Shavuot
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Shavuot
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Candlelighting:
Thursday - 7:39 pm
Links to all of our on-line activities can be found below.
Please
feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source
The
holiday of Shavuot is often called Chag Matan Torah, the Festival
of the Giving of the Torah. I have some difficulty with that. If one
receives a gift, one is under no obligation to use it, or even to keep
it. How often have you stashed that gift sweater in a closet, taking it
out only when you are likely to see the giver? How often have you taken a gift
back to the store where it was purchased, in order to get what you really
wanted? We all accept this practice - that's why the stores put gift
vouchers in the box. Many of us do that with the Torah, too! We trot
it out, in a sense, for the High Holy Days and our children's b'nai mitzvah,
which are often the only times some of us go to synagogue services. The
rest of the time, we leave it in the closet, with the mothballs. The Torah
should not be treated in that way.
Our
Rabbis understood that little bit of human nature. That is why a better
name for Shavuot would be Chag Kabbalat Torah - the Festival
of the Acceptance of the Torah. The midrash teaches that, not
only did the Israelites accept the Torah, they affirmatively sought it
ought! And God did not want to give it to them! According to Song of Songs
Rabbah, God said to them, "Before I give you My Torah, you must provide
sureties - a guarantee that you will keep the Torah." The Israelites proposed
in their turn their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but each was rejected
by God as insufficient. They proposed all of their prophets, but God said
they were not acceptable either. Then the Israelites said, "Let our
children be our sureties." And God replied, "Verily, those are
good sureties; for their sake will I give you My Torah."
Our
ancestors wanted the Torah so much that they promised that they, and we, and
our descendants, would keep it. And Torah observance has kept us intact as
a people for a hundred generations. If the Torah is constantly being given
to us, as implied in the Blessing Before the Torah Reading ("notein
hatorah" - the One Who gives the Torah), then we are constantly
accepting it. And God is giving it to us only because our children are our
sureties. For the sake of our children, and our descendants, "na'aseh
v'nishma" - we should do it, and we should listen to it!
Chag
Shavuot Sameach! Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi
Richard A. Flom
This Cyber Torah is offered in memory of my beloved grandfather,
Jacob Slome, whose yahrzeit falls on Sunday, Sivan 8, the second day of
Shavuot. Y’hi zikhro liv’rakhah – his memory is a blessing.
This Cyber Torah is offered in honor of our Religious School
graduates, Jessica Danhi and Gideon Said, who will become b’nai mitzvah later
this summer. Mazal tov!
Virtual
Tikkun Leil Shavuot with Rabbi Flom and Reb Jason Van Leeuwen, Thursday at 9:00
pm PDT via Zoom (Meeting Number 418 318 664) or Facebook Live at:
This
week's Torah readings, chanted by Reb Jason Van Leeuwen and with
commentary by Rabbi Flom, can be viewed here:
First
Day of Shavuot, with Hallel:
Second
Day of Shavuot, with Yizkor:
This
week's Haftarot, chanted by Susan Burke and Rabbi Flom, can be viewed
here:
First
Day of Shavuot:
Second
Day of Shavuot:
Join
our Kabbalat Shabbat Religious School Service, with Reb Jason Van Leeuwen
and Rabbi Flom this Friday evening at 6:30 pm PDT on Zoom (Meeting Number 418
318 664) or at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
Downloadable
and printable Siddur for Kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat Ma'ariv, Shabbat
Morning, and more, including Shavuot, available at:
Join
us every Tuesday at 12:30 pm PDT for Lunch and Learn, a 90
minute study session. We're learning the weekly haftarah. Join us on Zoom
(Meeting Number 637 834 304) or at: https://www.facebook.com/BnaiHayim/
This
week's Torah Sparks from the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem is
available here: https://uscj.org/blog/torahsparks-parashat-shavuot5780
You
can subscribe to Torah Sparks every week via email here:
Cyber
Torah list management (no salesman will call!):
