The Torah refers to it simply as “holiday of the weeks” and
many contemporary Jews have never even heard of the Holiday .
Yet the holiday of Shavuot celebrates what may be the most important event in
Judaism: the giving of the Torah at mount Sinai.
Why does the Torah fail to mention this most crucial detail - the reason for
the celebration?
With it's silence the Torah is telling is something important
about the giving of the Torah, it is telling is that Divine revelation is not
specific to a particular date and place in our history. There is no "one
day a year" designated to celebrate the Divine revelation. That's because
Divine revelation occurs every time we open and study the Torah. As we say in
the blessing before reading the Torah - ("Notayn Hatorah") "the
one who gives the Torah", "gives" in the present tense.
So the Torah is silent on the date of the most important
historical event in order to teach you the power of the study of Torah on each
and every day: anytime you open the Torah, G-d is speaking to you, directly, personally.
What then do we commemorate on - Shavuot - the holiday of
weeks?
The name "holiday of weeks" describes, not the
obligation of the holiday - like the Holiday of Matzot and Holiday of Sukkot, instead
it describes the lead up to the holiday - the obligation to count seven weeks
in anticipation and preparation of the giving of the Torah.
Because although G-d speaks to us every time we open the
book, sometimes we fail to feel the power of the experience. We are distracted
by day to day life, we are tunes out spiritually and we are like a un-plowed field
being showered with rain: the rain has the power to bring forth growth but the
earth is too rough to accept the seed and the water.
So G-d commands us to designate some time for spiritual
refinement, to count forty nine days, to understand that G-d wants to talk to
us and we must tune in if we are to benefit from the experience. Finally on the
fiftieth day - on the anniversary of the giving of the Torah - after all the preparation,
every Jew can finally feel it: yes, G-d is talking to me, personally.
In the final analysis, what is unique about the fiftieth day is only the preparation - the weeks of counting, hence the name "holiday of the weeks" - the actual revelation, however, happens every time we read the book.
