Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev

Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev
Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev
Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev
Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev Home Page
About us
Leadership Seminary
Rabbinical Seminary
Amiel
YHOL Application Form
Contact us
Ohr Torah Stone
1x1transp.gif (807 bytes) 1x1transp.gif (807 bytes) 1x1transp.gif (807 bytes)

Shavuot Eludes Time
by: Rabbi Menachem Schrader
Faculty, Yeshivat Hamivtar - Orot Lev

There is no calendar date mentioned in the Torah telling us when it is.  The date the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai is not stated.  It's set time bypasses the monthly cycle.  It comes at the end of the seven weeks, but those weeks can begin on any weekday and are not functions of the weekly Shabbat.

The two other festive holidays of the Jewish calendar, Pesach and Sukkot, are each seven days.  Shavuot stands out as a single day festival , not allowing for weeklong thought and celebration of its significance.  The Talmud explains that although it lasts one day its impact is like seven (for example, regarding the laws of mourning.)  The limits of the single day do not stop the power of the holiday to effect as much as the others.  Shavuot does in a day what Pesach and Sukkot do in a week.

The receiving of the Ten Commandments was the foundation of the National Covenant between G-d and the Jewish people.  It took several minutes, its effect is till the end of time.  Beyond time.  The eternality of the commandments makes the covenant eternal as well.  The world and it's temporality was created for this covenant, and is given moral meaning through it.

In the Temple the Ten Commandments were read every day.  Our Temple worship of G-d is itself premised on our covenant of commandments.   Shavuot is everyday.  It is commemorated fifty days after we remember the Exodus, but actually it is the event of all time.  A nation  not obligated nationally by G-d exists as an expression of its culture.  It's existence will be limited in time by the relevance of its contribution.  A nation obligated by G-d is defined by that obligation itself, and is coexistence with it.  God's command to obey them that is the Jewish Nation.

Return to Yeshivat Hamivtar - Orot Lev