Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, which falls this year on
Monday, June 2, originated in biblical times as an agricultural festival, the
culmination of the spring grain harvest, which began around the time of
Passover with the reaping of barley and concluded with the gathering of wheat.
It was also the commencement of the season during which farmers brought the
first fruits of the harvest to the Temple, offerings from the crops considered
native to the land – the aforementioned grains as well as olives, figs, dates,
grapes and pomegranates. The holiday was one of three annual pilgrimage
festivals when people traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship, to bring
offerings and to celebrate. Unlike the other festivals mentioned in the Torah,
the timing of Shavuot was not expressly linked to a particular month and day
but was determined by the counting of seven weeks following the beginning of
Passover.
In post-biblical times, the focus of Shavuot changed
from gratitude for the gifts of the harvest to the celebration of the giving of
the Torah at Mount Sinai. The identification of Shavuot with the revelation of
the Torah was facilitated by the opening verse of Chapter 19 of Exodus
mentioning that the Israelites arrived at Sinai at the beginning of the third
month following their departure from Egypt. I can only speculate on the reasons
for the shift in the holiday’s meaning – perhaps, the growth of a sizeable
Jewish population living in the Diaspora, a change in the occupational profile
of Jews (fewer farmers, more craftsmen and tradespeople), or the centrality of
the concept of Torah in the theology of the rabbis. Kibbutzim in Israel
used to (and may still) stage pageants at Shavuot time to emulate the biblical
festival of First Fruits and recapture its spirit. The book of Ruth, one of the
scriptural readings for the holiday, has an agricultural theme. Its central
figure, Ruth, is a widow and foreigner, who, during harvest time, provides for
herself and her mother-in-law Naomi, by gleaning in the fields of the wealthy
landowner Boaz, the kinsman of her late husband. However, the main scriptural
reading of the day is the Torah’s account of the Covenant and Revelation at
Sinai, and the holiday is now preeminently, as the liturgy refers to it, z’man
matan Torateinu, “the time of the giving of our Torah.”
The word Torah has a wide and diverse range of meanings, the
most common of which is to denote the Five Books of Moses, the first section of
the Hebrew scripture. While torah in a narrow sense can refer to a
specific set of laws – e.g., “this is the torah of the burnt offering,”
calling the Torah in its entirety “the Law” is a misnomer. The Five Books of
Moses contain chapters of narrative, poetry, and exhortation and constitute
much more than a statement and elaboration of law. A more proper and
etymologically sound translation would be teaching. Torah also has a wider
application and can mean the entire body of Jewish spiritual and religious
literature that has been written and handed down over the centuries and that is
derived from and rooted in the scriptures. To fulfill the commandments of the
Torah through our actions is a religious obligation; for an observant Jew it is
also obligatory to set aside time on a regular basis to study the Torah as a
source of guidance and inspiration. Every morning, we pray, “instill in our
hearts the desire to understand and discern, to listen, learn and teach, to
observe, perform and fulfill all the teachings of your Torah in love.” (The
Koren Siddur, translation by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks)
Torah is regarded in Judaism as an expression of God’s love
and as a path to experiencing God’s presence in our lives. The giving of Torah
at Sinai is the fitting complement to the liberation of the Israelite slaves
which occurred but a few short weeks before and which we celebrate during
Passover. Freedom cannot be allowed to degenerate into anarchy or license. Our
personal freedom does not entitle us to exploit or oppress, to trample on the
dignity and well-being of our fellows, or to be indifferent to their suffering.
We need the framework provided by Torah to regulate our freedom, or as the
wordplay of the rabbis expressed it, true cherut (freedom) is attained
only by virtue of what is charut (incised) on the tablets of the
commandments.
Rabbi Barry Marks is rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel in
Springfield.