The Case of the Missing Torah - What is Shavuos All About?

Good evening and welcome to our sheer. Good evening and welcome to our special sheer, which is part of a beautiful evening of Yeshiva University has planned a evening of learning in anticipation of Shavuot. And I hope that when we are done tonight, you will stay with the sheer and you will join this a very beautiful program they have through the night. If you go on YU's website, you can see all the details and you can join that beautiful sheer. Thank you for being with me tonight as we explore what is a fascinating topic, a very interesting topic to me and that is what the holiday of Shavuot is really all about. You see, most of us immediately, if asked what Shavuot celebrates, if someone woke you up in the middle of the night and said, "What is the holiday of Shavuot commemorate? What does it celebrate? What is it really all about?" Almost universally, every one of us would say, "Shavuot is Matan Torah Sinai. Shavuot is about reliving, celebrating, re-experiencing the giving of the Torah. That is what the holiday is all about." And yet, what we'll see tonight, what we'll explore together, is if you look in the Torah sources themselves, and even if you look in rabbinic literature, you will not find a significant emphasis. The Torah itself, you'll find no mention at all of a connection between Shavuot and the giving of the Torah. So, what has become the universal theme, the universal observance of a holiday for us, actually has no mention in the Torah itself, which frankly is very bizarre. Shavuot is probably the least known and the least observed of all the Jewish holidays. I'm talking among unaffiliated secular Jews who all know and who all keep Hanukkah, who all know and who all keep in some sense or manifestation, some observance of Passover, of Pesach. And yet, ask a secular unaffiliated Jew what they're doing for Shavuot, they'll give you a blank look in return. They never heard of Shavuot. They don't know what it's all about. They don't know what it's all about. So, what I want to spend our time tonight is what is what is Shavuot really all about? What are we celebrating? Is it authentic to celebrate the giving, the receiving of the Torah? Did we somehow superimpose that theme on a holiday that really is about something else altogether? Uh you don't have sources in front of you, but I'm going to share and read to you from them. I'll read them slowly. And the first is from Sefer Vayikra, the Book of Vayikra, in the 23rd chapter. When it's going through in Parshat Emor, the Moadim, it's going through all the different holidays on the Jewish calendar, U'sfartem lachem shiv'at shabbatot temimot, it tells us that we count from the end of Pesach, the end of the first day of Pesach, and we count seven uh complete weeks, four times four, sorry, seven times seven, 49 weeks, almost 50 days. The Torah calls it 50 days. And then we mark Shavuot. Shavuot doesn't even have the distinction. Shavuot doesn't even have the decency to be given a date on the Jewish calendar itself. In fact, it's only given a date as a count in association with Pesach. It doesn't even get its own reserved date on the the does present it, what does it say? You should convoke on this very day. It's a holy convocation. Don't do any creative labor. Don't do melacha, just like Shabbat, just like Yom Tov. It is an eternal decree. 49 days, the 50th day is the holiday of Shavuot. And what is the holiday of Shavuot all about? It's a holiday. That's what the Torah tells us. That is it. That is it. It's a bizarre characterization. In fact, if you skip ahead in Sefer Bamidbar, perek chof ches, it talks about Shavuot in a different context as a holiday having to do with the first fruit. the seven species of Israel, the first of those fruit, the farmer identifies, sets it aside, brings it to the Beit Hamikdash, presents it to the kohen, and there's a celebration of this harvest of the first fruit. Even after all that toil, even after all that effort, even after all that work, while the farmer thinks they've acquired a right to that first fruit through the effort they've placed in it, in fact, Torah says it doesn't belong to you, farmer. Not your firstborn child and not your firstborn animal and not your firstborn fruit, bikkurim. So, what is Shavuot associated with? First fruit. Now, for many, for most, almost all of us who are observing Shavuot in our time, we don't connect to it at all as being part of a first fruit ceremony. U'viyom habikkurim, has anyone planted a garden? Is anyone harvesting their first fruit? And yet, that is the sum total of how the Torah identifies it. So, first in Emor, we have an allusion. U've'etzem krasam ba'etzem hayom hazeh mikra kodesh, it's a day of convocation, a day of holiness. Who even knows what those words mean? All we know is it doesn't mention Matan Torah. It doesn't mention Shavuot as a day of the receiving of the Torah. And when the Torah does give character, does give an identity or theme to the day, it's U'viyom habikkurim. It is the day of the first fruit. Elsewhere, the Torah calls it Chag Hakatzir. It's the day of harvest. The farmer who toils and works in the field harvests after everything they put in and brings it in. The Onkelos, in his translation of the pasuk of bikkurim, he calls Shavuot Atzeret. Now, Onkelos, where did he get this from? Onkelos is not the only one who gives a name to Shavuot that's unfamiliar to us. We know Chag Hakatzir, Chag Habikkurim, Chag Hashavuot, and Onkelos says Atzeret. The Mishnah itself, the rabbis themselves, the Tanaim give Shavuot that name. The Mishnah Rosh Hashanah talks about four Rosh Hashanahs. We identify one. We're all scrambling to figure out how it will be observed this year, how we will fill our sanctuary, how many of us can be near one another. But really, there are four Rosh Hashanahs, not just the first of Tishrei, which is characterized by our long davening and a day of judgment. But Pesach al hatzua, on Pesach, we are judged. It's a Rosh Hashanah for the grain. And says the Mishnah, "U'va'atzeret al peirot ha'ilan." On Atzeret, we're judged for the fruit of the tree. So, how does the Mishnah refer to Shavuot? Not connected to receiving the Torah, giving the Torah, not this unprecedented, unparalleled, unrepeated uh momentous occasion of history of the giving of the Torah. No. It's Chag Habikkurim. It's Chag Hakatzir. And it is Atzeret. Onkelos and the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah. Indeed, the Rambam in Hilchot Temidim U'Musafim, the Rambam, too, calls it Atzeret. Biyom chamishim yom la'omer, hu Chag Hashavuot, the 50th day after we began counting the Omer, count 49, the 50th day is Shavuot. Says the Rambam, "V'hu Yom Atzeret." And it is the day of Atzeret. What does that mean? Bikkurim, I understand are the first fruit. And Chag Hakatzir, I understand is about the harvest. The farmer is grateful and appreciative and satisfied and gets a break harvesting everything they worked hard to grow and to earn. What does the word Atzeret mean? So, the Ramban there in Parshat Emor, the Ramban there in Vayikra, perek gimel, tells us, and I'll share it with you outside. The Ramban says the word Atzeret means netzer hakol, everything stops. There was a process, there was something that began, it continued, and with this, it stops. Where else do you see the name Atzeret in a holiday on our calendar? You find it at the end of what holiday? Sukkot. Sukkot concludes with Shmini Atzeret. Now, Shmini Atzeret is a model, is parallel in very much ways to Shavuot, which is called Atzeret. Both of them are at the end of a count. Both of them are at the end of a period. And each one, in a sense, is a holiday unto itself. And yet, it's also connected to the holiday that precedes Shmini Atzeret is called a regel bifnei atzmo. It is an independent, separate holiday. You don't sit in the sukkah. We in chutz la'aretz, we're unsure of the day, sit in the sukkah, but don't make a brachah on sitting in the sukkah. But it is the end of the holiday of Sukkot on the one hand, it has that connection. But on the other hand, it's a regel bifnei atzmo. At the very same time, it has an identity as being a holiday unto itself. Similarly, Shavuot is the culmination. It is the conclusion. It is the climax of what we are celebrating since Pesach. And the Ramban here writes, just like the holiday of Pesach has first days, last days, and a chol hamoed that comes between, that bridges, so too, Shavuot, you have the entire eight days of Pesach are the first days. Shavuot are the last days. And the count of Sefirat Ha'omer is the chol hamoed that comes between. And writes the Ramban, "Observing Pesach without observing Shavuot means you haven't observed Pesach. Pesach is not about emancipation and liberation. Pesach is not just about freedom to become some secular political entity. Pesach is about the journey, the march, the 49-day count to the mountain to receive the Torah, to be part of a covenantal community, to accept and receive the charge and the mission to change and transform the world, to be a model of for the world through our observance of Hashem's sacred Torah. So, to celebrate why we were taken out without celebrating the goal, the purpose, the essence, the destination of why we were taken out, is to in fact not even celebrate having been taken out to begin with. So, as much as Shmini Atzeret, the end of Sukkot, is connected to the first days of Sukkot, so too, Shavuot is connected to the holiday of Pesach. Sefirat Ha'omer, the 49-day count, is the chol hamoed that comes in between. And that's why they share the same name, called Atzeret, called Atzeret. So, we've seen several themes meanwhile. We've seen Chag Hakatzir, it's the harvest. The farmer is gratified and deeply appreciative to have concluded the harvest, to know their bounty, to draw their income for the year. It's called Chag Habikkurim, the first fruit. Even after the toil, the effort of the first, even though you think you've earned it, you've invested in it, all firsts belong to Hashem. Everything belongs to Hashem. A third theme is Atzeret. It's the end, the culmination of Pesach. The holiday of freedom and liberty culminates in standing at the mountain and receiving the Torah. One without the other is utterly incomplete. But what we see that's missing is what we recite in our kiddush and in our davening. We describe Chag Hashavuot as Zman Matan Torateinu. We are observing this Shavuot. And what is the theme, the essence? What are we observing about it? Zman Matan Torah Sein O. And what I want to spend our brief time this evening together examining is the case of the missing Torah. What happened to the theme of Torah with Shavuot? Our observance of Shavuot today entirely centers around the Torah. The flowers that normally adorn a shul commemorate the landscape at Har Sinai when the Torah was given. Staying up all night, what do we do? Not davening, we stay up all night learning Torah. It is the theme, it is the essence. We read the Aseres Hadibros, we recreate the giving, the receiving of the Torah. It's Zman Matan Torah Sein O, and yet it's absent. It's entirely invisible. It's entirely gone from the story of the holiday of Shavuot. Hag Hakatzir, Hag Habikurim, Atzeres. What happened to the theme of Matan Torah Sein O? So you could say maybe it was superimposed later. Maybe really Shavuot is an agricultural holiday with an agrarian basis. And yet when we morphed, when we transitioned from an agricultural society, that's when our rabbis needed to hang the hook. They needed to figure out one theme of Shavuot and therefore they came up with oh, that's also the day the Torah was given. But that's that doesn't satisfy. That seems peculiar. Why? Because it's so intrinsic. It's not a coincidence the Torah was given on that day. It is the essence and the core of what the day is all about. So why isn't it mentioned? What is Shavuot really all about? In addition to first, in addition to appreciation for our income and our bounty and our harvest and in addition to feeling that it's the culmination of a journey that we began of Pesach of self-improvement and growth. Pesach the Korban Omer is made out of barley, it's animal food. Shavuot the Shte Halachman is made out of bread. Bread is the result of human ingenuity, human creativity, human entrepreneurship and ambition to grow wheat and to harvest it and to winnow it and to grind it and to knead it and to bake it. No animal can take a wheat stalk and turn it into a delicious challah, delicious loaf of bread. That's human ingenuity. So therefore we go from the barley theme of Pesach where animal animal impulse, animal instinct, animal behavior, 49th level of tumah, and we climb climb climb climb climb that ladder up until we become, we realize our potential, our mission. We recognize why we're here and namely that is to live Torah lives and to teach the world the principles, the values, the ideals that our timeless Torah, that our timeless Torah gives us. In fact, the Sfas Emes when he describes the holiday of Shavuot, he says that the holiday of Shavuot, which is the plural of Shavuot, Shavuot is an oath or promise. Shavuot means there were two promises. God makes us a promise and we reciprocate, we make a promise back. A promise of reciprocal loving, affectionate, close relationship one towards the other. It is a special relationship. It's a relationship where we renew that promise each and every year. And in fact, he points us back to the passage about Bikurim. V'yom Habikurim Bikuravchem Mincha Chadasha L'Hashem. What is it that we're offering? Bishvuoseichem. On the holiday that commemorates the two promises, the two oaths, us towards God and God towards us, Hakrivchem, what we offer is a Mincha, a gift, namely of Chadasha, renewal, newness, excitement, freshness. Our promise, our gift to Hashem, our service and sacrifice is we won't allow things to grow stale. We won't allow them to grow old. We're committed to it being real. But again, the case of the missing Torah. Hag Hakatzir, Hag Habikurim, Atzeres. What happened to Zman Torah Matan Torah Sein O in the Torah itself? The Or Hachaim Hakadosh says it's alluded to. It's not explicitly said, but it's alluded to. Listen to this Or Hachaim Hakadosh, Rav Chaim ben Attar. He says K'ilu Yotzei'u B'Tumas Mitzrayim Rotzah Hashem L'Hadbik L'Umah Zu. We were saturated and contaminated the lowest level of impurity, of moral corruption, of depravity. But Hashem wanted to bond with us. He wanted to marry us. He wanted to be intimate with us. So he said Dan B'Chamesh B'Nidah She Dinah L'Hisbareik Nikiyin. If a woman is impure in anticipation, in preparation of her wedding night, of the intimacy, of the bond, of the union she seeks to form with her new found husband, she has to prepare with seven clean days. She counts seven Nikiyin. But Tzeva Sheyisbaru Sheva Shavuot V'Az Yimuchshar L'Hachnisam Kallah L'Chuppah. Just like the Kallah counts the number seven and only when she is ready do they have that union, so too we the Jewish people count according to a theme of the number seven, seven weeks, and then our seven weeks are the seven Nikiyin. Now we're ready to stand under the Chuppah and enter the marriage vows and experience an intimate roman- romantic rendezvous with our Creator. V'Gam Ki Sham Sheva Yamim V'Chan Sheva Shavuot L'Tzaref L'Gufah Shel Tumah. There are seven days, that's all that's necessary for the bride to prepare, and we have to count seven weeks, which is a multiple. He says the reason is simple. The bride is already pretty holy, she just needs these seven clean days. But we, we were on the lowest level. We have to climb out. We have to dream and aspire and reach. And therefore it took much more than seven days, it took seven weeks. Siba Sfirah Zu Hi L'Siba Shel Matan Torah She Zu Zeh Takeufah She Nosan Lanu Torah. If not for that, we would have gotten the Torah right away when we left because after all that was the goal, that was the purpose, that was the the destination. Come out of Mitzrayim. Don't just be some secular political entity. Don't just be a new people or nation, but be a Torah people, a covenantal community. Have a charge and a mission to bring the Torah values and ideals, teach the world how to relate to time and how to relate to love and how to relate to food and how to relate to pleasure. Teach the world how to relate to all these ideas and all these values through the principles of Torah. We would have received the Torah right away, but we weren't ready. We were on the lowest level. We needed a theme of seven. That's how one prepares. That's how one achieves a holiness. Just like the bride before her Chuppah, so too the Jewish people seven weeks of preparation, seven weeks of transformation so that we could stand purely under the Chuppah in union with Hashem. So the Or Hachaim Hakadosh says Torah doesn't explicitly tell us that the theme of the holiday of Shavuot is the giving of the Torah. For some reason, which we still need to examine, it hides it, it cloaks it, it's a mystery. Yet if you look simply at the calculation of the seven weeks, seven times seven, 49 days, but the seven weeks is a seven account with the unit of seven. That's what one does before the Chuppah. Zman Matan Torah Sein O, receiving the Torah. There is at least an allusion. Rabbeinu Bachya writes U'Mach Sheba Parsha Zu Stumah Yoser M'She'ar Parshiyos Amudim. Rabbeinu Bachya clearly is also bothered. Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pakuda, the great Spanish commentary, the medieval Spanish commentary, is also clearly bothered. I don't understand. In all of our observance, almost universally, we all associate Shavuot with receiving the Torah. So where is it in the Torah? Torah doesn't hide other holidays. It tells us the theme, for example, of Sukkot, L'Ma'an Yedu Doroseichem. So that generations will know that you sat in Sukkot. So much so that the Torah says when you sit in the Sukkah, you need to know and think about and be mindful of why you're sitting there. If you don't and you're not thinking about it, you may not fulfill the mitzvah. So other holidays, the reason is given and yet here Shavuot is cloaked in mystery and enigma. And Rabbeinu Bachya says that's not coincidence, it's not chance, but rather it's by design. And why is it by design? Listen to what he says. I'Inyan Humash Yedu B'Inyan Torahseinu Hakadosha. U'Sen Sheheim Pnimus Hadatz M'Hakri Ki Kol Mah She'Inyan Yoser Ne'elam V'Yoser Pnimi Hu Yoser Sustam. The holier and the deeper and the more profound and the more poignant something is, the more inaccessible, the more mysterious, the more enigmatic, the more you have to search and dig and look for it. If something is has no value, if something has no worth, then we allow everyone to see it, to access it, to play with it, to touch it, to use it. It's worthless. What do we care? We put it on display for the world to see. But the holier and the greater and the more significant and the more irreplaceable something is, you put it in your safety deposit box. You put it in the safe. You cover it up and you cloak it and you put it away and you don't share it so readily with the world. Torah, the receiving of the Torah, the giving of the Torah, the unique and singular, the exclusive relationship of the Jewish people and the Torah is the highest, is the most deepest, is the most pnimi. And therefore it's the most ne'elam, it's the most hidden, it's the most inaccessible because it's the most precious. We protect it. You have to search, you have to look, you have to uncover, you have to go find that that's what really the holiday is all about. And here we have perhaps one of our first messages. That the holiday of Shavuot is not handed to us on a silver platter. To find its essence and theme, to be enriched and elevated by what it's about, one has to search, one has to look, one has to be on a journey to plumb the depths. It's not handed to us on a silver platter. And if that's true most years, it's all the more true this year when we don't have our all night learning at the shul. And we don't have our theme of of shiurim that take place over the course of the 48 hours. And we're not going to be all together elevated with beautiful davening from beginning to end. We need to dig, we need to find, we need to manufacture, we need to create, we need to uncover for ourselves that sacred Torah through our own commitment to Torah learning this year, even if it is in a a unusual way. The Abarbanel is also bothered by this question, Don Yitzchak Abarbanel. Again, the great Spanish uh commentator. And he says K'ilu B'Chag Shavuot Shehu Zman Matan Torahseinu. Aval Lo Nitztav Hachag L'Zichron Zeh K'Im L'hiyos T'chilas Ktziras Chittim. The holiday is not communicated to us in the context of celebrating or receiving the Torah, says the Abarbanel, also clearly bothered by our same question. But rather it's given to us in the context of the beginning of the harvest of the wheat. B'Chag Hamatzos U'V'Chag Hakatzir U'V'Chag Habikurim U'V'Chag Ha'aseif. B'Chag Ha'aseif B'Tzeis Hashanah and so on and so forth. Chag Hashavuot Tatzilu Bikurei Ktziras Chittim. We have it referred to as the Chag Hakatzir and the Chag Habikurim. U'V'Sefer Pinchas Yom Habikurim. U'V'Sefer Re'eh Anochi Sheva Sheva Shavuot Tispor Lach Me'achel Chamesh B'Kamah. It's always given to us in an agrarian, agricultural never explicitly in the Torah is Shavuot identified with the theme of receiving the Torah. In Churban Sholom Nikra Zeh Hachag Ela Ashir Hashavuot. V'Lo Nitztav K'Im Bnei Habikurim Lo L'Zechor Matan Torah. U'Zeh Amar B'Chag Hashavuot B'Etzem Hayom Hazeh K'Im L'hiyos Tzumah Shel Os Hayom L'hiyos Bikurei Ktziras Chittim Nitztav Lanu M'Mah She'Inyan Torah. The Bartenura is adamant. The Bartenura feels strongly that in fact the theme of the giving of the Torah is a secondary theme. It's a superimposed theme on the holiday. The holiday remains primarily a holiday of agriculture, of harvest, of appreciation, of first fruit, of recognition of what comes from Hashem. The Maharal in Sefer Divrei Yisrael, in the 27th chapter, also deals with this question. Everybody was bothered. Where is the case of the missing Torah? Where is the Torah in the Torah? Ainzeh she'eilah klal, says the Maharal. This is not a question that bothers me. The Torah gives us a reason associated with each of these holidays. So for example, it tells us when it comes to Chag Hamatzos, Pesach, because we were rescued, we were liberated, we were taken out of slavery. Sukkos, why? Because we were protected in the wilderness. Yom Kippur, why? Ki v'yom hazeh y'chaper aleichem, atonement. The heylu olam Yisrael. Says says the Maharal, you know why the Torah doesn't explicitly connect it? We have to connect the dots. Because let's go back to the giving of the Torah. And while we said na'aseh v'nishma, while we were excited and while we were eager, and while we put ourselves out there, and maybe while time we'll come back to this theme of the fact that we volunteered, na'aseh v'nishma, Hashem, we're eager. Tell us what to do. Tell us to jump. And and we'll ask how high. But nevertheless, Hashem also held the mountain over our head. We really had no choice. There was no option to opt out. And therefore, it wouldn't be so nostalgic and romantic. It wouldn't reflect a beauty of a close relationship. It wouldn't reflect well on us if we observe this holiday, a holiday where he held the mountain over our head, and coerced us. Told us accept the Torah and mutav. Yes, mutav. And if not, sham takeh pur'aschem. This will be your burial. That's your end. So says the Maharal, while of course, unlike the Abarbanel, while of course this is the essence, of course this is the critical theme, of course that's what Shavuos is really all about, nevertheless, the Torah doesn't explicitly say it. Why? Because it wouldn't be a good memory. It wouldn't be a good memory to be reminded how it was forced upon us, how we had no other choice. The Akeidas Yitzchak Yitzchak Arama gives a different explanation. I find it very beautiful, very meaningful. And consider it together with me. Listen what the Akeidas Yitzchak says. He says he asks our question, and he says two answers. Number one, The whole discussion, we actually give a shiur about it yesterday, about whether the first Anochi is considered the first mitzvah. According to the Ramban and the Bach, Anochi is not a mitzvah. What we call the first of the Ten Commandments is in fact not a commandment, it's a statement. I am the Lord your God. That's an observation. It's a statement of fact. The commandments begin with don't worship any other gods and continue from there, and you have to figure out how you arrive at the number 10. But the first is not its own independent mitzvah. Why? For the Ramban and Bach, at least the Ramban in his Hasagos on Sefer Hamitzvos, different than the Ramban's commentary on Parshas Yisro, but for the Ramban and the Bach, Anochi, if you don't believe in God, being commanded to won't cause you to believe. It's paradoxical. It makes no sense. You're obligated to believe in God. Who told you you're obligated? God. Which God? The one I'm obligated to believe in? It's paradoxical. It's circular. It doesn't make sense. And therefore, says what Akeidas Yitzchak, endorsing the position of the Bach, the Baal Halachos Gedolos, and the Ramban, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. So similarly here, the Torah doesn't explicitly mention because one has to receive and accept the Torah before you could celebrate a holiday which is all about being given and obligated and forced on the Torah. Says the Akeidas Yitzchak, and this is what I really want to focus on, this is I think most profound insight, more profound insight. Does anyone sit in a Sukkah not on the holiday of Sukkos? I don't mean you sit in a gazebo if the weather's nice. But do you sit in a a booth built exactly conforming to the dimensions and the rules of a Sukkah? You sit in a Sukkah on Sukkos. You eat matzah and maror on Pesach. You light the menorah on Chanukah. And you make the grager noises on Purim. Every holiday we have behaviors, and we have activities, and we have actions, and we have themes that we associate with that holiday, and only with that holiday. And we don't do it any other time other than that holiday. Says the Akeidas Yitzchak, you know what would have happened if the Torah said explicitly, Oh, you know what's coming up? Shavuos. And you know what Shavuos commemorates? The giving and the receiving of the Torah. And what do we do to commemorate it? We stop and we learn Torah. What would you say? Just like I don't shake a lulav and an esrog other than on Sukkos, so when is the time of year when I open those books that have gathered dust? When is the time of year that I make my way to that shiur to hear those divrei Torah? I do that on Shavuos. Just like I only shake the dalet minim on Sukkos, and just like I only eat matzah and maror on Pesach, I'll only learn Torah on Shavuos. So in order to avoid a person incorrectly, inaccurately, only learning Torah, celebrating Torah, only being devoted to Torah on Shavuos connected to the theme of that day, the Torah therefore hid, it cloaked, it left mysterious and ambiguous what the theme of Shavuos is. So we know what it's about. And we do the big reveal when it comes, spoiler alert, to our davening. Zman Matan Torah Seinenu. However, in the Torah proper, in the Torah itself, in the text of the Torah itself, it does not explicitly mention it, lest we come to only observe it, associate it specifically with that day, and not with any other day as well. The Kli Yakar is also bothered by this question. And the Kli Yakar writes the following. Siman Yom Matan Torah, You see, other holidays on our calendar commemorate history, moments of history. We're supposed to tap into the themes that those moments in history revealed, that we re-encounter each year anew, but ultimately they're driven by historical event. But when it comes to Shavuos, says the Kli Yakar, it's an exception. Shavuos is not driven, inspired, or informed by historical event. Shavuos is informed and inspired by something in the present, right now. And back at the mountain, I'm receiving the Torah fresh, anew, as if for the very first time. So why doesn't the Torah explicitly connect Shavuos with celebrating the receiving of the Torah? And similarly, well this is a shiur for Rosh Hashanah time, the other holiday that the Torah is Zichron Teruah, we call Rosh Hashanah as a day of judgment, Yom Hadin. It is replete throughout all the liturgy of the davening of Rosh Hashanah. And yet, when you look in the Torah itself, you don't see Yom Hadin. You don't see a day of judgment associated with Rosh Hashanah. So these are the two holidays where the way we celebrate them does not at all match up with the way that they are presented to us in the Torah. And the Kli Yakar says the reason is the same for both. And he says I wrote this in my commentary Orach L'Ephraim. Do you know, yesterday when I woke up, I went back to Har Sinai, and it's as if I entered a covenant, a commitment to the Torah anew. And do you know that Motzei Shabbos, it's as if I went back to Har Sinai and received the Torah anew. And in a week, and in a month, and in six months from now, I will be back at Har Sinai each and every day. It needs to be fresh, it needs to be new. Had the Torah said this is the reason for Shavuos, you know when you celebrate Torah, its primacy, its authority, its binding nature, its beauty, how it elevates and enriches us, that's on Shavuos. So when would I celebrate, honor, sing and dance, commit to learn Torah? Only on Shavuos. This is very similar to the Akeidas Yitzchak. The Gemara in Eruvin tells us like a baby. When a baby nurses, the mother produces, she lactates. But if the baby stops nursing, the baby stops sucking, the mother stops producing. So too, when we nurse from Torah, when we suck the beauty and the magnificence and the inspiration from Torah, it produces anew. It feels brand new. It's sweet. It nourishes. But when we stop, it stops producing. It gets old and stale and rote. So therefore, each and every day it has to feel for us like we've just received at Har Sinai. Im kein, kol yom Matan Torah eitzel hagamba. Al kein, ein ra'ui l'chog b'yom yadu'a. Every day is Matan Torah. For a student of Torah, for a ben Torah, a bas Torah, for a Torah household, for the Torah personality, every day is receiving the Torah anew, and therefore we do not limit it. We don't identify or associate simply with one day and one day only. The Torah Hashulchan Aruch in Siman Tof Tali Dalet also deals with this question. Af al pi she' ator lo zachar inyan Matan Torah b'Shavuos, she' ator l'olam l'olam. Torah was given forever, ein shachlikh b'yom yichud. It's inappropriate. You diminish Torah when you dedicate only one day. Only one day. What do you mean only one day? What do you mean we have an anniversary only one day? Every day is like I got married to you again. Every day I fall in love. Every day I celebrate our commitment and our covenant. Don't you you diminish our relationship when you think that the only time we have to say I love you, the only time we have to invest in a card, the only time that we have to put the other before ourselves is the anniversary. Get rid of the anniversary. Every day is our anniversary. Every day we are married anew. Every day is just as romantic and in love and that's why the Torah does not mention it. And so on and so forth. But the Torah is eternal and timeless. So the Torah connects with the showbread. Which was only on this day. In our we do the big reveal where we do connect it. But ultimately in the Torah itself it's not connected in the it was not connected because one should feel that connection to Torah as if we stand at the mountain and receive the Torah anew each and every year. With David Hoffman, the great German scholar. With David Hoffman, the great German also comments and he says the following in translation from his German commentary. No symbolic ritual was instituted for to mark the revelation seeing that it cannot be translated into the tangible language of symbol. Cuz there's another question, another anomaly about us. I have the sofa, the chauffeur and I have the matzah and the maror and I have the four species and the and what is the mitzvah of us? Cheesecake? No. Even for a dairy lover there's no mitzvah. And most there's a hug to have dairy, to have cheesecake and there is no mitzvah. What's the mitzvah of us? What's the mitzvah? What's the equivalent of the show for the and the matzah and the maror and the candles? What is the the megillah? What is the theme? What is the mitzvah of us? So David says it's by design and it's intentional that there is no mitzvah associated with the day. You know why? Because if the mitzvah of learning Torah were connected to the holiday of receiving the Torah you would only learn Torah on that day. Just like you only shake the on and the moment is over you dispose of your some of the custom to keep it and burn it with the and then you were stuck this year. But generally speaking you get rid of you dispose of the mitzvah when it's completed, when it's done. It served the purpose for that time. So David says if the theme and the essence of the holiday of had been revealed to us, if there were a mitzvah to learn Torah which was explicitly commanded to us, we would think it's only for that day and we would neglect it the rest of the year. And therefore is essentially the rest of the year but on steroids and high definition. We learn Torah and we live Torah every day of the year. We go back to the mountain and we receive and commit to accept the charge and the mandate of Torah each and every year. We we offer this new offer. This new offering. This newness, freshness, excitement. And so as we count down in just hours before our observance of the holiday of us I bless you and me. I bless all of us that we should understand the theme and the essence, come back to the mountain and re-accept the Torah anew. We should feel a sense of appreciation for our harvest, our bounty, our income. We should be excited by the giving our first despite all of its toil and effort recognizing that everything comes from we should tap into the it is the culmination and the completion of what we began on us. is finally coming to a close. These are the last days of the is almost over and we are coming full circle. Why were we liberated? What was the goal and the purpose, the destination of that freedom was to stand at the mountain and to fulfill this mission and charge to be a covenantal people, to teach the world the ideals of Torah. And yet while in we learn extra Torah and we commit to re-accept the Torah, it's not reserved that day and that day only. It's something that we experience and we accept each and every day of our lives. Wishing you a a holy everyone should be happy, healthy and holy. Have a fantastic evening. Everyone should please tune into the going through the night. Going through the night, beautiful, beautiful this is a part of that program and please continue with it.