ENDING WITH A BEGINNING

SHAVUOT 5767

The Torah does not give a specific date for the celebration of the Festival of Shavuot. A fixed date commemorates either an end or a beginning. Shavuot commemorates both but we are not sure when the end ends and the beginning begins because they overlap.

This Festival occurs with the culmination of the counting of the Omer that starts on the 2nd day of Pesah. So, Shavuot is Atzeret, the closing of a seven-week cycle beginning with Pesah. At the same time, it commemorates the beginning of Bnei Brit - the sons of the covenant, that is, Israel as a constituted Community.

Shavuot is a harvest festival. The yield of the harvest is
the product of the roots. The roots of the fruit of the Shavuot harvest lie in the exodus from Egypt. Without freedom and free will, there is no reaping.

The fruit of the yield contains the seed for the next harvest. The seed is the Decalogue that is brought to light. The seed takes root in the Written Torah, and the Oral Torah as Halacha is the harvest.

Usually there is much rejoicing with the harvest festival, yet there is but one reference in the Torah to joy relative to Shavuot, for we sow with tears. Are they tears of gladness or sadness?

We don’t quite know. We are assured however, the ultimate reaping will be with Rinah – shouts of joy!
HAG SAMEAH!

BAMIDBAR – NUMBERS

“Bemidbar Sinai in the wilderness of Sinai… take a census of the community” (Num.1.1f)

In the Torah the title of the fourth of the Five books of Moshe is ‘Bamidbar’ – In the wilderness. In the English Bible, the title is ‘Numbers’. What is the relevance of numbering in the wilderness?

The wilderness has no bounds. There are no boundaries, no off-limits; people are free to roam about at will.
In the wilderness of Sinai, there is one beacon, a landmark, a point of focus.
The journey of life is like a passage through the wilderness fraught with unknown dangers and pitfalls. That we have freedom of choice on which way we take, complicates our problems. We need spiritual beacons to enable us to fix our bearings so that we do not falter and lose our way.

How do we accomplish this in a realistic and practical manner? By being numbered in a Community of Faith where we count and belong.

The Community is our spiritual anchor. No matter how difficult life is, the Community in which we are numbered is our spiritual compass, pointing us in the right direction and giving us the necessary directives that we may make the right decisions and follow the right paths.