done, they got to get their makeup done, they got to get everything done. That it it takes a long time to prepare properly for the wedding. And the so the same thing is that is how a kallah prepares for the wedding. So says Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the minhag is for us to stay up all night adorning ourselves with the Torah, as it were. De taninan, as we learn, kol inan chavraya de benei heichala de kallah. It's tree chuba hilula de kallah is idadamot. I I idad manat le mehavi le yoma achra go chupa bevala. Again, I'm not going to translate every single word, but this basic understanding is that the whole group that is together with the kallah was involved in preparing the kallah, preparing the bride for the evening, for the time when she was going to meet going to meet her husband. And therefore, what do we do? We are, as it were, approaching the day when we're going to get married be yachol to Hakadosh Baruchu. And what do we adorn ourselves with? We adorn ourselves with the study of Torah. We prepare by investing and involving ourselves in the study of Torah. If you go to the underline part now, ule mechtei ima be tikuna de e it's kanat lemalei. So what do we do? What do we study? And the Zohar actually specifies what types of Torah we involved ourselves with as a way of preparing for Matan Torah. We would learn lemalei be oraissa be Torah, de viim, u me divrei viim lechtuvim, u ve midrashot. We would learn Torah, Navi, Tuvim, Medrash, de krai u barzei, de chachmas u barzei. Excuse me, and the secrets of the Torah. And so the Zohar describes this process of basically adorning ourselves with all the wonders of the Torah and all different aspects of the Torah from all of Tanach to to the to to to what we would call Kabbalah to all different aspects of the Torah and that was the going through. And this is this this is the source for the idea of staying up all night and basically involving ourselves in in learning Torah. If you look at source number two, the Shlah Hakadosh outlines this as well and he gives more direct explanation for what was what was learned what is meant to be learned. If you look so if you look at source number two in section Gimel Balayla Hashavuot on the night of Hashavuot Yidudei Hashem mikol mishro ledavik bikdusha anyone who would like to achieve a certain level of holiness he should stop and prevent himself from sleeping. You should stay up all night. V'yasok b'Torah kol halayla and you should involve yourself in learning Torah the whole night. What should you learn? So he continues in hey Hachareidim l'dvar Hashem those who are those who are very interested in being strict about following the word words of the Torah or the words of Hashem yishtadlu sheye minyan b'yachad you should gather together. You should have a minyan of people group together the Akol b'Asara Sh'chinah Sharya why 10? Because as as we learn those of you who have been coming to our classes we know that whenever there are 10 people who come together involved in either learning Torah study or davening that the Sh'chinah descends upon them. So it's best says the Shlah for everyone to sit and learn together. Tsarich l'lmod Chelek this is very ambitious look at this. You have to learn Chelek miTorah Nevi'im Kesuvim Shisha Sidarim Sefer Yetzirah Zohar Taryag Mitzvot you basically got to learn Kol HaTorah Kulah in one night. You got to learn Torah Nevi'im Kesuvim the six books of the Mishnah Sefer Yetzirah is a Kabbalistic sefer you got to learn the Zohar basically you got to learn everything. Now how could you possibly learn everything at night? He goes on to describe that what what you do is you don't actually read the entire Torah but you read for every parsha the first three pesukim at the beginning of the parsha and you read the last three pesukim at the end of the parsha and then you do that for every single parsha and then you continue on throughout the various parts parts of the of the Torah. Now in fact if anybody here is is part of the Adot Mizrach Sefardi community this is actually the minhag. They call it Tikkun Leil Shavuot. The Sefardi community all comes all comes together they have a special special sefer and they have a special book and they sit there and they basically sit there all night as a community the first three of parshas Bereishit the last three of parshas Bereishit and literally going through the entire the entire text. So this this is a tradition that has continued until today. It's called a Tikkun Leil Shavuot and that's what that community does. But there is another approach to to to the idea of staying up all night. There's another source for it and I believe it is the source for perhaps a different approach to this entire event and that is source number three the Magen Avraham and this is the source that we may be we may be more familiar with. Says the Magen Avraham Easter Zohar it says in the Zohar She Hasidim were ne'orim kol halayla ve'oskim ba'Torah. They used to stay up all night the Hasidim used to stay up all night learning Torah. U'kvar nahagu rov halimudim la'asot ken. And we already see that many lomdim that many people do this. Says the Magen Avraham where does this come from? Ve'efshar late ta'am al pi pshuto. I can give a suggestion why we do this. Where did this minhag come from? Lefisha Yisrael hayu yeshenim kol halayla. Am Yisrael were they overslept the night the the morning that that they were meant to receive the Torah they slept through the night. Ve'hutzrach Hakadosh Baruch leha'ir lahem. They overslept their alarm clock and Hakadosh Baruch had to blow the shofar to wake them up Shavuot morning. What what that is a bad date and a bad meeting to miss. God's waiting to give you the Torah and we all overslept and I got it to use the shofar to wake us up. So says the Magen Avraham maybe we stay up as a tikkun as a way of fixing that by staying up all night and ensuring that we're not going to oversleep and miss the receiving the receiving of the Torah. Okay, so this is a totally different reason. It's it's it's it's another approach to why why we stay up why we stay up all night. Now, of course, that means you have to make sure that if you stay up all night, you're not sleeping during the davening when you receive the Torah. So, you got to make sure that you're actually energetic enough and able to handle this, but that is the approach. Now, it's it's very interesting to note that not all Meforshim agree with this analysis of Israel oversleeping. If you look at source number four, this is an interesting Eben Ezra that not everyone is aware of. Says the Eben Ezra, the possuk had said vehayu chanim, you should be ready for the next day. Says the Eben Ezra, "Lulai lo yishan Adam ba'al habayis balaila, maybe we can suggest that no one went to sleep that night." Sheyishme'u kol Hashem baboker, so that they would hear and make sure that they would be up for when Hashem came that morning. Kederech Kohen Gadol b'Yom HaKippurim. And he compares it to what the Kohen Gadol used to have the minhag to do every Yom Kippur night. Anyone who has if we've learned or you've gone through the Avodah or learned Mishnah in Maseches Yoma, we know that the Kohen Gadol every single year would stay up all night on Yom Kippur. He would learn Halachos. They they they had they had people there to help kind of snap him out of it if he ever if he ever got tired. He would he would put his feet on the on the cold floor. They had different ways to keep him up, but he was kept up the entire night. And says the Eben Ezra, maybe that's what Am Israel did that night. In which case, obviously that's arguing on the analysis of the Maginei Avraham, but it might lend a new reason to why we stay up all night. Why do we stay up all night on Shavuot night? Not as a tikkun for what Am Israel did, but to commemorate what Am Israel did. Just like they stayed up all night in uh to before they received the Torah, so too we try to relive that experience by staying up all night. Yes, I think I saw a question or I thought I saw a question. Yeah. We read the thing you read the reason that the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur was that's actually where they were sleeping staying up all night. I know keeper that that interesting that is true. That's true no well we we received the first well that's true we well we were given the broach. We received when we received the broach. I think that's meaning we didn't receive the actual physical we didn't receive the actual but we received God commanded God God gave us the actual Yes, but we also put a God but God slash motion told us the 10 the 10 Commandments and it's it's the that that revelation. Yes, that's right the actual the actual themselves we didn't receive till later on. But yeah, that's very very very interesting. Okay, so so we have so we have a few different reasons for why we stay up. The two main reasons that are suggested made approaches one is that Israel adorn themselves with the beauty of the Torah as they prepare to as they prepare to enter their marriage with the broach. And the other reason is as a in order to in order to fix the mistake that Israel made the morning of of Torah that they overslept and we stay up in order to in order to show that we're not going to oversleep. I wonder if we can suggest I mean I haven't seen this written explicitly but we noted that there were two different ways that people do Shavuot. One is that the Minhag is to do it is to read a specific text is to is to read go through what they saw what we call Torah Kula. Whereas the tradition is you learn whatever you want. You learn you go to a I used to I often learn with my children. Whatever whatever is meaningful meaning there's no specific text in the classic communities there's no specific text. The idea is to spend that time learning Torah. It doesn't matter specifically what you learn as long as you're involving yourself in the learning somewhat. I wonder if those if those two are connected to the two different reasons. Today if this is about adorning yourself with the Torah as you prepare to enter marriage then it would be most appropriate and in fact that's what the talks about how you should read all of the Torah. You should attempt to go through all of the Torah cuz you want to adorn yourself with all of the Torah, all of the different garments, or all of the different um all of the different things that you have in order to be able to enter the marriage. Whereas it's just about staying up in order to do a tikkun for what Am Yisrael, the mistake Am Yisrael made, as long as you stay up learning it doesn't matter whether you're learning all of the Torah or you're just learning specific things. So, that is just an idea. But, I wanted to share with you one other one other suggestion for perhaps why why we stay up. And this I heard from one of my teachers uh a number of years ago, why we stay up all night. I remember one of one of my friends when I was in Yeshiva did a calculation. And he calculated and this guy was, you know, the smart guy in the Yeshiva. He said, "If I don't stay up all night wake up and I wake up in the morning and I learn every minute from the time I wake up until uh until the end of Shavuot, I'll end up learning more than if I stayed up all night and then go to sleep." So, he thought he outsmarted the system, right? He said, "Ah, you think that we're staying up all night to learn as much as we can. If I don't stay up all night" and the answer was that that's not what it was about. It's not as much about how many minutes of Torah you're learning, it's about the experience of staying up all night learning Torah. When a person is in a specific cares about something or is dedicated to something, sometimes you do things that make no sense. Staying up all night to learn Torah does not make a lot of sense, right? It's not what logical most people don't stay up all night to do the things that they're even the things that they that they that they that they're interested in. But, once a year we show our commitment to the Torah, we show our love for Hashem and his Torah. And we do something, okay, it could be that we'll end up we have to take extra breaks, it could be we have to drink a lot more coffee, it could be that in terms of actual numbers, we're not going to learn as much as we would had we gotten up in the morning and just and learn Shavuot, but that's not what this is about. This is about showing our connection, our love for Hashem and for his Torah. And therefore, we're going to do something when when the rest of the world is sleeping, we're going to do something a little bit different. When you're in love you do you do things that are a little bit crazy. You do things that you don't know that you wouldn't normally do. And this is how we show our commitment to Hashem by staying up all night and uh and and learning Torah. So, that's just, you know, another idea to to consider. Yes, please. Is it related to the rabbi staying up all night in the Haggadah? That they Ah, and the rab- the rabbis who were who were who were so busy staying up who stayed up all night in order to do Sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim and they didn't even realize what it was. Yes, so the truth is that there is a concept also in the Halakha, the idea of staying up all night to tell the story of Sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim. That there is this idea of staying up all night to tell the story of the Exodus. Um meaning that what that story is shows that there is no limit to how much a person is supposed to tell the story. When we say, "How much do I need to tell the story?" So, there's the minimum, which is the Haggadah, and the maximum is as much as you can. And yes, there is an idea. I think that is part of the ideas we're we're so thankful and appreciative to God for what he did. And it's so important to us to pass down the tradition of Sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim that I do believe that I agree. Yes, I think that that's part of part of part of the idea. Yes. Question, um does it actually Is it actually written in the Torah that they didn't I'm sorry, I missed the end. No. It is not written It does not say explicitly in the Torah that Am Yisrael overslept. All it says is that in the beginning in the in the beginning it says that God blew the shofar. No, it does not say it explicitly in the Torah. It is it is it is based on certain certain hints or certain readings of the Torah. The Torah does not explicitly say. Even Ezra argues on it. We know that it's not explicitly written in the Torah. It was just a suggestion that was made and I don't I don't know if it's a Forgive me, I don't remember if it's a specific midrash or if it's just it was just an analysis on some of the commentaries. But it and they they derive it from certain reading of the psukim. But it's not written explicitly in the Torah. Okay. Perhaps the the minhag that has the preponderance of suggestions and explanations is the minhag to eat dairy. Now, I think that's probably because we as Jews love to eat and anything we can in order to be able to justify eating more and eating more delicious foods, that's probably what we're very very going to be very good at. But there's a number of fascinating suggestions to why there is a minhag to eat dairy. The first one I'd like to give you, this is this is the Shulhan Arukh. The Shulhan Arukh in source number six makes the following suggestion. He says, "Why do we eat dairy on Shavuot?" to eat dairy products on the first day of Shavuot. Now, don't forget, he's saying, why is he saying the first day of Shavuot? Because he's in Chutz Laaretz, where they had two days. We, uh baruch Hashem, have returned to our homeland to Eretz Yisrael. We only have one day, which means we have to pack everything into that one day. On the one hand, we only have one day. On the other hand, we have to pack it all in. Okay, so what So he says, "V'neher aleha ta'am." What's the reason? Just like on Leil Pesach, we take we take the egg and we take the shank bone, zecher l'Pesach v'zecher l'chagiga, right? On our Seder plate on Pesach, we have two different foods. One commemorates the korban Pesach, and one commemorates the korban chagiga of Pesach. He says, "The same thing is true of eating dairy on Shavuot." Why? So too, he says, "The minhag is to eat dairy and then to eat meat." By the way, for those of you who talked about eating a lot, so there are people who families who do this where they Many families just have dairy on Shavuot, but some families actually in their in their in their meal have dairy and then they they they fold up the meal and they and they actually have meat as well. Now, of course, you have to be very careful not to mix milk milk and meat. And the only way to do this is if you do milk before before meat. But what's the reason? It's because on on Shavuot, they would bring the shtei halechem. It was a special korban that was brought of two loaves of bread. And in order to commemorate the two loaves of bread, we eat dairy with some bread, and then we eat meat with some bread, and that's how we commemorate the Shtei Halechem. So, that's that's one one suggestion. But, there are a number of very other creative ones I'd like to share with you, which I thought were very very fascinating. Look at source number seven, the Mishna Berurah. The Mishna Berurah, in his commentary on that Shulchan Aruch, brings a very interesting suggestion. Va'anishma'ti od b'shem gadol acher, I heard another reason. She'amar ta'am nachon l'zeh, who gave a very good reason why we eat dairy. B'eit shamdu al Har Sinai, v'kiblu et ha'Torah, when Am Yisrael received the Torah. So, now all of a sudden, this is a nation that went from not having many many commandments and many halachot, to all of a sudden, right after Matan Torah, we're commanded to keep many various halachot. V'yadum ha'har, all of a sudden, they went back to their houses. L'veitam, lo matzu maleh chol, they had nothing to eat. Why did they have nothing to eat? They could no longer eat meat right away. Why couldn't they eat meat right away? Because now they're commanded to do shechitah. Now, they're commanded to slaughter the to slaughter the animals. It's very complicated to do shechitah. And and all their keilim, they had to they had they had to kasher all their keilim because all their keilim had all were no longer So, so therefore, what was the easiest thing to eat at the time right after Matan Torah? Dairy. Dairy was the easiest thing to eat. I guess they had some cows. I don't know where they got it from, or the goat. I don't Where they got the Where they got They got milk from somewhere. So, to commemorate the fact that they ate dairy at Matan Torah, right after Matan Torah, therefore, we have the minhag to eat dairy. I thought that was very interesting, very creative. Of course, that's under the assumption There's one big assumption there, which is that Am Yisrael became obligated in all the various halachot right after Matan Torah. I don't know if it's clear when they were taught all the various halachot, but this is at least one approach to which was which was that they were taught many of the halachot, if not all of them, right at at at at the at the moment of revelation. And then and they went home, and they needed something to eat. And this is what they And this is what they ate. If you look at source number eight, another very creative suggestion. This is the Medrish in in Tehillim. The Medrish in Tehillim points out that the reason we eat chalav is because the whole argument of basar and chalav of not eating milk and meat is something which was fundamental to Am Yisrael receiving the Torah. How so? Look at source number eight. Actually, this is the The Medrish is bringing the end of a conversation that God had with the malachim. The Medrish tells us that when God was about to give the Torah to Am Yisrael, the angels approached God and said, "Why are you giving it to them? They're humans. They're going to make mistakes. They're not going to listen to you. They rebel against you. Keep it up here. If you keep your Torah up here, you'll make sure that everything is going to stay pristine." Amar lahem Hakadosh Baruchu. Now, let's look at source number eight. Says Hakadosh Baruchu to the angels, Bichol yom hayitem kategoreem benei uveinei Yisrael. Every day, you're challenging and you're and you're accusing Am Yisrael of not keeping the mitzvot, of not of not of not doing what they're supposed to. Lo atem kishi yaraditem etzel Avraham achaltem basar v'chalav. You, the angels, when the three angels went to Avraham Avinu, they went to Avraham Avinu. Avraham served them. If you look at the psukim, it tells us that Avraham served them meat. He served them from the cows and he also made butter. Which means he served them basar v'chalav. Did you guys eat basar v'chalav? Shene'emar, Vayikach V'tinok shelahem k'shehu bavi basar v'chalav the imano tenetlo pas uvasar v'gvinah le'echol harei hu omer la, "Hayom lamdeini Rebbe lo tivashel g'di bachalev imo." He said, "You guys ate basar v'chalav, but every three-year-old child knows when he comes home from gan, if his mother tries to give him milk together with his meat, he turns to his mother and says, 'But I learned that we're not allowed to do this.'" Ba'am lo matzu l'ma'aneh. And the angels couldn't respond to this. They couldn't respond to this accusation that Ami Israel were totally involved and understood the Torah and yet these angels didn't listen. So then God turns to Moshe and says, "Quick, Moshe, write down the Torah before the angels come up with this with with with with a better answer." And so part of the reason, according to Chazal, why we were privileged with the mitzvah or with sorry, with receiving the Torah was because due to the complication of basar v'chalav, we were able to receive the Torah. In order to show that we therefore we therefore eat dairy on on Shavuot. And source number nine, the Sefer Minhagim brings a brings another source which is just a you know, a rashei teivot. The pasuk says when it's when it's describing bishvuoteichem bishvuot ochlin chalav v'zecher remez letame atarasha nemar mincha chadasha l'Hashem bishvuoteichem. If you look at the the first letters of each of those of the words chadasha l'Hashem bishvuoteichem, it spells out chalav. So you have a hint to the idea of that we eat that we eat chalav on on Shavuot. One other one other reason that I wanted to share with you that which again is a fascinating one that I that I heard, I couldn't I couldn't find it written but I've heard it in the past is that one of the reasons is that is it is that we're connecting somehow to that and we'll we'll share this we'll talk about this in detail in a little bit. We're connecting to the Pesach story. In order to to remind ourselves because Moshe Rabbeinu when Moshe Rabbeinu was a when when Batya found Moshe Moshe Rabbeinu and in the in the in the Nile River and the and the Chazal tell us that Moshe Rabbeinu refused to nurse from the Egyptian women and and there as a result of that then Miriam came and paired him up with Yocheved and he was able to then continue to nurse from the from the from from his mother Yocheved. And in order to commemorate the fact that he didn't he refused to nurse from the non-Jewish women. Therefore, we eat dairy, we eat milk on on Shavuot. Now, that's an interesting I want I want to get back to that soon because we're going to see that some others some of them connect other minhagim on Shavuot to Pesach. And the question is, why are we talking about Pesach on Shavuot? I'd like to I'd like to talk about that soon. Okay. Now, those are two minhagim. So far we've done we've done the minhag of staying up all night. We've done the minhag of of dairy on Shavuot. The third minhag, which maybe some of you are familiar with, is flowers and greenery. There's a minhag to adorn the shul, to put to put different flowers before Shavuot. If not flowers, then plants and to and to and to decorate the shul in these flowers and plants. Now, where does this come from? So, the Levush in source number 10, "Venohagim lishto'ach etzim beyom tov de Shavuot debet keneset It commemorates the the the the the the the happiness and the simcha that we had when we received the Torah. Shehayu asavim saviv Har Sinai because our Sinai was decorated, according to Chazal, with flowers. And in order to commemorate that that it was that it was that it was that it was that it was adorned with flowers, therefore we adorn our shuls with flowers and plants plants. She'ne'emar as the pasuk says says gam hatzon v'havakar al ye'alu. Why did it Why does it specifically say that that the animals shouldn't come close or shouldn't pasture but right by Har Sinai? Shemaminah shehaya sham mar'eh. It must be that there were plants and flowers there that the animals would have wanted to pasture with. And we were told not to let our not not to let our animals go there. So, we learn from there that Har Sinai was adorned with flowers and plants, etc. And in order to commemorate that, we adorn our our shuls. Another reason that's given actually by the Magen Avraham, which is a totally different reason, is the following. In source number 11, "Nohagin la'amid ilanot bevet hakneset." We put trees or plants in the shul uvabattim and in our houses. "Venireh li hata'am sheyas'kiru be atzeret nidonim al peirot. The It reminds us of the fact that on Shavuot we're actually judged for the kinds of fruits and produce that are going to grow. There are different There are different times of the Mishna in Masechet Rosh Hashanah tells us that there are different times of the year when we are judged for different things. For example, we know that on Sukkot nidonim al mayim, we're judged for water. Um and and Rosh Hashanah we're judged as individuals. And one of the judgments we have is that on Atzeret, which is known as Shavuot, we're judged for the peirot, for the for the fruit that are going to grow that year. And therefore, to commemorate that, to remind ourselves of that fact, cuz it's not something we we think about a lot, therefore we adorn the shul with with different things. Um now there are some sources that actually that actually say that that we should not do this. The Gra, the Vilna Gaon, was known to say that this was a minhag that he didn't think was appropriate because he felt that this was a minhag The minhag of putting flowers in your sanctuary was something that was that the that the that that other religions did. And it was too similar to other religions. And therefore, there are many shuls who don't do this nowadays. My memory serves me correctly, in my shul in America they definitely used to put have very beautiful flowers. And I think even in I I I live now in a in Shalem in a kibbutz, they don't put flowers, they actually just take like big leaves and they hang literally literally hang them up around the shul. I think that's much more Israeli. In America they have like these fancy bouquets and then in Israel they're like hanging up palm tree palm tree branches. We Oh, you have things of wheat. Okay, so I think my If I remember correctly, my shul like just takes palm branches of palm trees and like tapes them and puts them all around the shul. Again, based on the different reasons. Either it's because of the adornment of Har Sinai or it's to remind us uh uh that that that that that Shavuot is a time when we are being judged on um on on on fruit. Um but there's another explanation that is given for this, which again hearkens back to to to to to Pesach. And this explanation points out that Shavuot happens to be that around the time when Moshe Rabbeinu, as a baby, was put into the Or, into the Nile. And how do we know that? Cuz if we remember, we know that Mosha Rabbeinu was born on Zion Adar. Right? He was born and he passed away both on Zion Adar, on the 7th of Adar. And the Torah tells us that for 3 months his mother hid him in cuz she tried to hide him after he was born. If you calculate 3 months later, it comes out to the 7th of Sivan. Okay? So, which means that around this time is when Mosha Rabbeinu was actually taken from his home, put into the or, and then the whole story as we know it. Now, why what is it why how is this connected to the greenery? So, this explanation suggests the reason why we do this is because when Mosha was placed into the into the Nile, it tells us that he was placed and surrounded by reeds. And it tells us that Miriam hid in the in on the side behind the reeds to see what was going on. And therefore, the suggestion is made that that's why we put reeds around our shul. Again, I want to get back to hopefully soon why all of the sudden on Shavuot are we hearkening back to to to Pesach. Something something to to think about. Okay. We have only a couple of more minutes that I'd like to that I'd like to go through um and then and then to kind of bring this all together. Megillat Ruth Megillat Ruth is again another minag that many of us many of us are familiar with, something that we all know. But again, remember this is a minag. All of these things are customs that developed later on. There is no mitzvah that was commanded of us on Shavuot specifically. All all everything we do on Shavuot all develops from minhagim. Look at source number 13. Why do we read Megillat Ruth? Again, a number of very a number of different answers. V'gam b'Shavuot nahagu likrot Ruth. Why? Lifnei shekatuv bo, cuz the very beginning of it it says "Vayehi bitkhilat kitzir khitim." It was at the time of the harvesting of the khitim, the huzman hakatzir. Shavuot is the khag hakatzir. It is the khag that is is the khag of of of the harvest. V'od ta'am, what's another reason? Akher lifnei she'avoteinu lo kiblu et haTorah v'lo nichnesu l'brit ela b'milah v'tvila v'hartzat damim k'di Eisav b'perek ha'choletz. V'Ruth gam hi nitga'iyra she'ne'emar, "Ki el asher telchi elech." This I think is a very important answer. Another reason why we read Ruth on Shavuot is because Ruth is the quintessential giyoret. She is the classic Jewish convert. She chose to join, she dedicated herself to her to the Naomi, her mother-in-law. And why do we read that on Shavuot? Because Shavuot reminds us that fundamentally we're all converts. The entire Jewish nation had to go through a process of milah, tvilah, of got of preparing going going to the mikvah preparing before Matan Torah. If the boys had not had the milah, they had to do they had to do a brit milah. That same process that every ger go or giyores goes through in their conversion process, we as a nation had to had to go through as well. And therefore, when we talk about conversions and we talk about converts, how we're supposed to write the Torah is very clear about how we're supposed to treat converts. We're supposed to be very We're supposed to we're supposed to be very kind, extra kind to converts. Now, I'm not going to get into this right now, but there's a there's often a certain association with with conversions because there's a there's a there's a certain halacha about how we're supposed to approach a convert when a convert when a convert comes to us, and there's a certain understanding that we're supposed to initially perhaps push them away in order to ensure that they're dedicated and really want and want to convert. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't treat converts appropriately. Afoch, we're supposed to treat them in a very with a with a in a very special way. And what reminds us of that? What helps highlight that for us? The recognition and the understanding that fundamentally all of Am Yisrael were really converts. If somebody left Mitzrayim with the nation, but wasn't at Matan Torah, and didn't go through the process needed to receive to to to to prepare himself for Matan Torah, he wasn't Jewish. It was nothing automatic that if you left Egypt, you were automatically It had You had to be a part You had to leave Egypt and be there at Matan Torah and go through the preparation process. And because in order to highlight that, we read specifically Megillat Ruth at on on Shavuot, the celebration of the Torah. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. She mean that's why we talk about why we read Ruth. Yeah, yeah, of course. That's another suggestion. We're going to see that we're going to see that we're going to see that very, very soon. 100%. There are other reasons why we read why we read Megillat Megillat Ruth. This is just two of them. The next reason another reason source number 14. We're going to get to Yes, but you're you're suggesting, of course, is is certainly there. I didn't bring the source for that, but yes, if you look at source number 14, "Ma inyan Ruth etzel ha'Atzeret?" Why do we read Ruth etzel right by by Shavuot? "Shenikre ba'Atzeret bizman matan Torah." Why do we read it when it's the same time that we commemorate receiving the Torah? "Lelamedcha shelo natnu Torah ela al yedei yisurin ve'oni." That living a life of Torah can often come through challenges and and and travails and tribulations. Just like Ruth and Orpah and Naomi lived at the beginning certainly in the in the in for much of their life with many different challenges, so too living a life of Torah often requires us to live through a certain amount of challenges. And this I mean, this is something that we all understand and are experiencing now. Um due to the situation in this current security situation in Eretz Yisrael where on the one hand, there's no I'm sure I speak for most if not all of us, there's no other place we'd rather be. But on the other hand, we are certainly a nation in pain. And that is part of of living a life of Torah is recognition that sometimes there comes with certain sacrifices and challenges. And Megillat Ruth, according to this, according to the Yalkut Shimoni, is highlight highlight that as well. Uh Sha'arei Teshuvah in source number 16 gives one other one other suggestion. And he said, I'll just say it outside. Why do we read Ruth on Shavuot? Because according to Chazal, David Hamelech was born and died on Shavuot. And as we know, who did David Hamelech come from? From Ruth and and Boaz. And and as at the end of of Megillat Ruth, it lists the lineage and ultimately getting to all the way getting to David HaMelech. And in order to show that even the king and ultimately the Mashiach comes from Ruth and Boaz, and therefore we we read that story on on Shavuot as well. Please. It's always been here at Teres at Teres at Teres. She was Is it really ever written in the Torah? The Torah? Yes, the Torah does refer to to Shavuot as atzeres. I with I I I don't remember which specific chukim, I apologize, but I'm happy to look at it. It's a good question. I will look at it again, but I definitely my recollection is that yes. have that called, but I don't No, so so it's it's a good point. My recollection is yes. I I don't I don't remember it offhand, so I could be mistaken, but I seem to recall that it is what we we could we could look we could look at it. I'm I'm happy I'm happy to explore it. Thank you. And I'm happy to I I could be wrong. My recollection is that it is called atzeres in the Torah. That is one of the only names it's given in the Torah is atzeres, but I'm happy to to to look that up and it could be I'm wrong. Okay. Now, two other two other minhagim that I wanted to get to. One is the minhag I'll say this out out out uh outside is the minhag to read the aseres hadibros, to read the Ten Commandments in a special trop, in a special cantillation. Those of us who who have paid attention or who are ba'alei kriah may be familiar with the fact that there are two different ways that the aseres hadibros could be read. One is called ta'am elyon and one is called ta'am tachton. It's a different trop, it's a different it's a it's a different tune, and it also divides up the actual Ten Commandments in different ways. Usually, generally, the minhag when we read when we read the parshiyot of the aseres hadibros, the Ten Commandments, on the classic during the year, we read what's called ta'am tachton. We read the regular the regular trop, the regular cantillation. But on Shavuot, many shuls have the minhag have the custom to read it in a different tune. Why? So, I'm not going to we're not going to see it inside, but the Chizkuni suggests that's because on Shavuot we're trying to recreate the receiving of the the and the and the revelation that we have from Hakadosh Baruchu. And in order to show that, we read the Aseret Hadibrot differently in order to show that we're now recreating the moment of of of of revelation. So, that's just another minhag that not all shuls do it. Some shuls specifically don't because there's a whole question whether it will make it seem like certain that you shouldn't read one section different than the other cuz it'll imply that one section of the Torah is better than the other. All aspect All words and all letters in the Torah are very, very important. But, this is up This is a minhag that is mentioned which many shuls do have to read the Aseret Hadibrot specifically on Shavuot in a different in a in a different cantillation. Yes? So, the difference historical attitudes You mean is there is there a historical in terms of this this specific minhag? Uh all of these different minhagim I don't I want I want I want to highlight that I'll only get to that soon. So, hold that off for a second. Uh listen, all of these different minhagim are are clearly come from different sources and different places. And I'm not historically going through which communities they came from, which communities they didn't come from. Some The one that's one The one that's listed in the Zohar obviously is but comes from a much much earlier source. Uh some of them come from later sources. Whether or not, you know, culturally and sociologically some came from different areas, different parts of the country. It's a very good question. Um I I I'm not familiar you know, I don't I don't have as much of a I guess a a cultural and sociological background to be able to to explain the different cultures and where they all came from. But, it is interesting to see the different minhagim that are that are that are developing. The last minhag which is I as I mentioned and I mentioned facetiously is is our favorite is the Akdamot. Akdamot, for those of us who are familiar with this, is what happens is is right before they read the Torah on Shavuot morning, the Cohen is called up. The Cohen, before he says the bracha, he then reads what's basically a piyut. It's a it's a it's almost a poem um describing and describing the beauty of Hashem and his Torah. A- and it's something that many many people aren't familiar with don't expect. And you get and it could be confusing because you're like, well, what? Are they reading the Torah? Are they not reading the Torah? In fact, we're not going to go through this now, but historically, they used to read it as part of the laining. Meaning, the the Cohen used to say the bracha for the Torah, they would read one possuk from the Torah, and then they would stop, pause in the middle, and then read the Akdamut. Contemporary times, they stopped doing that. Why? Because of they were afraid it would be confusing. It's not mechubad to read a possuk from the Torah and then and then start reading from something outside the Torah. People wouldn't know what's written in the Torah, what's not. And therefore, the minhag is the Cohen comes up, he reads this beautiful piyut and poem, and then he makes the bracha on the Birkot HaTorah, and then he and then he and then he and then he laines, and then and then the ba'al korei laines. Now, what I wanted to highlight though is where this comes from. Where did this piyut come from? So, I brought for you here an excerpt from Sefer, a wonderful sefer called Sefer HaToda'ah, the Book of Jewish Heritage by Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov. It's one of those fundamental books that really outlines various minhagim in Jewish communities. And I think this is actually very important. To me, when I was when I read this section, it really highlighted for me how how even contemporary times, this is maybe something that we should be paying more attention to. Cuz many of us are kind of spacing out during this time. And I think specifically in the times that we're living in, we should be paying more attention to to Akdamut. So, look at source number 31. The piyut Akdamut was composed by Rabbi Meir, the son of Rabbi Yitzchak, who was the chazzan of the city of Worms. The sainted Rashi was a resident of Worms, and the tradition relates that Rabbi Meir was Rashi's teacher. The son of the author was slain for the sanctification of God's name during the crusade of 1906. And he too sanctified the name of heaven. 1096. 1096. Oh, thank you. You're right. It was not 1906. Thank you. That's a typo. Thank you. And he sanctified the name of heaven in a debate with priests, which was forced upon him. In the debate, the priests attempted to persuade him to forsake his faith and to accept theirs. He answered appropriately and scorned them. He spoke to them in strength and clarity of the creator's power, of his love for Israel, and the excellence of Torah and the reward harbored for its devotees. The saintly author did not live long after the debate, but he left as a blessed legacy this piyyut, Akdamot, in praise of the creator, the Torah, and Israel. In generations of annihilation and forced conversion, when it when a sharp sword rested on Israel's throat, sorry for all the typos, I have to fix these, and his enemies kindled conflagration of fire everywhere to burn Israel alive for steadfastly adhering to its faith in the living God, afflicted and persecuted Israel found encouragement and strength in this song. When it was sung in their ears, they derived the strength to withstand their enemies. Because of the excellence of the song and the saintliness of its author, the custom arose of chanting it in the middle of the Torah reading during the festival of of Shavuot. The kohen ascended to the Torah and recited the brakha. The first verse from the from the prescribed Torah reading for the day was read. The Torah reading was interrupted for the chanting of Akdamot and was resumed upon its conclusion. The people were thereby taught the extent of sanctifying God's name. That the Torah is ours is only ours if we adhere to it even at the cost of our lives. That the sanctification of God's name is the very essence of Torah. In recent generations, a number of outstanding geonim cast criticism upon the custom of interrupting the Torah reading for the recitation of Akdamot. The custom was finally established to call the kohen to the Torah, to open the Torah scroll and place its covering upon it, and then to chant Akdamot before the recitation of the brakha. And so the the history of Akdamot is meant to give strength and power to the concept that sometimes living a life of odat Hashem and living a life of kiddush Hashem requires us to sacrifice our lives and to sacrifice the things that are that are close to us. I can think of nothing more appropriate to be thinking about on Shavuot, especially especially during the years that that in right now, when so many so many giborim are giving of their own lives al Kiddush Hashem, and so many families are are are living with with the reality of having of having a life that is different and has been been forever changed due to the war that we're in. To me, Akdamot is something we should be we should specifically be thinking about and and focusing on to give us and to give all of Am Yisrael the chizuk that is needed to recognize that sometimes living a life of avodat Hashem and living a life of Kiddush Hashem requires, although we don't ask to have to give that ultimate sacrifice, it is something that we as a nation sometimes have to have to do. And so, what we've seen so far is a whole lot of minhagim. A whole lot of different customs. A whole lot of different minhagim for all the things that we do on Shavuot. And in fact, if we think about it, there were there were a couple of themes that really carried on throughout all the different minhagim. One theme that I think we saw throughout many of the minhagim was the concept of recreating Matan Torah. Recognizing that Shavuot is a day when we received the Torah, and that's why we put the flowers, and that's why we stay up all night, and that's and we eat we eat dairy because that's what they ate right after Matan Torah, right? So, we saw that there was one theme that really really went through passed through all the minhagim was the concept of recreating Matan Torah. Another theme that we saw in a couple of places was harkening back to Pesach was recognizing was was doing things that remind us of Pesach. Now, why would we be recognizing remembering Pesach on Shavuot? So, perhaps the suggestion is, and we've discussed this in the past, we have to remember that Pesach and Shavuot are not two totally independent chagim. They're actually intimately connected. So, in fact in fact, according to some opinions, Shavuot is really just the end of Pesach connected through what? Sefirat HaOmer. Pesach, then Sefirat HaOmer and Shavuot. And perhaps we're reminding ourselves that before we received the Torah, we had to become a nation through Yetziat Mitzrayim. Yetziat Mitzrayim, Pesach and Shavuot are interconnected and can never can never be separated. And that might be why even on Shavuot, we're doing various minhagim that remind us of the story of Pesach because the two hagim are not two independent hagim, but they're very much interconnected. But we have we started with a question. And the question we started with at the very beginning was why? Why is it that Shavuot is the one hag that is dominated by minhagim? It's the one hag where if you ask people to asso- their associations of the hag, what do they talk about? Minhagim. The question is why? And I'd like to to answer that question um read with you a a beautiful idea by Rav Ahron Lichtenstein zt"l for Ahron who was the Rosh Yeshiva Yeshivat Har Etzion. I had the privilege of of studying by him in the Gruss Kollel and Wy's Kollel for a couple of years. And he and he develops an idea that I think is important to help us understand this to answer this question. Source number 19. It is well known that although we refer to Shavuot in our in our prayers as Zman Matan Torah tenu, the Torah itself associates Shavuot we're in source number 19 only with the barley harvest and not with any historical event. Is there any connection between the agricultural holiday of Hag HaKatzir and the spiritual commemoration of Zman Matan Torah tenu? Although it is possible that the linkage is arbitrary, the Torah happened to have been given in the same season as the beginning of the harvest, it seems much more likely that the two are connected. In the two above-mentioned parshiot in Shemot, the Zman the time of Katzir when Shavuot falls is contrasted with the time of Asif indicating gathering indicating the holiday of Sukkot. What is the difference between Katzir harvesting and Asif gathering? Katzir is the first point in the agricultural process at which some sort of usable item emerges from the field. At this stage, the grain has developed to a point where it can begin its humanly controlled process. However, it is still far from being a finished product. At the time of harvest, much potential has yet to be realized before the time of the ingathering. The same principle could be applied to the giving of the Torah. At Sinai, the Jewish people received the word of God, a code to live by. God gave them an objective, a set text, the Torah Shebichtav, as well as a set of principles, traditions, and explanations, the Torah Shebe'al Peh, which require human input. God gave, so to speak, an unfinished gift. Through faithful transmission of the Masorah, as well as intense and creative study of it, the relatively amorphous oral law would take form. The Beit Halevi explains, "The written Torah now is identical to the one given at Har Sinai. One may not add anything to it. If a Torah scroll has one extra letter, it is disqualified, just as if it were missing a letter." The written Torah was given in a set form to which you cannot add and from which you cannot detract. However, the oral law has no bounds or limits, and in every generation new laws are developed. Each time a person touches it, he discovers a new insight which was previously unknown. The demand to develop the Torah Shebe'al Peh is not placed upon a single generation or a single individual, but rather upon the entire Jewish people for all time. Thus, at Sinai, and this is the important piece, God set before the people both the objective text, the raw material of and the requirement to develop the oral law to its fullest potential, the obligation of every Jew. Says Rav Lichtenstein, "What we're celebrating on Hag Hashavuot is not just that God gave us a book of Halakha, and we just do it. God gave us, as it were, the grain, harvested it, but it's now up to us to continue to cultivate it and to develop it. The fact that the Matan Torah occurred on Hag Hakatzir shows us that the Torah is not a finished product. Obviously, there are rules. Obviously, there are ways not any person can come in and just decide what the Torah is. But, the Torah requires a human input. It requires development through the oral law in order to develop. And in order to show that the Torah was not given as a finished product, but was rather part of a of of a huge corpus code that we call oral law, therefore God gave it on Hag Hakatzir, when it wasn't yet the time for the finished product to be brought into the home, to highlight the human involvement in the development of Torah. Perhaps we can suggest that why on Shavuot we're focusing specifically on Minhagim, because one of the things that highlights more than anything the contribution of the human element to our religious experience are the various customs that we have gotten from various cultures and communities throughout the world. And it's specifically on this day when we receive the Torah we remind ourselves that it's not just the Torah Shebichtav that we receive from God, but that we are partners. We as human beings, we as a people are partnering with Hakadosh Baruchu in developing the Torah and applying it to the modern times. And the feel and culture of our lives is something that develops actively through the communities and the Minhagim that we develop. And perhaps that is why specifically on Shavuot there is no specific Mitzvah, but rather the entire Chag is it revolves around the various Minhagim, the various customs that we have in order to highlight our involvement in the development of Jewish life and development of Jewish culture. Um okay, we we did a lot. I'm just going to I'm going to end I'll take I'll take questions after just because I want to make sure that everyone has a has a break. I'm sorry I can't I can't I'm happy to answer questions, but I want to dismiss everyone so you have a few minute break before uh before the next slot. Um just also a quick reminder if anybody would like is interested to hear more about this about Bar and Bat Mitzvah that's happening on Thursday you can come to me. I'm happy to share with you. Wishing everybody a wonderful week and uh and of course a Chag Sameach.