SHAVUOS

Shavuos, unlike Pesach and Succos, does not have any specific mitzvah that has to be performed by all Jews wherever they live.

On Pesach we have various mitzvos including eating matzah and morror, discussing in detail the יציאת מצרים, the going of Egypt by reading the Haggadah and also the fact that we are not allowed to eat or even possess any chometz. On Succos we have the mitzvah of sitting in a Succah, utilising the ד' מינים, the lulav, esrog etc. On Shavuos, there is no specific mitzvah.

We can understand this readily because Shavuos celebrates the giving of the whole of Torah and not any specific individual item.

However, in the Bais Hamikdosh, we find that on Pesach there was the special sacrifice of the korban Pesach and on Succos there was the ניסוך המים, the ceremony of specially drawing water and then pouring it out on the mizbeach. We also find that on Shavuos there was a special mitzvah, namely the שתי הלחם, the two loaves of bread that were especially brought as a sacrifice.

I quote the various verses in Emor as follows:-

והקרבתם מנחה חדשה לה' ממשבותכם תבאו לחם תנופה שתים שני עשרונים סלת תהיינה חמץ תאפנה ביכורים לה'

You should bring a new flour offering to Hashem. From your dwelling places you should bring bread to be waved, two loaves, of two esroinim fine flour to be baked as chometz, a first offering to Hashem.

The Torah then continues

והקרבתם על הלחם שבעת כבשים בני שנה ופר בן בקר אילים שנים וכו'

And you should bring sacrifices together with the bread consisting of seven lambs in their first year, a bull and two rams.

I think that we need to delve a little into the matter and resolve the following questions.

1) What has the bringing of the שתי הלחם, two loaves, to do with the receiving of the Torah?

2) Nowhere else do we find that a communal sacrifice should be the לחם, the loaves and together with that, to have to bring other sacrifices of animals. It is always the other way around, namely, that the sacrifices are the animals and with that is brought an offering made from flour.

3) Generally speaking, the Torah specifies the animals to be brought in this order, פר, איל and then כבשים namely, a bull, a ram and then lambs, namely, from the strongest to the weakest. In this case, the order is inverted starting with lambs.

4) Why does the Torah specify the word, ממשבותכם, that this offering has to be brought from the places in which “you dwell”.

5) What was the necessity to carry out תנופה, to wave the שתי הלחם, the loaves, together with two lambs.

6) Why where the loaves specified to be of fine wheat flour?

7) Finally and the most unusual of all, was that the Torah commanded that it should be baked as חמץ, leavened bread. There is no other sacrifice which was brought where all the bread was to be baked as chometz. Generally it had to be matzah.

In order to try to understand all this, I would like to quote the statement which has been made by great Rabbis and mekobolim generations ago, namely that at the night of Pesach the Bnei Yisroel received loftyואורות שפע, spiritual illuminations and attained heights way above their low spiritual level. The next day they had returned to their original level which was very low and had to work on themselves each day as if climbing up a ladder for seven weeks until Shavuos.

To emphasise that they were starting to climb up by themselves, on the 16th day of Nissan, there is a special mitzvah of bringing a sacrifice of the Omer, this is an offering specifically of barley, which normally is eaten by animals rather than people and is to highlight the idea of having to start at a low level and then gradually go upwards over a period. At the time the Jews went out of Egypt, seven weeks later they actually said נעשה ונשמע, “we will do and we will hear that which Hashem commands us”. They accepted the Torah hearing the Ten Commandments, the עשרת הדברות from Hakodesh Boruch Hu, Himself.

Therefore, one might think that on Shavuos, because this was a completely spiritual experience, we should, each year, concentrate completely only on the spiritual side and not on the physical side. However, this is not so. The Torah was given to human beings who have both a נשמה, a soul, which comes from a very high spiritual level, together with a body. This is unlike the angels. You may recall the Gemora where the angels took objection to Moshe Rabbenu receiving the Torah and when he was told by Hashem to answer their objections, he asked them “do you have food and drink, to partake of” etc. Many of the 613 mitzvos are directly connected with our physical selves.

Nevertheless, one might consider that the physical side is only an addendum to the spiritual side of Shavuos.

In order to highlight the fact that this was not so, Hakodesh Boruch Hu commanded that on Shavuos specifically, the main sacrifice was to be two loaves of bread which had to be made of the finest flour and had to be leavened, made of חמץ. The implication is that the best type of גשמיות, the physical, should be utilised in the service of Hashem. Furthermore, there was a special command to pick up these two loaves each with a lamb and wave them, תנופה, so that people could see them. This was elevating it even further.

Turning to the reason for the lambs being mentioned before the other animals, this again is to impress on us that we start from the lower levels and ascend to the higher levels, from the weakest to the strongest.

The Land of Israel was divided up into small plots and most people worked their own land. In order to emphasise that everybody in their little patch producing wheat and other crops, had a connection with the Holiness of the Beis Hamikdosh, the Torah says ממושבותיכם תביאו, you should bring from your own dwelling places. The whole emphasise was to inculcate the idea in people’s minds that from the level of producing food one can achieve holiness and be near to Hashem.

חז''ל tell us, הכל מודים דבעצרת בעינן נמי לכם
All the Rabbis agree that on Shavuos one has to enjoy the Yom Tov in a physical as well as a spiritual manner.

Turning to parshas ראה the Torah tells us in respect of the Chag of Shavuos as follows:-
ושמחת לפני ה' אלקיך אתה ובנך ובתך ועבדך ואמתך והלוי אשר בשעריך והגר והיתום והאלמנה אשר בקרבך
And you should rejoice before Hashem, your G-d, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is in your gates, the stranger, the orphan and the widow among you.

The Torah is stating that everybody should come to the Bais Hamikdosh on Shavuos.

The Torah later in the parsha confirms that three times a year all males should come to the Bais Hamikdosh. In respect of שבועות there is a one off and specific commandment, namely that everybody should come to the Bais Hamikdosh. With that which I have explained above, as to the necessity for all to appreciate that the גשמיות be elevated and the שתי הלחם be brought as the main korban on Shavuos, and that they should actually see this being enacted, one can understand the necessity for everybody attending the Bais Hamikdosh.

I believe that this explanation covers the various points that I raised at the beginning.

However, in order to perhaps give a little deeper insight into what, no doubt, has much deeper reasons, as well as those I have suggested, let us just consider the actual size of these loaves.

We are told that they were seven טפחים long by four טפחים wide and a height of 4 אצבעות. This multiplied together is seven times four times four, which equals 112. This is also the gemmatria, the total numeric value of הוי' אלקים and furthermore, also of הוי' אדנ'י and אהיה, various emanations of Hashem. One begins to see some of the depth and spiritual affinity of a loaf of bread with the kedusha of the Bais Hamikdosh.

Unfortunately, nowadays, we do not have the Bais Hamikdosh, but, nevertheless, we eat special foods on Shavuos. The minhag is to eat cheesecake and milky foods followed later by a meat meal. This is an echo of the שתי הלחם the loaves that the Torah commanded to be brought first and the lambs are mentioned afterwards.

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