BEMIDBAR EREV SHAVUOT 5782

Names are important. We believe that when parents give a child a Jewish name, they do so with Ruach HaKodesh (with the Divine Holy Spirit), and therefore, contained within one’s Jewish name is a connection to one’s destiny. If you want to find out more about your name and destiny, let me know, I’ll look it up for you.

For generations, ancient Egyptian Jews were viewed as objects—as lowly slaves whose existence was controlled by taskmasters. They were dehumanized...and it was very difficult to retain their humanity, self-respect, and dignity.

In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the census of the Jews in the wilderness. The Torah specifies that those who were to be counted in the census were to be identified by their names and families. This was a dramatic way of telling them:

“You have names; you have families; you are dignified human beings; you are not chattel; you are not nameless slaves; you are not objects. That’s why we celebrate our Jewish names with a baby-naming ceremony.

And it’s not just people. The name of a product, a company, a person is supposed to be the cover that represents the inner dimension within. Remember a couple of years ago when SunTrust and BB&T announced they were merging and changing their name to Truist? The name was intended to give the bank a single, fresh identity—no doubt implying “true” and “trust,” something that is important for one’s bank to have.

Tonight, we will usher in Shavuot where we will celebrate the giving of the Torah. It’s the one day in the history of humanity where Gd revealed Himself and handed us the book that changed the world. Charley Harary asks: You would think the name would be pretty impressive? You would think the name would be something like, Yom HaTorah (Torah Day) or Yom HaGadol (The Great Day)—something to give true manifestation to that which is within it. But it’s not. What’s the name? Shavuot! Why? because we count shavuot (weeks) till we get there. But weeks is just the middle. The weeks are unimportant. The end is important—getting the Torah! It’s like a bride and groom counting the days till their wedding. It’s the wedding that’s important. But when we get to the destination of this holiday that’s so important, we count every day and every week, we don’t call the destination “The Day of Torah,” we call it Shavuot (Weeks). Why? It doesn’t make sense!

The weeks after the 1^st Passover and the Exodus were for getting to the destination—receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai. When you get there, you go back and call it Weeks? It sounds like an Abbott and Costello routine. Imagine going to the Super Bowl and they rename the Super Bowl “The Season?” No, the season was to get to the Super Bowl. Why in the world would the Jews get to the mountaintop and forever remember the middle and not the end of the weeks. Why call this holiday Shavuot, “weeks” and not “The Day of Torah?”

One of the great mistakes we make is that we look at our holidays and think Gd gave them to us to commemorate past events. It’s like Thanksgiving. Why do we have Thanksgiving? because a long, long time ago, the Pilgrims and the Indians got together…and they had turkey and cranberry sauce, and they watched football. And so that’s what we Americans do. We think that it’s the same for us—just a little holier. We matzah on Passover; we sit in booths on sukkot; we learn Torah all night on Shavuot. We do things that our ancestors did. We think our holidays are our commemorations of previous events.

However, it’s not true! Our holidays are not so much a commemoration of previous events. Our holidays are our outlets of spirituality. They are moments in time where Gd has us look past the physical world and tap into a spirituality that was manifest once in a very big way in our history…but is then manifest every single year again and again. Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler in his Michtav me-Eliyahu writes that our Yom Tovim, our holidays, are not merely events we commemorate; they’re spiritual events for us to go through now.

Let me share with you a story about an American holiday which is coming soon: Father’s Day. When my kids were young, one Father’s Day I came downstairs in the morning, and my kids had made breakfast for me and set the table as best they could. Right in front of my seat was a card my wife had gotten. She had all the children sign it. It was very nice. I sat down and they declared: “Happy Father’s Day.” Wonderful!

And then I saw next to the cards a piece of construction paper scribbled all over it. “What’s this?” I said. And one of my kids said to me, “It’s from me, Dad.”

And I said, “Well, what is it?

          He said, “I wanted to give you something for Father’s Day and I didn’t want to just give you mommy’s card. I wanted to give you my own card.” He looked at it and realizes that it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as the other ones and says, “I’m sorry if it’s an ugly card Daddy.”

I turned to him sand said, “Honey, this is the greatest card I’ve ever gotten in my entire life.”

Children think that parents want what they give them. Husbands and wives make that mistake too. It’s not the gift you give. It’s the person, the love that’s attached to it. Kids scribbling on a piece of paper is much more than anything in the world.

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef in his book, Yalkut Yosef, wrote, “When Moses came down to Egypt, he told the Jews what was going to happen…that as we get out of Egypt, 50 days later you will see Gd.” Do you know what happened when they left? They started counting. They said, “O my Gd, only 50 days left…49 days left…18 days left.” They were so excited, they counted each day and each week!

Gd looked and said, “They’re counting weeks to see Me? Do you know what I’ll call My day? Shavuot (Weeks)! Shavuot, because of YOUR weeks, because of your desire, because of your interest, because you’re trying to get to Me.”

My friends, Shavuot to me is really about the scribbled construction paper. It’s how badly you wanted to be with Gd. It’s not just the commemorating of the giving of the 10 Commandments. In fact, the original tablets of the 10 Commandments didn’t really last very long. When Moses came down the mountain and saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf, he threw them down and destroyed them.

Shavuot commemorates something much deeper. Shavuot is the moment when Hashem married the Jewish people. In fact, legend has it in the Midrash that Mt. Sinai was lifted above the people as a chuppah, and the 10 Commandments were the Ketuba. When Gd offered the Torah—in effect saying, “Marry Me”—the Jews answered, Naaseh v’nishma (We will do and we will obey)…in other words, “I do! I will!”

What Shavuot really commemorates is the beginning of the relationship we Jews have with Gd that manifests in Torah and mitzvot and in our personal relationships. Shavuot is not the “ends” or goal of anything; it’s the means.

You don’t come to your 50^th wedding anniversary and say, “Well we reached it; we’re here. Somehow, we put up with each other for 50 years.” No, the celebration is about the relationship, about the work you put in along the way. Every relationship is a manifestation of all that happened before and who you’ve become because of it. 

When we celebrate Shavuot, Gd is asking us every single year, “Do you know what I want from you? All I want is a relationship.” No matter where you are on the spectrum of Jewish observance and commitment, the goal of Shavuot—our wedding anniversary with Gd—is to reconnect with Gd.

So, one of the greatest things we can do on Shavuot is to spend a few minutes just feeling the joy of being a Jew—the pride of Gd having given the Torah to us—and therefore this year, to make a commitment and say, “I’m going to shine in my relationship with Gd. I’m going to shine in my Torah study. I’m going to shine in my doing mitzvot this year, and get closer to Gd.

 My friends, let’s lock it in now—commit ourselves before Shavuot is over saying to Gd, “I’m telling you Hashem, I’m going to meet you every morning for a few minutes and connect. I’ll daven, maybe even put on tefillin. Every night I’m going to take a few minutes and learn some Torah. So, when I meet you here next year at the top of the mountaintop of Shavuot, my ‘weeks’ between this year and next year are going to be used to get closer to You.”

That’s the goal; that’s the point. Shavuot is the holiday of relationships and how we connect. Every one of us—no matter where we are in life—should stand up on Shavuot as our ancestors stood at Sinai and dedicate ourselves to take a much stronger and deeper journey in our relationship with Hashem. May it be so. Amen!