Community Magazine May 2012

The 50-Day Festival? The key to understanding the anomalies surrounding Shavuot, lies in the nature of sefirat ha’omer – the obligation to count each day for seven weeks, beginning on the second night of Pesah until Shavuot. Essentially, what the missva of sefirat ha’omer does is create a link between these two festive occasions. The counting establishes that Pesah and Shavuot are not two distinct holidays that happen to occur seven weeks apart. Rather, they are the two “bookends” of a single time-period. Pesah begins the process that concludes on Shavuot. The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe Nahmanides, Spain, 1194-1270), one of the greatest Spanish sages, went so far as to describe the omer period as “hol hamo’ed,” the interim days of a holiday. Just as Pesah and Sukkot begin and end with a yom tov, with several semi-holy days in between, similarly, every spring we celebrate an extended holiday that begins with Pesah, concludes with Shavuot, and has 49 “minor holiday” days in between. These are not two separate occasions, but rather two parts of a single observance. This concept easily resolves our two questions about Shavuot. The Torah does not assign a calendar date to Shavuot just as it does not assign a calendar date to the seventh day of Pesah. Shavuot is not its own holiday, but rather the conclusion of the holiday that begins with Pesah on the 15th of Nissan. Its date, then, is 50 days after the beginning of Pesah, not the 6th of Sivan. And for this same reason our sages referred to Shavuot by the term “Asseret.” Just as Shemini Asseret marks the conclusion of Sukkot, Shavuot marks the final conclusion of the extended holiday that began on Pesah. Dedicated inmemory of Mr.&Mrs. Jacques&Rachel Gindi  RABBI ELI J. MANSOUR What is Real Freedom? T here is something mysterious about the holiday of Shavuot. For starters, unlike every other Jewish holiday, Shavuot has no scriptural calendar date. Nowhere do we find it written in the Torah that we must observe a holiday on the 6th day of Sivan. Instead, the Torah commands us to observe a holiday 50 days after the first day of Pesah, at the conclusion of the omer period. Adding further intrigue, the sages of the Talmud refer to this holiday with a surprising name – “ Asseret .” Whenever we come across the name “ Asseret ” in the Mishna or Gemara, it refers to Shavuot – as opposed to Shemini Asseret, the more familiar “ Asseret ” holiday which marks the conclusion of the holiday of Sukkot. Why did our sages use this term in reference to Shavuot, and why didn’t the Torah specify a straightforward date for this holiday? The answer to these two intrinsically related questions, sheds light not only on the nature of the Shavuot festival, it also explains the fundamental Jewish definition of freedom. 12 Community magazine