by Shlomo Riskin

June 5, 2008

Of all the memorable historical occurrences recorded in the Torah, none is more significant than the day of the revelation at Sinai, when Israel received the Torah from God. Nevertheless, unlike the date of the Exodus from Egypt (Passover, 15th of Nissan) and the date of the clouds of glory (Sukkot, 15th of Tishrei), the date of the revelation is never specifically recorded within the Bible itself.

Although our Talmud sages inform us that the festival of Shavuot (Weeks) is actually the commemoration of the day of the revelation — the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, as we say in that day’s prayers — when we check this out with a calendar and midrash, something doesn’t add up.

As we know, Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, which took place on the 15th of Nisan. To find out which day of the week it happened on, all we have to do is remember that the 10th of Nisan — the day on which the paschal lamb was taken in preparation for the redemption — fell on Shabbat, which is why the Sabbath before Passover is called Shabbat Hagadol (the Great Sabbath). Therefore the 15th had to have been a Thursday.

Given that the only guideline the Torah provides for designating Shavuot is to count seven full weeks (49 days) from “the day following the festival,” if the first Passover fell on Thursday, the counting started on Wednesday night; hence the 50th day had to have been a Thursday night and Friday. But — the sages agree that the revelation at Sinai took place on Shabbat!

Therefore how can Shavuot, which comes exactly 50 days after the first day of Passover, celebrate the giving of the Torah, which was on the 51st day of the count?

The Magen Avraham (Rabbi Abraham Gombiner, 1637-1683) explains that this seeming discrepancy serves as our source that ‘yom tov sheini shel galut’ (the second day of the festival in the Diaspora) actually has its roots in the Torah. After all, throughout the Diaspora we have a second day of Shavuot — the seventh of Sivan, and the 51st day from Passover — which turns out to be when the Torah was actually given. When we remember that the Torah was indeed given in the desert and not in Israel, it makes sense that we received it on the second day of the festival. Hence we have a logical — and biblical — source for the second day of the festival in the Diaspora.

The Shelah Hakadosh (R. Isaiah Horowitz, 1565-1630) argues that life in the Diaspora is far more removed from Jewishness than is life in Israel. Hence it is twice as difficult in the Diaspora to feel the Exodus, to experience divine protection, to sense the revelation, than it is in Israel.

From this perspective, the Book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuot, merely confirms the hardships of remaining Jewish outside of Israel and thus silently confirms the need for a second day of the festival. After all, the story of Ruth is not only the tale of a sincere Jew-by-choice who becomes grandmother to King David, progenitor of the Messiah. The book opens when Elimelech leaves famine-ridden Bethlehem in search of greener pastures in Moab. He soon discovers that his decision to leave Israel was a disaster. His two sons marry Moabite women and die before producing any heirs. He may have saved some money, but he sacrificed Jewish continuity. And so this not untypical family ends up encountering a “world of death and illusion.”

Ironically, if not for Ruth, Elimelech’s line would have ended forever; he would have been the Jew who left Israel doomed to historic oblivion. Ruth’s decision is the mirror image of that of Elimelech, her ill-fated father-in-law. He left his homeland to embrace Moab; Ruth leaves Moab to embrace the people and the God of Israel.

So to counter the threat of assimilation that always hangs over families in the Diaspora, the Torah has provided an extra protective measure, the second day of yom tov.

A second reason the exact date for the revelation is not revealed — and perhaps not even celebrated — is to save the Jews embarrassment for a failed experience. Only two days after the miraculous events of Sinai, the Israelites succumbed to the temptations of the golden calf and returned to idolatry. Apparently God gave them his gift too soon, before they were really equipped to appreciate it. The Bible, therefore, does not eternalize the day of the revelation; Shavuot is merely an agricultural festival — the celebration of the first fruits — and, biblically speaking, it only coincidentally works out to fall on the day before the revelation at Sinai.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch gives a third reason, suggesting that the Torah wants us to celebrate the revelation a day before it actually occurred in order to emphasize the cardinal importance of “the day before.” Ordinarily, only those behind the scenes know how much preparation has gone into an important event. For the guests, all that matters is what they experience at the event.

This is especially true with regard to the receiving of the Torah: Without adequate preparation, without going through the 49 steps of purification leading up to the final climax of the day before, the Torah that descends from Sinai won’t find an adequate vessel to contain its infinite blessings. Lack of adequate preparation caused a tragic foul-up the first time; it is crucial that it never happen that way again.

Shlomo Riskin is the chief rabbi of the city of Efrat and dean of Ohr Torah Institutes in Israel.