SuperVision’
By Rabbi Daniel Leeman
On the festival of Shavuos we commemorate the giving of, and ‘reaccept’ upon ourselves the Torah. But being that the commandments are such an intrinsic part of the Torah, why then is Shavuos the only festival that does not have any unique commandments?
Additionally, when the first tablets of stone were given we are told that the shofar was blown and its noise was “very strong” [1]. What are we to learn from this? Furthermore, when the second tablets of stone were given, no shofar was blown; on the contrary, they were given ‘quietly’ [2]. Why is this so?
A number of years ago, I received a phone call requesting that I confirm that we indeed blow the shofar on Shavuos “as published”. Caught off guard, I was initially unsure as to where I had “published” this fallacy. They were probably referring to ‘Revealing the Secret’ publication, where there is a comparison drawn between counting towards the Jubilee year and the counting of the fifty days towards Shavuos. It is further noted that the shofar was sounded [3]. It seems that the caller had understood that “the shofar was sounded” on the festival of Shavuos rather than on the Jubilee year! The caller explained how his family was very involved in a certain synagogue and they were currently having a dispute as to whether it was appropriate to blow a shofar over the festival of Shavuos. Having discovered my published instruction to indeed blow the shofar on Shavuos, all that was left was for me to make a verbal confirmation before they finalised their preparations to blow the shofar on Shavuos in their synagogue!
Needless to say, seeing where this was headed, I corrected the error and explained to them clearly that even though the shofar was indeed sounded at the giving of the Torah, we do not blow the shofar on the festival of Shavuos.
At the giving of the first tablets of stone, the sound of the shofar was “very strong”. So strong that it was even “seen” [4]! So strong that it did not need to be sounded when the second tablets of stone were given. It was so strong in fact that we don’t even need to blow the shofar over Shavuos tens of hundreds of years later. If a person re-accepts the Torah as they should, they can still ‘hear’ the original shofar.
After spending the festival of Shavuos with his Rebbe, R’ Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, a disiple went to take leave of his Rebbe. “You know soon,” commented the Rebbe, “we will be blowing the shofar” (on Rosh Hashana)!
It is not our job to institute new ideas or commandments – just to accept the Torah as it is. The Torah is complete – we just have to listen to it!
Have a sound Shavuos,
Dan.
Additional sources:
[1] Shemos 19:16, 19 [2] Medrash Tanchuma, Ki Sisa 31 [3] See Revealing the Secret, vol. 2, p270 [4] Shemos 20:15
