Jewish Community News

Ask the Rabbi: May 2008

Ask the Rabbi

If Shavuot is the festival that commemorates receiving the Torah, why don’t we celebrate it like we do on Simchat Torah, with parades and dancing? In fact, why is Simchat Torah a separate holiday?  It seems like Shavuot  should be the festival of rejoicing.
    First a parable:  Once upon a time there was a rich and powerful queen who ruled many lands.  She  had only one son, however this son was so wise, and so kind, and so wonderful, that one son was enough and she and her kingdom were happy.
   When the time came for her son to get married, the queen said to her royal attendant, “I want you to search everywhere to find a perfect princess for my son.  She needs to be as wise as he is, as kind as he is, and as wonderful as he is.  But there’s one other quality she must have.  Since I am the queen, she needs to trust me enough to marry the prince sight unseen.  That means, they will not meet until their wedding.”
     The attendant shook his head. How will he ever find a princess who will marry a prince sight unseen!  Following orders, off he went.  He met many princesses who had all of the right qualities, but when the attendant said that they needed to trust the queen and agree to marry the prince sight unseen, each princess said no. 
    Finally the attendant went to the last princess in the most far away land, and told her about the prince, adding, “But you have to trust the queen and marry the prince sight unseen! Of course, now you will say ‘no’.” And he turned to leave.  But the princess said, “Wait a minute! I trust the queen. I will marry the prince without meeting him before the wedding!”
     Sure enough, the wedding took place and the princess was so pleased that she knew she was right to have trusted the queen.
    Now, what does this story have to do with Shavuot and Simchat Torah?  When G-d was looking for a people to accept the Torah, G-d told them, “Accept my laws sight unseen.  I am going to give you the Torah, and it will have many laws for you to follow but I won’t tell you what the laws are until later. Now you have to trust Me enough to accept the laws sight unseen.”  And the Jewish people answered, “We will!” 
    On Shavuot, we were given the laws.  Almost six months later, on Simchat Torah, after having had the experience of Torah, we will celebrate how blessed we were to receive it.  But on  Shavuot, we thank G-d for giving the Torah to us, which we accepted, sight unseen!
Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Debbie Israel, Acting Rabbi
Congregation Emeth, Morgan Hill-Gilroy