A Time to Reflect on My Jewish Knowledge and Shavuot

In the past month and a half or so, I’ve in a sense, come alive. No, I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t depressed. But perhaps, I was a bit stagnant in my Jewish life. Let me be clear. I don’t mean stagnant in communal life. I went to my rabbi’s almost every Shabbos. Occasionally I would end up at shul on Saturdays. I’m always around when my shul has festivities, sheva brachos, women’s circles, etc. In other words, I’m a known person in my little shul. However, how much I actually “know” is a whole other story.

Since I met TikkunGer, I’ve come to realize (ahem–been made aware) that I really don’t do any Jewish learning or studying. For a while I’ve said I want to learn, but never seem to follow through. Unfortunately it’s not such an easy thing to wake up one day and say, “OK, today is the day. Today I learn.” Ok, it’s easy to say that but finding the right situation, class, teacher, study group, book, etc. can provide many challenges; especially to a girl like me who does not align with any one denomination of Judaism. I also am quite the beginner on some things, and sorta knowledgeable on others.

Today I had lunch with one of my quite observant friends. Amongst the many random things we talked about, she asked me if I was coming to shul on Thursday. I, embarassingly asked, “What for?”. She answered, “It’s Shavuos, when Hashem gave us the Torah”. “Oh yeah! I was thinking of going to this one hour class that discusses Shavuos actually”, I replied. You see, my intentions are there, it’s the action behind them that gets off track often. And so, here I was sitting at home after a day of errands, and I thought I should pick a book off my shelf and see what it has to offer me about Shavous. This is what I learned from “How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household”(this is just the highlites, the book has much more):

A little history
According to the Torah, Shavous was originally a harvest festival, a feast of the summer wheat harvest in the land of Israel. Eventually the focus shifted from agricultural to historical since the giving of the Torah at Sinai occurred at this same time. I like what the author says here: “Shavuot is an example of the Jewish people’s ability to transform the meaning of a moment, to move from nature to history, from biology to spirit.”

Preparation
We eat dairy on Shavuos. For me that’s a delight. I mean, who doesn’t love: cheese blintzes, cheese kreplach, cheesecake? I found the different customs of why we eat the 3 sided Kreplach quite interesting. Some beliefs are that “G-d gave the Torah in 3 parts to three categories of people through a third born child (Moses) in the thrid month of the year.”

There are many “customs” of why we eat dairy too: “Moses was drawn out of the water on the day which later came to be Shavuot. He was willing to be nursed by only a Hebrew woman.” Some also believed that “until the Jews received the Torah they were not bound by the laws of kashrut. Upon receiving the Torah all their pots and pans and dishes were rendered trefeh. So they ate dairy until they could kasher their utensils.” Another idea is that, “…in Song of Songs (4:11) that “knowledge of the Torah is like milk and honey under the tongue.” The mention of honey is perhaps also where the custom of eating challah sweetened with honey came from.

Celebration
On the first night we do a regular Maariv service followed by a festive dairy meal. Next it is tradition to study all night. This tradition was started by Kabbalists in the Middle Ages. In the Zohar, there is a passage that praises those who stay awake all night learning Torah. There are special selections chosen specifically for Shavuos, these can be found in a “Tikkun” book.

The next morning it’s important to attend shul to hear the reading of the ten commandments. “The rabbis tell us that each Jew in each generation should consider him/herself as having received the Torah at Mt. Sinai.” There are other traditional prayers and tunes sung. On the second day of Shavuos the entire Book of Ruth is read.

What it’s About
I think this whole section is quite beautiful and poignant: “It is about the Torah, and about the covenant. A covenant has many dimensions to it…” “The covenant between G-d and the Jews suggests many things. A covenant is like a good marriage: open-ended, you never knwo what the next day will bring, yet deep down you know that you’ll remain faithful. There’s a steadiness about it, a commitment that is somehow more than just the sense of working at it to make it go. An open-ended relationship means that in times of pain and suffering the partners grow closer together, jus as does a strong family. In three thousand years of ups and downs, neither partner has said, “Enough already.” That’s what a covenant is”.

“And that’s what the Book of Ruth is really about-that you can love after evil, that you can have passionand compassion after tradgedy, adn more than that, that to go on being human you must feel those very feelings. Ruth is a simple yet profound tale-a commitment of love that is stronger than logic, of little acts of goodness that are, in the long run, of cosmic significance.And perhaps Jews in this generation can understand this better than all the Jews who went before us”.

I am thankful to my new found relationships and friendships this last year. My level of observance and my own Jewish knowledge of self have been eye-openers and heart-openers. Just the fact that I’m sitting here, writing a post which quotes a text, is evidence (at least for myself) that I’m doing some learning, no matter how big or small; no matter how much of it I recall in later days. My consciousness level is a tad higher after writing this post. My intention this week is to go to shul Thursday evening and share the dairy meal with my community. I won’t be studying all night since I do work at 7:30 Friday morning. Friday I’ll go for Shabbos dinner at my rabbi’s and then to shul to hear the Book of Ruth and the commandments read on Saturday.

I wish each of you, my Jewish readers, a Shavuous that is meaningful and reflective.

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