“We will Do, and We will Obey.”
Outside Israel, Shavuot is celebrated for two days, while in Israel, the regular Torah reading, Naso, continues until we in the diaspora catch up with the double parashah, Chukkat-Balak. Today’s parashah speaks of bringing a second tithe for those in need, such as the ger (foreigner), the orphan, and the widow. The Creator wants us to give with a willing heart, not out of a sense of being forced. We may hear people say, God is punishing me because I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. God doesn’t punish us; we are simply reaping the consequences of our actions. It seems that we act better when there is a fear of punishment rather than “doing” what the Torah tells us, i.e., to do our best.
This special festival of Shavuot used to be a time of joy, especially in Israel, where they celebrated the early harvest with song and dance, and by sharing sweets, cheese, dairy products, fruit, and flowers. I am a city slicker, with absolutely no knowledge of where the produce we purchase comes from, unlike those living in the Promised Land, Israel, who began as a nation of farmers and had to learn to cultivate the land. This land, called the land of milk and honey, was very different from Egypt, with its continuous water supply from the Nile, while Israel was a dry, stony desert. The Israelites had to learn to depend on the Creator! Farmers have more faith than anyone else because they depend entirely on the rains for healthy crops. It took a lot of hard work to cultivate this tiny piece of land.
Today, Israel has become the number-one nation to feed the world, not necessarily by growing everything at home, but by producing and teaching innovative farming techniques to help other countries grow their own food. Israel is unwittingly fulfilling the role given to Avram Avinu (our father Avram) in Genesis 12:3: “all the nations will be blessed through you.” Did you know that organic foods come from Israel? They understood that all creatures have natural enemies, so instead of using pesticides, which they found to be very expensive, they discovered they could destroy insects threatening the harvest by identifying each insect’s natural enemy. Today, they export these insects worldwide. They developed the innovative drip irrigation method necessary for areas where water is scarce. Honeybees generally work six months a year and rest for six months, but Israel discovered that bumblebees never rest, so they are used year-round for pollination. They imported owls that loved to hunt rodents, because they didn’t want to contaminate the land by poisoning them.
Israel has been a blessing, and Shavuot is the outcome. How?
We left Egypt after Pesach, the Festival of Deliverance, and when they arrived at Mt. Sinai three months later, something very special happened…they received the Tablets. We start counting the Omer for 50 days until we reach Shavuot, the Festival of the Weeks, or the Festival of the Harvest, also called the Festival of Matan Torateinu, the giving of the Torah. It took place at Har Sinai, when, after 40 days and 40 nights of being on the mount, Moshe received the Tablets of the Ten Commandments, written “in stone” by the Finger of God. Within those first three months, baby Israel would need to learn to trust in the Deliverer’s provision. If they obeyed Him, they would be blessed; if they refused to follow His instructions, there would be consequences, not punishments. This is an important principle. We are not punished; we harvest the consequences of our poor choices. In the end, we punish ourselves.
What is the relationship between the harvest and the Torah?
The harvest represents food, the physical gift of life, while the Torah is the gift of spiritual food. These Ten Commandments were meant for us to learn God’s principles for living a new way of life: that we are not to be solely dependent upon the Creator, but they are God’s Constitution to help us grow and make good decisions; these would yield good results, while bad decisions yield terrible consequences.
Our sages say that Shavuot represents the wedding between the Creator and Israel, with the Ten Commandments serving as the Ketubah, the Marriage Contract given by the groom to protect His new bride. This is an “eternal” covenant of marriage in which the faithfulness of the Creator doesn’t depend upon the faithfulness of Israel. What a beautiful picture for us today! He is faithful because of His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; it is not dependent upon our behaviour. However, our behaviour results in consequences. This is important to know!
This is the only festival that has no extra rules or regulations. It is simple…basically, bring our first fruits to the Creator, at the place that He would name, share them with the community and “rejoice”. Every other festival had a series of injunctions, but not Shavuot. God was telling us that when we rejoice and are thankful for His provision, showers of blessing will fall upon us, showing us that He is with us. It is the only one of the seven Feasts where “leavened” bread was accepted, signifying that we could be proud of the hard work we had done, planting and reaping the harvest and fully enjoying the partnership with our Creator.
At the time our rabbi brought us this message, the world was living in fear due to the pandemic. Many people said that God was punishing the world for its disobedience. Our rabbi had difficulty with this concept of God punishing people. When will we learn that our misbehavior holds consequences? When will we learn that we don’t have to blame God or others for our actions and that we suffer the consequences of our choices?
World leaders are using this as an excuse to abuse the most vulnerable among us. If we allow evil people to do whatever they want while we keep silent, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Proverbs 31: 8-9 clearly tells us to speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves. We need to speak out for what is right and against what is wrong. There are consequences for our silence. Doing nothing makes us part of the problem.
What does this have to do with Shavuot?
The first thing the Creator told us is to bring Him the first fruits of everything we harvest. What is this telling us? We need to be grateful for all His provisions and admit that everything we accomplish is because of Him. By taking all the credit, we are robbing Him of our first-fruits. He tells us to take care of the Ger (the stranger among us), the orphan, and the widow– the most needy and vulnerable among us. We are called at this time to share our bounty with others, especially those who cannot take care of themselves. Shavuot is about coming and bringing enough to share with everyone! We become obsessed with religious formulas and forget the most important element – our hearts. Everything good or bad comes from the heart. We tend to put on a show, a façade, for others rather than doing what is right before God. The Creator takes care of us, but He expects the best from us. A relationship is two-way – both parties give, and both receive. Ask yourself: “If I am going through a difficult time, who can I count on to be there for me?” Each of us is responsible for one another.
Many people fall into the trap of “Welfare Mentality”, which promotes the idea: Where can I receive the most handouts?” That’s why politicians give handouts – to buy votes. The Creator wanted to teach Israel to be independent. There is a Chinese proverb: If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach him to fish, he eats for life. It is so important for us in the community to invest in each other to help them become independent.
Hebrew is a language that teaches us through beautiful pictures. For instance, why do we eat fruit and dairy at Shavuot? The Hebrew word for milk is חָלָב (khalav), three letters that, in Gematria, add up to 40 (2 + 30 + 8 = 40; ח + ל + ב), the number of days and nights that Moshe was on Mt Sinai.
The land of Israel is a land of milk and honey. Milk symbolizes nourishment for a baby, with the Creator as our Nurturer. Honey is sweet like the Torah and is created by the bee, which in Hebrew is “Deborah דבורה,” coming from the word, daber – דבר, meaning “word”. In the Ultra-Orthodox world, children begin their first class in yeshiva with the book Vayikra, considered the book of holiness and innocence. As they learn each Hebrew letter, a bit of honey is placed on their tongue to represent the sweetness of the Word of God. Thus, they will hopefully never forget how sweet God’s words are.
There is another tradition, we study the Torah all night, which has now been expanded to many books of the Talmud. Each has its own traditions pointed toward studying and learning the Scriptures. The Torah contains the Five Books, but I emphasize that the core of the Torah is the Ten Commandments. If we can simply understand that when we apply these, our lives will be completely blessed. We don’t need to be religiously fanatic; we just need to work to apply its principles to our lives. It may seem simple, but it is not easy. It takes hard work, like sowing the seeds, planting them, watering them, daily care and weeding, until the final harvest, and God supplies the rain.
Because of the religious environments in which we live today, very few people understand that the Torah is not about us being legalistic, judgmental or narrow-minded. At the time of the writing of the Septuagint, the word Torah was mistranslated into Greek as “Nomos,” which means “the LAW”. This was a big mistake. Torah means instruction. When we refer to the Torah as the “Law”, we are giving a bad name to the Word of God.
Sometimes we are very meticulous to the point of obsession with religious formulae, which only makes us narrow-minded and judgmental. We forget the most important element – the intention of our hearts, out of which come good and evil. The Torah contains teachings and principles for us to follow and – this is crucial – to apply “according to each situation”. Our lives are not black and white; every situation has to be dealt with separately, and there are many grey areas. We may not know all the circumstances. God’s principles help us think logically and wisely and apply the true love of God in our relationships with each other. It is not about being judgmental; it is about righteous living.
Shavuot is a second tithing, and the only tithing that the Creator wants is a “willing” one; in the same way, the Torah cannot be forced upon anyone, it needs to be followed with a willing heart. In Shemot 19 (Exodus), when Moshe handed the tablets to the people, they all said, “We will do, and we will obey.” The Torah is about doing first, and as we do, we learn to obey because we come to trust in God’s provision; it is not about being a religious fanatic.
My desire is that at Shavuot, Matan Torah, we have a time of rejoicing, honouring, and giving thanks to the Creator for all that He has given us.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach
RANEBI ( Rabbi Netanel ben Yochanan)