Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The Holiday of Shavuous: Putting the Giving of the Torah into Everyday Life
1:15 AM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
As the holiday of Shavuos comes, we celebrate it through learning Torah all night long. As each holiday has their specific mitzvos, i.e. Sukkos, we sit in a sukkah, shake the lulav...Chanukah, lighting the menorah, Passover eating matzah...the holiday of Shavuos is marked by learning Torah.
The essence of the holiday is showing our commitment to Torah and adherence to its laws. We show its importance by staying up all night learning it. The reason is brought down by the famous Ari Zal (Rav Isaach Luria) that we were sleeping when G-d wanted to give us the Torah and He had to make lightning and thunder to wake us up. Throughout the generations we must fix up this transgression and stay awake all night to make up for what happened.
In reality though, we should be dancing with the Torah like we do on Simchas Torah. Why don't we do this on Shavuous? Simchas Torah celebrates our yearly cycle of finishing the Torah and we celebrate the ability to be able to continue it again and start from the beginning. This shows that the Torah never ends and is limitless and always continuing.
Shavuous on the other hand is about our commitment to Torah. We show we want to keep it at all costs regardless of what it tells us to do. It is like we are in G-d's army. Whether we get more sleep or less, we still have to uphold the standards of the Torah to the best of our ability.Even if we are tired after staying up all night and we will ultimately fall asleep during parts of davening, nonetheless we are showing our commitment to Torah!
Ultimately it is our ability to try and connect to the Torah as much as possible. Even if we fail we try and show G-d how much we want to improve! it is the effort that we put that matters and the thought that we want to change and become better people.
The purpose of these days leading up to Shavuos is to recommit ourselves to the Torah and its ideals and think about what we can do to improve our ways. This is why there are the 48 ways to acquire the Torah that the Mishna in Pirke Avos speaks about. We look at each one, each day and think a little about them and how they affect our lives.
May we merit to accept the Torah the way it should be and learn it to the best of our ability.
Have a happy and meaningful Shavuos!
The essence of the holiday is showing our commitment to Torah and adherence to its laws. We show its importance by staying up all night learning it. The reason is brought down by the famous Ari Zal (Rav Isaach Luria) that we were sleeping when G-d wanted to give us the Torah and He had to make lightning and thunder to wake us up. Throughout the generations we must fix up this transgression and stay awake all night to make up for what happened.
In reality though, we should be dancing with the Torah like we do on Simchas Torah. Why don't we do this on Shavuous? Simchas Torah celebrates our yearly cycle of finishing the Torah and we celebrate the ability to be able to continue it again and start from the beginning. This shows that the Torah never ends and is limitless and always continuing.
Shavuous on the other hand is about our commitment to Torah. We show we want to keep it at all costs regardless of what it tells us to do. It is like we are in G-d's army. Whether we get more sleep or less, we still have to uphold the standards of the Torah to the best of our ability.Even if we are tired after staying up all night and we will ultimately fall asleep during parts of davening, nonetheless we are showing our commitment to Torah!
Ultimately it is our ability to try and connect to the Torah as much as possible. Even if we fail we try and show G-d how much we want to improve! it is the effort that we put that matters and the thought that we want to change and become better people.
The purpose of these days leading up to Shavuos is to recommit ourselves to the Torah and its ideals and think about what we can do to improve our ways. This is why there are the 48 ways to acquire the Torah that the Mishna in Pirke Avos speaks about. We look at each one, each day and think a little about them and how they affect our lives.
May we merit to accept the Torah the way it should be and learn it to the best of our ability.
Have a happy and meaningful Shavuos!
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