Questions for the 50th day after Jewish Passover

Answers for Jewish Pentecost

Reb Shlomo Carlebach once recommended, ‘Don’t ruin an outstanding question with an answer.’ Asking is often more important than answering. However, I will try to give at least some answers to all the questions I raise.

Why do we learn through the night on Shavuot?

The Rabbis tell us that on the morning of the day we’d receive the Torah, we overslept. We didn’t wake up, and Moses had to wake us.

To atone for that, we don’t even go to sleep, now we’re reliving this most central event in Jewish history. It’s the yearly opening of the Heavenly tab.

But why didn’t we wake up?

Let me suggest that it may have been a side effect of the 49 days of spiritual, emotional, or character elevation that we went through from the Exodus to the Giving of the Torah. How so? We went from the lowest of the lowest levels in Egypt to the highest of the highest ever. Thus, we lost our Evil Inclination. Different from popular (mis)understanding, the Evil Inclination is not all Evil. The Sages of the Talmud explain that the normal bodily functions are part of this Inclination, like chickens laying eggs.

So, we might have lost our ability to wake up.

If so, what returned to us our ability to wake up?

Ready for the Giving of the Torah, we were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. In Hebrew grammar, below the Mountain. The Rabbis, in a pun, explain that G^d held the Mount over our heads and said that if we’d accept the Torah, it’d be good for us; if not, there would be our graves.

This should have us ask two questions.

How does G^d bring here Greek Philosophy’s faulty idea of Free Will?

Hellenist Thought says that Free Will means that nothing around or in us, or in our history, would force our will. So, we can always freely choose between options, and nothing would cause our choice. This is such rubbish that most professors of Western Philosophy reject Free Will as imaginary.

Rather, Free Will is what Moses tells us when he says, ‘Choose life,’ our ability to free ourselves from a lower moral level by making an effort and not just going with the flow of attractions and revulsions.

Of course, G^d doesn’t collude with this Hellenistic nonsense. The Rabbis suggest G^d said, ‘If you’d accept the Torah, it will be good for you; if not, there (in Egypt) would have been our graves,’ meaning, I would never have let you go. But then, even more urgently, the second question arises.

Why did G^d force us?

We had already said, ‘We will do, and then we’ll understand.’ Meaning that we will obey, which will make us appreciate the choice and not the other way around. We gave G^d carte blanche. So, why this enforcement?

One would think that someone who does the Commandments ‘from their free will’ gets more reward than someone who is obligated and does so.

Our Sages explain that’s not true. When you’re obligated, human autonomy makes that you don’t feel like it. Imagine you’re about to eat your favorite meal. Appears someone out of nowhere, puts a gun to your head, and says, ‘Eat!’ That would take most of the fun out of it, no?

A social worker once told me she ordered her son to get some groceries. He said, ‘Oh, Mum, why demand this of me? I would have done it with pleasure without you commanding me.’ She explained, ‘I know. But now you also will get reward from Heaven for following my command.’

So, G^d may have forced us to make us entitled to more Reward. A prime Jewish idea for why G^d created the Universe is to be generous to us.

Another reason, I’d suggest, could be an answer to the above question: how our Evil Inclination, which we need even to wake up, returned to us.

***

But a strange thing happened on our way to Mount Sinai.

The Rabbis suggest G^d first offered the Torah to all the other Peoples.

He said to thieves, ‘Would you like the Torah?’ ‘What’s in it?’ they asked. ‘You shall not steal.’ ‘Oh, that’s not for us. We live from theft.’

He said to murderers, ‘Would you like the Torah?’ ‘What’s in it?’ they asked. ‘You shall murder.’ ‘Oh, that’s not for us. We live from murder.’

He said to cheaters, ‘Would you like the Torah?’ ‘What’s in it?’ they asked. ‘You shall not cheat.’ ‘Oh, that’s not for us. We procreate via adultery.’

And so on for every Nation. In each case, He did not explain, ‘Don’t worry about survival. When you keep the Torah, I’ll take care of you.’

Why did He not tell them, ‘You can safely keep the Torah?’

And why did He offer the Torah to us last? Were we his least favorite?

We will see some answers soon. But first, a few more questions.

When were we supposed to receive the Torah?

Let’s do some light calculus.

G^d ordered us to violate the Shabbat rules before the Exodus. Each family should buy a sheep and bind it to their beds. When the Egyptians asked what is this, we said, ‘We’re going to slaughter it in four days.’ This was an Egyptian Idol so it angered them. But G^d ordered a miracle—they couldn’t harm us. This we call the Shabbat of the Great [Miracle].

Four days later, on Tuesday morning, the day before the Exodus, we slaughtered it, and in the evening, with its blood on the doorpost telling us that our slave nation is special, we ate its meat as the first Seder’s climax.

The next morning, we left—on a Wednesday.

The next evening, the start of Thursday, we began counting 7 times 7 days.

This was to be followed by the 50^th day, the Receiving of the Torah. So, the morning we were supposed to receive the Torah was Friday morning.

Yet, our Rabbis tell us we received the Torah on Shabbat morning because Moses had asked for one more day because we were ‘not ready.’

This should make us ask a whole slew of questions.

What does one day matter on 50?

Let me suggest that it was not about being ready to receive the Torah. Perhaps we were not ready to have this on the morning before Shabbat, when we had to collect the Manna, cook, prepare the house, etc.

How could being ready play any role?

Imagine, from the first of June, a new law that bicycles can’t run an orange light anymore. On June 1st, you violate the new law, and the police stops you. Will you get off the hook if you say, ‘Sorry, I’m not ready’?

Every year since, on the 50^th day after Pesach, we celebrate the Giving of the Torah. Do we lie when we call it ‘The Time of the Gift of the Torah’?

This only seems true on the Second Day of Shavuot for the Diaspora Jews.

Here are the answers to all our open questions.

When someone asks friends for a commitment, we will first ask, ‘What do you want? We won’t just commit. But when someone gives us a present, we say, ‘Thank you’ before we know what it is. We Jews understood the Torah was a gift—not an obligation. The other Nations first asked, ‘What is in it?’ because they thought they were being obligated. G^d didn’t explain to them not to worry because He didn’t want to give the Torah to Peoples that find it OK to steal, murder, or be unfaithful. He knew they weren’t up to it, so He only offered it to us last to show this wasn’t favoritism. Moses could ask for an extra day because it was a gift, not an obligation.

And what we say on Shavuot is correct. It’s not the day of the giving of the Torah but ‘The Time of the Gift of the Torah,’ the day we understood the Torah is a gift. As the old joke goes, G^d offers Moses the Stone Tablets. ‘How much do they cost?’ ‘They’re free.’ ‘OK, I’ll have two.’

And why does the Torah not state the date of the Giving of the Torah?

That would have prevented many misunderstandings. All other Jewish Festivals are mentioned by date. Let me suggest another answer than just ‘It’s 50 days after Pesach, depending on the lengths of the months.’

Receiving understanding of the Jewish Lore is of every day, year-round.

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