Shavuot: Touching Sinai Again: The Importance of Preparing for the Holiday

by Rav Zalman Melamed, Rosh Yeshivat Bet El, originally published on yeshiva.org.il

Receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai

Today, Tuesday, we begin what is known as the Three Days of Hagbalah before the Festival of Shavuot (Weeks). These are the last three days before our commemoration of the Giving of the Torah exactly 3,332 years ago. These three days were very significant that year, and spelled the end of a long period of preparations: First came the planning involved in leaving Egypt, then [six weeks later] came the first day of the month of Sivan, when the Torah says "they came to Sinai" (Sh'mot 19,1) – they arrived at the spot where the Torah was to be given. The next stage was to "keep yourselves in readiness for three days" (verse 15) – these three days that we're talking about. It's interesting how many intensive preparations there were for an event that lasted no more than one short day.


Let's think for a moment what is involved in getting ready for a wedding. So many months of preparations are involved: Which hall to choose? Which band to hire, and what type of music?  The clothing has to be picked out, and of course the food as well. Some families also go to the hall a few weeks beforehand to taste and sample the food that their guests will be served on this special occasion… Many decisions have to be made, over the course of weeks and months, regarding flowers, and transportation for the guests, and more and more - not to mention the wedding gown, which is a story in itself…

And in the end, it's over after just four hours! Was it really logical to spend so much time preparing for such a short event? And what about the money involved? And the planning and worrying that went into it… And the hall, which was so beautiful at the beginning, looks like a balagan within a couple of hours. Why not just have a short ceremony at the rabbinate and be finished with it? It seems to make no sense – so why does everyone do it?

The answer is that these four hours are few in quantity – but very heavy in quality. They are the genuine "quality time."  They're not just "four hours" – they are special! One time a boy from a moderately-religious family came to me and had the same question about the Seder night: "What's so special about it? It's just like a regular Sabbath night meal, but with a few extra things, like maror…" I didn't know what he was talking about; for me, the Seder night is not like a Sabbath night, but like all the Sabbath nights of the year put together! It has such amazing spiritual powers, it's just something else! And here he says that it doesn't require any special preparation… Would he say the same thing about a wedding, that it's nothing special, just a "regular-plus" meal?

Clearly, there are some "quality" hours, hours that are equal to the sum of many, many full days. That's why people want them to be perfect, complete, the best possible. These are hours that change a person from one extreme to the other, even though they are very short. This is the story with Shavuot. Yes, it's only 24 hours, and it's over almost before it starts. But how special are these 24 hours! No matter how much we prepare for it, it won't be too much. Because this day connects us with the actual Stand at Mt. Sinai, when we received the very Torah from G-d! On Shavuot, we "touch" that same greatness and magnificence, that same sublime level that we were on when we left Egypt and received the Torah.

The day that we received the Torah changed our entire essence. We became something else. And the holiday of Shavuot is when we meet up with that.

I'm not saying that on Shavuot we attain the level of angels or the like, nor must we aspire to levels that we cannot reach. But we should just realize that on this day, our soul "remembers" what happened on that day at Sinai. We don't always know how to translate to our feelings and thoughts what our soul is experiencing– but inside us, during those hours, something is happening, we are being uplifted.

Everything we do on Shavuot – the meals, the prayers, the learning – everything is different, everything is on a higher level. With G-d's help, may this holiday fill us with great uplifting, and then may we continue from there, ever onward.