Page 20 - HaMizrachi #10 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot 5779
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A Double
The festival of Shavuot is a signaled in a profoundly ambiguous festivals was unique. So all the more is
mystery wrapped in an enigma. phrase: “From the day after the it strange that Shavuot is not biblically
Here is how Shavuot is described Sabbath.” But which Sabbath? And linked to a historical event.
and defined in Parashat Emor: what is the reference to a Sabbath
doing here at all? The previous Jewish tradition identified Shavuot
“From the day after the Sabbath, the passage talked about Pesach, not as “the time of the giving of the
day you brought the sheaf of the wave the Sabbath. This led to one of the Torah,” the anniversary of the
offering, count off seven full weeks. great controversies in Second Temple Divine revelation at Sinai when the
Count off 50 days up to the day after Judaism. The Pharisees, who believed Israelites heard the voice of G-d and
the seventh Sabbath, and then present in the Oral Law as well as the Written made a covenant with Him. But that
an offering of new grain to the L-rd… one, understood “the Sabbath” to connection is not made in the Torah
On that same day, you are to proclaim mean the first day of Pesach (15 itself. To be sure, the Torah says that
a sacred assembly and do no regular Nisan). The Sadducees, who believed “In the third month after the Israelites
work. This is to be a lasting ordinance only in the Written Law, took the text had gone forth from the land of Egypt,
for the generations to come, wherever literally. The day after the Sabbath is on that very day, they entered the
you live” (Leviticus 23:15-21). Sunday. Thus the count always begins wilderness of Sinai” (Exodus 19: 1),
on a Sunday, and Shavuot, 50 days and Shavuot is the only festival in the
These are the difficulties: First, later, also always falls on a Sunday. third month. So the connection is
Shavuot, “the feast of weeks,” is given implicit, but it is not explicit. For this,
no calendrical date: all the other The fourth mystery though, is the as for the festival’s date, we need the
festivals are. Pesach, for example, deepest: what is Shavuot about? What oral tradition.
is “on the 15th day” of the “first does it commemorate? About Pesach
month.” Shavuot has no such date. It and Sukkot we have no doubt. Pesach What then was the view of the
is calculated on the basis of counting is a commemoration of the Exodus. Sadducees? It is unlikely that they
“seven full weeks” from a particular Sukkot is a reminder of the 40 years in linked Shavuot with the giving of the
starting time, not by noting a date in the wilderness. Torah. For that event had a date, and
the year. for the Sadducees, Shavuot did not have
In the case of Shavuot, all the Torah a date. They kept it on a Sunday – they
Secondly, while the New Moon was says is that it is the “Feast of the observed it on a specific day of the
determined on the basis of eyewitness Harvest,” and the “Day of first fruits.” week, not on a specific date in the year.
testimony, Shavuot could have no These are agricultural descriptions, How did the Sadducees view Shavuot?
fixed date. In the Jewish calendar a not historical ones. Pesach and Sukkot
month can be long (30 days) or short have both: an agricultural aspect There is a fascinating episode
(29). If Nisan and Iyar were both (spring/autumn) and a historical recorded in rabbinic literature
long months, Shavuot would fall on one (exodus/wilderness). This is not (Menachot 65a) in which a Sadducee
5 Sivan. If both were short, it would a marginal phenomenon, but of the explains to Rabbi Yochanan ben
fall on 7 Sivan. And if one were long essence. Other religions of the ancient Zakkai why, according to them,
and the other short, it would fall on 6 world celebrated seasons. They Shavuot is always on a Sunday: “Moses
Sivan. Unlike other festivals, Shavuot recognized cyclical time. Only Israel our teacher was a great lover of Israel.
is (or was) moveable. observed historical time – time as a Knowing that Shavuot lasted only one
journey, a story, an evolving narrative. day, he therefore fixed it on the day
Thirdly, the point at which the The historical dimension of the Jewish after the Sabbath so that Israel might
counting of days and weeks begins is enjoy themselves for two successive
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