Torah Study Blog

This year the holiday of Shavuot begins at sundown on May 19. The holiday is less familiar to American Reform Jews, but it was an important holiday in Biblical times. The holiday has its root in the Torah, where it is referred to as the Festival of Weeks, the Festival of Reaping, and the Day of First Fruits.

Biblical Israelites lived in an agrarian society and Shavuot was celebrated at the end of the grain harvest. According to Leviticus 23, the traditional offerings to God for the successful harvest consisted of two loaves of bread, seven yearling lambs, one bull, two rams, and wine. An additional helping of a goat and two more lambs was also required. That’s a lot of meat!

The 12^th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides taught that all Jewish festivals should be celebrated with rejoicing. Maimonides defined proper rejoicing as an event where, “Children should be given roasted seeds, nuts, and sweets. For, women, one should buy attractive clothes and jewelry according to one’s financial capacity. Men should eat meat and drink wine, for there is not happiness without partaking of meat, nor is there happiness without partaking of wine.”

At Torah Study today, Rabbi Janet Roberts acknowledged that, biblically, Shavuot was a festival with lots of meat. However, today’s traditional Jews celebrate Shavuot by eating a dairy meal. Our group studied possibilities of why Shavuot has become a holiday associated with a diary meal. Rabbi Roberts presented us with a variety of words of rabbis that could explain the change. Although we cannot prove anything, it certainly gave us something to ponder.

The Babylonian Talmud, which was compiled around the 6^th century CE and edited for hundreds of years after, says that, “When the Temple was in existence, there could be no rejoicing save with meat… But now that the Temple is no longer in existence, there is no rejoicing save with wine…” The argument here is that after the Temple fell the Israelite community was depressed. Some people said, “We cannot eat meat at all!” To rejoice was part of the Temple, and now the Temple is gone. And so was their happiness.

In fact, now that the Temple is gone, why should people celebrate the holiday at all? Tradition! A saying attributed to the 2^nd century rabbi, Shimon bar Yochai, taught, “If you see a custom that our fathers have practiced, do not change it.”

And Rashba, who lived in the 13^th century said, “Whenever there is a tradition in the hands of the elders from our people, we don’t brush it aside unless it is proven to be impossible. Why should we disregard their tradition, when all of our traditions trace back generation to generation all the way to Moses or the prophets.”

And in the words of the character Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, “You may ask ‘How did this tradition get started?’ I’ll tell you! I don’t know. But it’s a tradition … and because of our traditions … Every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”

Celebrating the holiday in the Temple as is outlined in the Torah is no longer possible. But the rabbis of old understood that there was a tremendous desire to keep the tradition of going. The rabbis kept the holiday and re-dedicated the celebration in honor of when the Israelites received the Torah.

Shavuot is celebrated in the later spring, approximately 50 days after the start of Passover. This is typically a time of year that there are lots of baby animals born and milk is available. Milk is essential for life, it provides everything a baby needs to survive.

Although we cannot claim with certainty that the Rabbis mandated a dairy meal for this reason, we do know that the Rabbis were known to liken the Torah to milk. The mystical writings known as the Zohar says that God’s revelation to us (in the form of the Torah) is the flow of divine presence that fills the world, like the flow of milk from a lactating mother.

In Exodus 3 Canaan is described as a, “land flowing with milk and honey.” In the Song of Songs 4 the sweetness of milk is noted as, “Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride; Honey and milk are under your tongue.” The Rabbis said that the Torah and milk are alike because they are sweet and life-giving.

The Rabbis also pointed out that milk changes its flavor based on what the mother eats. The Rabbis then said that every time we study Torah we are bringing new life-experiences to it and we can learn something new.

Is this relationship between milk being sweet and life-giving the reason that we have a dairy meal on Shavuot? Who knows, but Rabbi Roberts gave us compelling reasons that this theory could be within the realm of possibility.

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Roberts taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter