By Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz
Next week, Jews all over the world will commence celebration of the festival of Shavuot which
commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. This wondrous event took place exactly 50 days after the exodus
from Egyptian slavery, 3,320 years ago.
The word Shavuot means “weeks.” It marks the completion of the seven weeks (49 days) between Passover and Shavuot.
Each day during this time period, also known as the “Omer,” the Jewish people spiritually purified and refined themselves
in preparation for receiving the Torah and entering into an eternal covenant with God.
Shavuot is also similar to the Hebrew word that means “oaths.” With the giving and acceptance of the Torah, God and the Jewish people exchanged oaths, forming an everlasting covenant not to forsake one another. Each year on Shavuot Jews celebrate and renew their acceptance of God's gift and our eternal bond with Him.
There are several interesting customs associated with this holiday. On Shavuot eve, many Jews stay up all night learning Torah. The next day, the Ten Commandments and the book of Ruth are read publicly in the synagogue. And there is also a custom to consume milk and dairy products, especially cheesecake.
The custom of learning is most fitting for the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah. Staying up all night is a Tikun (rectification) for the Jewish people having fallen asleep prior to receiving the Torah, rather than staying up in anticipation. To compensate for their behavior, their descendants have accepted upon themselves the custom of remaining awake all night.
Our sages explain that the Jews had good but incorrect intentions when they went to sleep. They understood that the days between their exodus from Egypt and receiving the Torah were to be utilized for an ongoing process of spiritual self- refinement. They thought that by going to sleep, during which a part of their soul would return to heaven, they could elevate themselves an additional level prior to receiving the Torah. God was displeased because He wanted them to appreciate that the Torah was not to be practiced in heaven, but in the physical world, connecting them to Him through the physical and spiritual practice of the “divine commandments” (mitzvoth).
Physical actions on earth rather than “out-of-body” experiences “in the spiritual world” are the path God prescribed to obtain spiritual enlightenment. The mystical teachings of Kabbalah explain that the “mitzvoth - מצות ” are practiced in accordance with God’s will and wisdom that are one with His essence. By fulfilling the mitzvoth we become “connected” to God’s essence. This is derived from the fact that the source of the word mitzvah is “tzavta” which means “connected.” It is also one of
the reasons our sages teach that “the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself.” What greater reward could one desire than to be connected to God’s essence?
This deep spiritual lesson is appropriate for the Shavuot holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah. However, the custom of eating dairy products seems out of place. There are a number of different explanations given for this custom. One points out that the Hebrew word for milk is “ חלב –chalav.” When the numerical value of the letters in this word are added
together ( ח chet = 8, ל lamed = 30 and ב beit = 2) the total is forty. Forty alludes to the number of days Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah.
I would like to offer the following, perhaps more personal and spiritual, reason for this custom. Unlike meat that nourishes the flesh, milk is full of calcium, which nourishes the bones. The Hebrew for bones is “atzmot– עצמות ” which is also the word that means “essence.” The custom of consuming dairy product therefore hints to the fact that on this holiday we absorb the Torah,
which nourishes our essence with the essence of God.
There is also a parallel between the personal bond and love a mother shares with her child and our connection with God. Milk is the most basic of foods that a nursing mother gives to her infant child. The mother literally gives of her essence and nurtures the essence of the baby. On Shavuot, we celebrate the personal and eternal relationship we have with God, when He gives over his essence – the Torah – and we absorb it into the essence of our soul.