Preparing for Shavuos? It’s way too late. Wrong. We can still prepare as long as we have the right frame of mind. If we realize what Shavuos is all about and we get a deep appreciation for it, this could help us speed up our hachana.
Yes, it’s ideal to prepare from Pesach and work on our middos and our connection to Hashem, but perhaps if we get a jolt of what our avoda is then we can get onto the elevator which will take us to the top of the mountain. Yes, we can get up the mountain and our job is to start climbing.
My bracha to all our readers is that we should reach the top of the mountain, but not just any mountain. Rather the mountain on which the Bais Hamikdash was situated the הר המורי-ה. We will look back at the trail in wonderment and marvel how we got so far in such a short amount of time.
However, with Hashem as our Father and King nothing is impossible, and this is not an exception. May we be zoche to be Oleh Regel up the mountain together this Yom Tov, Amen.
פינחס הלוי דאפפעלט
Let’s Be Real
Shavuos 5784
We are approaching the holy Yom Tov of Shavuos. After we went through Pesach and forty nine uplifting days of Sefira, now we are preparing for the climax, the great Yom tov of Shavuos.
If one were to ask the average Yid, what is the essence of the great Yom Tov, I assume they won’t say it’s the cheesecake. Most people will immediately respond that it’s the day of Kabbalas Hatorah.
While this statement is one hundred percent true, let’s begin with a mashal to explain why this statement is not sufficient, and we cannot get away with this simple statement.
There was once a poor man who we will refer to as Velvel, that due to his poverty suffered a lot. His family suffered with medical problems which he couldn’t treat. The hunger gnawed at their stomachs and they couldn’t even put bread on the table. Velvel barely had any friends and the loneliness made his problems unbearable.
One day, everything turned around. Velvel decided to play the lottery and to his good fortune, he won! He came soaring home to his family to share the fantastic news. From then on things started picking up. His family’s medical conditions improved and he made many friends as well.
A year passed and the anniversary of Velvel’s winning the lottery had arrived. Velvel threw a big party for all his new friends and family. The rich man, still a bit shy, gets up to speak and says, “This party is in honor of the lottery that I won a year ago. L’chaim!” He sits down back to his food.
His father, sitting there did not appreciate the speech. His father gets up and admonishes his son, that he hadn’t done justice with his speech. Therefore, he said that he feels obligated to speak.
The father began, “Before one year ago you were a poor person with no income, no friends and many medical problems. However, one ago everything turned around one eighty. Your life has taken off in the positive as you have everything one can dream of. You are better off than most people, bli ayin hara. Now it’s time for you to thank Hashem from the bottom of your heart.”
The nimshal is clear. We are like that person, except that we had it much worse. We were in Mitzrayim with many, many problems, both physically and spiritually. We were in deep trouble, but with Hashem’s great mercy, He took us out from the pit of Mitrayim. On Pesach we celebrate this great chessed as we get carried away with סיפור יציאת מצרים.
However, He didn’t just take us out of the pit. He gave us the most precious thing in the world that makes the lottery a joke, and that is the holy Torah. However, we cannot stop at this. In order to rejoice and to get a small appreciation for this great chessed we need to think deeply into the benefits that the Torah offers.
To get a deeper appreciation into this great Yom tov, we will bring three fundamental ideas that the Yom tov of Shavuos represents.
1. קבלת התורה – As we started off, it was at this time we received the Torah, as we have learned in school. However, we need to grow our appreciation for this great treasure that we received on this day. We cannot stay with a childish, superficial outlook.
Weapon – Chazal tell us בראתי יצר הרע בראתי תורה תבלין. Torah is the only weapon that we have to fight against the yetzer hara. This is a tremendous chessed Hashem. Without the Torah we would be like a soldier on a battlefield without a weapon.
Growth – If not for the Torah we wouldn’t be able to grow spiritually, as Rav Yosef exclaimed “אי לאו האי יומא כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא”- “If not for the day of Shavuos there would be many Yosefs in the street,” but they would be roaming the streets with nothing to their life.
Through the Torah we can grow into Ehrliche Yidden and we can even become a גדול בישרא-ל. The Vilna Gaon explains that Torah is compared to rain because it’s through the Torah that we can grow, similar to the rain. Understandably, the more Torah we learn, the more we will grow and shteig.
Meaning – Torah gives meaning and purpose in our life. With the Torah every action in our life takes on much meaning as we are doing mitzvos in all our actions, as it says בכל דרכך דעהו.
There is a story with Rav Yonasan Shteif zt”l who went to watch the Satmar Rebbe zt”l when he was eating. [He was a guest, which was unusual as the Rebbe usually ate in private.] When he was asked about the avoda of the Rebbe, Rav Yonasan responded, “I was able to keep up with the Rebbe at the beginning of the meal, but I lost him at the soup”.
Blazing light – The Derech Hashem expounds on the greatness of learning Torah. He explains that when one learns Torah he becomes enveloped in a light that’s greater than any other light. The Nefesh Hachaim also expounds on this a great deal, as well.
When we start thinking about all these amazing features that the Torah offers we will start getting an appreciation for this awesome gift Hashem has given us. This will help us make a Birchas Hatorah with much joy and appreciation. It will also give us a greater appreciation for this amazing Yom tov of Shavuos.
Sweetness of Torah – Anyone who learned Torah can attest to the great sweetness that one experiences when one is learning. Each person based on their level tastes the sweetness, but we cannot take this for granted. Perhaps many of us don’t appreciate this pleasure that Hashem gives us. Some people may think that it’s self-acquired, but this is totally false.
2. The great ברית – On this day we made a contract, a bris with Hashem. At this time we swore that we won’t take any One else and Hashem swore He won’t take any other nation instead of Klal Yisroel [perhaps we can add that this includes that we won’t take another master like the עבד הנרצע who does].
In fact, one reason brought down why this Yom Tov is called Shavuos, because of the shavuos “the promises” that we made with Hashem, as we explained.
However, we can add that if you look in the Zemiros that we say every Shabbos ובאו כולם” “בברית יחד נעשה ונשמע אמרו כאחד. It would seem that part of the bris was that they said ״נעשה ונשמע״. How do we understand this?
The Mishna in Pirkei Avos and Chazal say in a few places that we, Klal Yisroel, are workers – פועלים. We are employed to Hashem. I believe that this means that we are Hashem’s servants as it also says in many places, as well. [Perhaps the reason why we are פועלים because we are getting paid like a worker.]
In any case, we can say that this was part of our bris that we made with Hashem, that we won’t back out and Hashem won’t back out on us. This concept is brought down in the Chanukas Hatorah and others, as well.
Therefore, the expression of נעשה ונשמע was an expression of commitment that we will become subservient to Hashem and we will always do His will no matter what–whether we understand it or not.
The Meforshim explain why we say in Birchas Hatorah the words לעסוק בדברי תורה–because we need to treat Torah like a business. The Sefer Binyan Olam brings from the Baalei Mussar that we can learn from the work force how to treat our learning. He gives two examples:
One, if you watch someone working you will see that how he is heavily involved in his business. He is not looking around and he is surely not looking out the window [Perhaps it’s worthwhile for Yungerleit to watch businesses in action to get a live demonstration.]
Two, imagine a successful businessman comes to work with a huge “to do” list. As he enters, an old friend that he hadn’t seen for many years walks in. How would this businessman react?
Obviously, if he is a mentsch he will greet his friend warmly and with genuine pleasure. However, understandably, after a minute he will politely excuse himself that he needs to get to work. He might say “Please come back later and we will reconnect once again”.
Says the Binyan Olam, learning cannot be less than that. So if we meet someone on the way to learning, we need to greet them warmly but we need to excuse ourselves no matter who it is, as we rush to our work. This applies to everyone. Full-time learners, part- time learners, or even people that have their one hour Seder or even less.
3. יום חתונתו – Another description of this day of Shavuos given by Chazal is יום חתונתו. Some people may overlook this concept over Shavuos, but this is a big error. Perhaps this concept is even more important than the rest. Let’s elaborate.
One of the names of the Yom tov of Shavuos is עצרת. Interestingly, this name is not mentioned in the Torah by this Yom Tov. There are quite a few explanations why this Yom Tov is called with this name.
There is a Gemara (Kiddushin 6) that discusses different words that a person uses to be מקדש a women, and one of them is עצורתי. If you look at Rashi, you will find something fascinating. He writes, “לשון עצרת שתהא נאספת אל הבית”. We see clearly from Rashi that the word signifies a marriage.
Based on the Chazal that we quoted that יום חתונתו is referring to מתן תורה, it’s beautiful. Since this day was our marriage with Hashem [so to speak], therefore, this Yom Tov got the name of עצרת.
Based on this concept, there were many Kehillos that used to read a שטר תנאים on Shavuos, which is between the Chassan, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and His beloved Kallah the Bnei Yisroel. If you have never seen this שטר תנאים, you should. It’s so inspiring and beautiful.
The great Chuppa – Furthermore, the Maharal says that the idea of כפה עליהם את ההר כגגית represents the Chuppa between Hashem and the Bnei Yisroel. Based on this, perhaps the reason why we have lots of flowers at a Chuppa is to commemorate the Chuppa of Har Sinai, just like we do on Shavuos. As we are explaining, on Shavuos we are commemorating the great chuppa that we had.
So on Shavuos we are not only celebrating the fact that we got the Torah, we are also celebrating the fact that we got Hashem Himself כביכול. That’s because on this day we became Hashem’s beloved Kallah.
How did we get this relationship? Through the receiving of the Torah. The Zohar teaches us that originally it was קודשא בריך הוא ואורייתא חד הוא, but when we acquired the Torah we joined, as the Zohar tells us that ישראל ואורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד הוא.
Based on this, the Ramchal in his Sefer Derech Hashem tells us something very frightening. He says that if one learns Torah without bringing Hashem into the picture, in other words, he is to aware that he is learning Toras Hashem, it’s as if he is reading a letter.
Now this opens a discussion of to how often we need think about this, but the Nefesh Hachaim clearly says that before we begin learning we should sit down with a tremendous אימא ויראה that we are about to learn Toras Hashem. [I believe this would help us combat the מחלה called ביטול תורה.]
How can we be mechazek ourselves in this? For starters, we should perhaps make a few minute Mussar seder before we begin learning. The Seder should revolve around the great chashivus of Torah. Here are a few examples. There is the Sefer Maalos Batorah [which is not an easy sefer]. Then there is the Sefer Binyan Olam [which is a bit easier]. There is the Nefesh Hachaim and there are Chassidishe Seforim, as well available. Do your research.
כי הם חיינו – We mentioned earlier that we need to treat Torah as a business. However, that’s all the world of חיצוניות, chas v’shalom to view Torah as a business. A business helps us with our life, while Torah is the very essence of our life.
Rav Baruch Ber was once sitting as someone was giving a drasha. The man exclaimed that Torah is compared to oxygen, because without it we cannot live. However, Rav Baruch Ber disagreed. While it’s true that without oxygen we cannot live, but breathing does not define our life. On the other hand the Torah is the very essence of our life.
As we explained earlier, the Torah is source of our deep connection with Hashem, which is the core essence of the life of a Yid. Without our connection with Hashem we are like dead people as the Gemara tells us רשעים בחייהם נקראים מתים. That is because they are not connected to Hashem and that is the greatest tragedy.
The Meforshim teach us that this is what Hashem was conveying when he held the mountain over the Yidden. The message was loud and clear. If we do not cling to the Torah then we will be disconnected from Hashem ושם תהא קבורתכם.
The long awaited Chuppa– For some people this subject may seem a bit off topic, but not only is that untrue, on the contrary, it’s the climax of this article, as we will explain, with Hashem’s help.
We see clearly from the words of the Neviim and from Chazal that when Moshiach comes there will be a great Chuppa. Then Hashem will once again be the Chassan and Klal Yisroel will be His beloved bride, the Kallah, as the Navi says ישיש עליך אלוקיך כמשוש חתן על כלה [and many other sources].
The Seforim [Ramchal and others] teach us that time is like a spiral staircase, as we keep coming back to that special day. This means that on this day there is window that opens up and brings in a blazing light at one point of time it keeps reopening on that day. This makes that day a tremendous עת רצון like none other.
So with a very simple equation, we can conclude that since this day of Shavuos is the anniversary of our great wedding, as we elaborated on previously–the day that Klal Yisroel got their special closeness with Hashem like a bride. Therefore, we can only imagine what a tremendous עת רצון to bring the long awaited Chuppa which is almost two thousand years is heading our way. We can only imagine how the Tzaddikim and all the Malachim in the heavens are holding their breath (so to speak), whether we will be zoche to the Geula this Shavuos.
If you study the Parsha of Kabbalas Hatorah you will find two crucial ingredients which brought about Kabbalas Hatorah, the great wedding.
1. אחדות – The unbelievable achdus that they achieved, to which Chazal describe it “כאיש אחד בלב אחד” was legendary.
2. נעשה ונשמע – At this time Klal Yirael surrendered all their רצונות as they cried out with hearts full of Emuna and Bitachon נעשה ונשמע. They showed their steely commitment and devotion to Hashem, and they were zoche to the two crowns. And Chazal [in Shabbos] tell us that these crowns will return to us when Moshiach comes.
How can we be zoche to this Chuppa once again? How will we be zoche to get our crowns back once again? The simple answer is when we show Achdus to our fellow Yidden and we abolish שנאת חנם; when we tell Hashem with hearts full of Emuna and Bitachon נעשה ונשמע.
The truth is that right before Shavuos, this Sunday a large chunk of Klal Yisroel will gather with a tremendous achdus to celebrate the commitment of נעשה ונשמע on Hilchos Shabbos. However, these people need to realize that נעשה ונשמע includes everything in the Torah and they need to cry out נעשה ונשמע to all Halachos, as well.
Furthermore, even if you are not attending this massive event physically, we should join them in spirit. All of us should cry out together with achdus like never before with those two vital words נעשה ונשמע, especially with regards to Hilchos Shabbos, which is the source of our Keddusha and Bracha.
In fact, if you do a bit of research the Shabbos before Shavuos was known in many Kehillos as “Shabbos Hagadol”. Perhaps we can suggest that just like the Maharal explains that the reason why the Shabbos before Pesach is known as Shabbos Hagadol because it’s an ideal time for Geula, we can say that it’s the same for Shavuos.
In the zechus to our achdus and commitment to Shabbos, the Torah, and most important to Hashem, may we be zoche to what we have davened thousands of times וישמיענו ברחמיו שנית לעיני כל חי, and may we ascend to Yerushalayim with the two crowns as it says ושמחת עולם על ראשם.
במהרה בימינו אמן