I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to the entire community for coming together over the last week. It has been a profoundly sad and tragic time, but the chesed -- loving-kindness -- that I’ve witnessed makes me feel proud to be a part of the family of B’nai Emunah. You have literally kept the world standing with your acts of loving-kindness. May Esther’s memory be for a blessing and may the entire Safer family find consolation at this time.
Shavuot (“The Feast of Weeks”) is approaching. It is a common tradition to eat dairy products, very often cheesecake, on Shavuot, which was transformed from an agricultural holiday to one that celebrates the Revelation of Torah on Mount Sinai. You may wonder, “What does dairy have to do with Shavuot and Torah?”
Shavuot is one of the shlosh r’galim (three pilgrimage festivals), Sukkot and Passover being the other two. Originally, at the end of the wheat harvest, the Israelites would take what would be for us the equivalent of a family trip, that is, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There, they would show their appreciation to G-d by making an offering at the Temple. After the Temple’s destruction, the holiday became associated with the Revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Torah.
Nu, what does this have to do with dairy? At Sinai, the Israelites first received the laws of keeping kosher. “Uh-oh” (probably more like, “Oy-vey”), they said, “I guess our pots and pans aren’t kosher,” and so they decided to eat dairy to avoid breaking these new rules. Another reason is that Torah is compared to milk and honey from the verse in Song of Songs 4:11: “Honey and milk are under your tongue.” On Shavuot then, eating dairy complements Torah study. Finally, my favorite explanation is that on Shavuot we are all compared to babies, receiving our very first educational lesson through the Torah, and of course a baby’s first food is milk.
As we enter this time period of receiving the Torah, may each of us be open to the possibilities of beginning anew, and may we find all the nourishment that we need at this time.
Shalom,
Rabbi Mark
