Shavuos-Naso

How do we see that there was a greater and lesser revelation within the awesome experience at Sinai? How does it parallel the revelation of Moshe as the redeemer, as well as the future revelation of the Moshiach? How does it also parallel the merit of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs? What is the idea behind Hashem 'seeking and gathering the prayer and learning' of the Jewish people in order to bless them?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 26:01

Moshiach, Return to Adam Harishon, and Rosh Hashana 5780

What is the meaning of the verse that Hashem will remove the walls around our hearts in the times of Moshiach? What does this have to do with Rosh Hashana? How does this connect to Shavuos and the receiving of the Torah? What happened when Hashem placed the mountain over heads? What is the central theme of Rosh Hashana? How are we to relate to crowning Hashem our King? How can we trust that we will be blessed with a sweet new year? What are we to expect for the year 5780?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 26:42

Shlach - Striving Higher

Why did the Torah place the section speaking of the inaugural sacrifices next to the section about lighting the menorah in the Tabernacle? Why is it followed by the priestly blessings? Why was Aharon concerned about his exclusion from the inaugural sacrifices? What was Hashem's reassurance with the command to light the menorah and the priestly blessings? What was the difference between Aharon's inauguration of these commandments and the inauguration of the sacrifices?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 24:39

Bamidbar-Shavuos - True Power

Why do the nations of the world ask the Jewish people to be their leaders? What is behind the response of the Jewish people when they say that they prefer the encampments and flags of the wilderness? How does this relate to the holiday of Shavuos? What is the idea of power? How does one direct and protect one's power?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 22:44

Emor - Running and Building

Why does the Jewish people run out of Egypt? Why are we not allowed to have any semblence of Chametz (leavening) in our possession during Pesach? What is the understanding of the aspect of counting to Shavuos? Why when we get to Shavuos are we enjoined to bring an offering that is Chametz? What are the two stages in leaving Egypt? How can we use these lessons in our efforts to leave the power of the Evil Inclination? How can we understand the time of Sefiras Ha'omer?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 26:03

Pesach - Ecstatic vs Measured Spirituality

What is the connection between Pesach and Succos? Why do they both occur in the middle of the month? What is the difference between the respective mitzvos of each holiday? Why does Succos involve a lot of movement, while Pesach seems to be more static? Why does Shmini Atzeres come immediately after Succos, while Shavuos is 50 days after Pesach? What is the character of each of these months - Nissan and Tishrei? Why do we have a seder on Pesach, but not on Succos?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 18:50

Bamidbar-Shavuos - Destination Within the Journey

Why is the parsha of Bamidbar always read right before the holiday of Shavuos? What is the parallel between the journey of the Jewish people through the wilderness and the counting from Pesach to Shavuos? What is greater - the traveling and counting or reaching the destination? What is the paradox of counting or journeying toward a specific goal?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 18:14

Behar-Bechukosai - 50,000 Years of the World

What is the 'secret' of the Shmitah and Jubilee years? How do they correspond to the 50,000 year cycle that the world will last for? How does the Yovel (Jubilee) correspond to Shavuos, which is on the 50th day? What is the difference between the concepts of six and seven (Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben Dovid) as opposed to the eighth and fiftieth? Why couldn't Moshe get into Israel? Why couldn't he perceive the fiftieth gate of intuition? Why is exile the punishment for not keeping Shmitah and Yovel?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 23:14

Bimidbar - Counting Names

What is the concept of counting the Jewish people? How is it connected to counting from Pesach to Shavuos? Why do we specifically count the names of the Jewish people?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 20:56

Emor - Counting from Pesach to Shavuos

What is the difference between Pesach (Passover) when we only eat Matza, as opposed to Shavuos when there is a special offering of Chametz (leavened bread)? What is the significance of the contrast between the haste of leaving Egypt versus the slow countdown to Shavuos? How does one find God even in places that seem distant from Him?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running Time: 20:04

Bimidbar - Counting the Uncountable

Why does the parsha of Bimidbar always come out before Shavuos? What is the concept of counting? Is counting a positive thing or a negative thing? If counting shows Hashem's love for us, why do we find there is danger in counting? Why will we be uncountable in the times of Moshiach (the Messiah)?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 19:47

Pesach - Pieces of Completion

What is the depth of the count from Pesach (Passover) to Shavuos? How were the Jews able to be redeemed through a merit that was only to be in the future - of receiving the Torah? What is the concept of the purification of the confusion of the imagination? How can one access a future completion and draw it into the present?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 23:00

Gut Yontiff!

Today is the sixth of Kislev, which corresponds to the sixth of Sivan - Shavuos. It is exactly fifty days since the second day of Succos. As per the midrash, it would have been a holiday today, but Hashem instead placed Shmini Atzeres at the end of Succos.

Gut Yontiff!

Shavuos, MBY and MBD

What is the connection between Genesis and Shavuos? Why is Shavuos called the festival of the 'giving' of the Torah, and not the receiving? What is the secret of the twenty days that are not included in the sefirah count? What is the connection between King David and Shavuos? What is the connection to Yosef?

Find out in this special edition of the Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 22:29

There is important information in this podcast that is connected to MBY and MBD and the Moshiach podcast number 7. I was not as explicit as I could have been. Perhaps I will do another Moshiach podcast to fill in more information if there is interest.

Maharsha Moed Katan 28

Hashem dropped another Maharsha onto me which I believe is extremely significant. It is worth seeing inside, and can be found in Moed Katan on page 28. I heard it said over at a Shalom Zachar this past Friday night, and yesterday in the morning, it hit me as to why I needed to hear it.

The Maharsha talks about the day of Lag B'omer and says that although it is the thirty third day of the sefirah, it is actually the fifty third day of a different count that started twenty days earlier. He brings down the opinion that the world was created in Nissan. This would mean that Adam Harishon was created on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and the first day of creation occurred on the twenty fifth of Adar. If we count twenty days from then, it brings us to the first day of Pesach, the fifteenth of Adar. Add the next fifty days until Shavuos, and you end up with a count of seventy. The number seventy represents the days of a person's life (ימי שנותינו בהם שבעים שנה). The first twenty days correspond to the first twenty years of a person's life, when he does not bear the responsibility of the death penalty. After twenty, one is mature and enters the prime of his life. Two thirds of the way into the second period of life (the fifty) represent 'most of the years' of one's life. This brings you to Lag b'omer. (Anybody got that?) Shavuos, says the Maharsha, represents the ultimate purpose of the person's life, where he reaches his completion.

What hit me was that we have ten sets of seven days (or years). For our purposes, there are ten weeks. In the explanation of the Maharsha in Sanhedrin, we spoke about the nine/ten months of the process of the leap year which begins - in a hidden way - in Av/Elul/Tishrei, the first three months. It continues to be revealed through the following six until you reach yesod, which corresponds to Yosef - which is the second Adar. It comes into full bloom in Nissan, which is Malchus. In that post, we spoke about how the last week of Adar is the climax of the birth of the transformation of פשע - sin - into שפע - influx.

Incredibly, what we see here is that the last week of Adar is the beginning of another series of ten, but this time, it is ten weeks. The first week is Keser - the inspiration, the transcendental realm. The weeks that follow, which are the first two weeks of Nissan, are Chochma and Bina. All three of these are in the head - they are hidden, and are not part of the sefirah count. But at the same time, of course, they are! Whatever happened in the last week of Adar is being brought down into the world, being revealed - culminating in Shavuos. The final week of the count, which we now find ourselves in, represents a full reflection (malchus) of the first week. It is a full development of what happened in the last week of Adar. The 'baby' that was conceived starting from Rosh Chodesh Av of last year, and was labored with and born in the last week of Adar - it now develops through another process into something greater which is revealed on Shavuos in its completion.

Of course, this is not the end, but again the beginning of another great spiral upwards for the Jewish people. The aspect of Moshiach ben Yosef continues to make its way higher and higher as we get closer and closer to the time we are all waiting for, בב"א.

Shavuos and redemption

What is the deeper significance of the custom to stay up all night learning Torah? Why did the Jewish people wake up late on the morning of receiving the Torah? What is the parallel to Yakov who also had a contrasting night of sleep and being awake? What is the connection to the future redemption?

Find out in this special edition of the Parsha Podcast.

Why Dairy?

One of the minhagim that many in Klal Yisrael perform on Shavuos is that they are careful to eat a Yom Tov meal that is dairy. At first glance, this would seem to be an unusual custom. What is its deeper significance, and why is it a custom that is specifically in tune with the concept of Shavuos?

Before we can understand this, we need to ask another important question about Shavuos. What is the significance of the fact that Shavuos is specifically referred to as the time of the giving of the Torah? This seems to speak only from the perspective of Hashem, the Giver, and not from our perspective as receivers of the Torah. What is the deeper meaning of this description?

The fact that we specifically refer to the giving of the Torah would seem to indicate that the focus of the relationship that is being forged when the Torah is given is specifically from the side of the giver. This hints to the fact that in a relationship between a giver and a receiver, the most energy is invested by the one who is giving, as opposed to the one who is receiving. Not only that, but the giver is the one who experiences a greater sense of satisfaction in the relationship. This is something we can sense intuitively if we think about our relationships with our children, as opposed to our relationships with our parents. The relationship is always viewed in a more intense way by the one who is giving in the relationship.

This idea is reflected in a statement of our chazal. "More than the calf wants to suckle, the mother cow wants to give milk." This is an analogy for the fact that the greatest satisfaction comes to one who is focused outwards, focused on giving, as opposed to being focused on receiving. This very analogy is used to speak of the one who is teaching Torah. The teacher who is overflowing with wisdom has a greater drive to give than his very students who thirst for the words of their teacher. The teacher also experiences a greater sense of satisfaction and feels a deeper bond with his students than they will feel.

With this in mind, we can understand why Shavuos is referred to as the day when the Torah was given. When it comes to our relationship with Hashem and our relationship with the Torah, we must always be aware that if we approach that relationship exclusively as a receiver, we will never experience the true satisfaction that is inherent in the relationship. The only approach that will gain us a true relationship with Hashem and His Torah is one where our approach is one of giving of the Torah as well.

This idea is complemented by an insight I heard from Rabbi Yechiel Perr, Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway. In the tefillah of Ahava Rabba, which we say before Shema each morning, we describe the great love of Hashem for His people that culminated in the giving of the Torah. We ask Hashem to help us to understand his Torah, to learn, to teach and to fulfill all of its laws. It is interesting that even before we ask to be able to fulfill the laws, which would be a natural outgrowth of learning, we first ask to be able to teach what we have learned. Intrinsic to being able to receive the Torah is the necessity to be ready to give the Torah to others.

Now we can understand the custom to eat milk products as part of our celebration of Shavuos. Milk is something that represents the loving relationship between a mother and her child. It serves to remind us of the statement of chazal that the greater satisfaction in the relationship is experienced by the mother, who is giving the milk. It therefore also has the potential to remind us of the proper focus we must try to engender in our approach to Torah - to focus not only on what we will receive from the Torah, but how we can give the Torah to others as well, so it can truly be called a חג מתן תורתינו, a holiday which celebrates our giving of the Torah.

Rabbi Perr on Shavuos

The following shiur is a very moving piece on Torah and Shavuos that was given by my Rosh Yeshiva in 5767. The running time is about 45 minutes, and there is much to be gained from listening to it.

Click here to hear the shiur.

Shavuos and the light of Moshiach

What is Rebbe Akiva and his students' connection to this time between Pesach and Shavuos? Why did they die then, and why do we mourn it to this day? What are the three times in history that the light of Moshiach was revealed, and how does this connect to Shavuos? What is Rebbe Akiva's role in the Moshiach story? Find out in the special Shavuos Podcast.