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Moshe New
Rabbi Moshe New heads the Montreal Torah Center. He is sought out lecturer on Kabbalah and its relevance in our lives today. |
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Latest Comments:
True, when the Temple stood, Shavuos might have been observed on the 5th, 6th or 7th of Sivan and thus not necessarily coincide with the anniversary date of the giving of the Torah. Moreover, today, if one crosses the international dateline -- losing or gaining a day -- between Pesach and Shavuos, one would observe Shavuos a day earlier or later than everyone else (in as much that each individual is commanded to count 49 days and then observe a sacred day) and would not say 'zman matan Torateinu' in one's holiday prayers or kiddush. As to why the Torah would mandate that Shavuos be determined by the individual's count rather than the traditional calendar date - the answer is dealt with at length in chassidus and revolves around the 2 dimensions of the
Torah :The intellectual/graspable and the transcendent/Divine. I believe I have an audio class on this very subject. Perhaps the 'editors' of Chabad.org can direct you to relevant material, both audio and written found at Chabad.org
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You say that in the year 2448, the combined length of Nisan and Iyar was 60 days, but the revelation at Sinai was on Sivan 6th, on what would have been the 51st day of that count, had it been observed that year in the manner it is observed nowadays.
The point of my question was: in that case, if the "theme" of Shavuos is primarily the anniversary of the revelation at Sinai (not just an agricultural harvest festival, as the Torah describes it), then why didn't the Torah command us to observe Shavuos on the 51st day of the count (the day of the revelation at Sinai, by that count), regardless of the calendar date it happens to fall on?
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R. New, you have missed the point of my question. Your answer is predicated on the assumption that Shavuos is meant to be celebrated on 6th Sivan, because that was the date (in the year 2448) of the original revelation at Sinai (when the Ten Commandments were given). But that assumption is wrong. Unlike all the other biblical festivals, the Torah does not prescribe a fixed calendar date for Shavuos. It bids us to observe it on the 50th day of a day-count that begins "on the morrow of the Sabbath" (Lev 23:15), which rabbinic Judaism has interpreted to mean the day after Nisan 15th. (This was not an uncontested interpretation among Jews of the second-Temple era, but it is the surviving interpretation, now part of halachic Judaism.)
In the old, observation-based calendar that was used in the second-Temple era, the 50th day of that count could have fallen on the 5th, 6th or 7th Sivan, depending on the combined length of Nisan and Iyar, which could have been 60, 59 or 58 days, respectively.
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Thank you for your insightful question. Firstly, the reference to Shavuos as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah - Zman Matan Toraseinu - is from the Talmud and is stated as such in the prayers, kiddush and blessings of the Haftorah recited on Shavuos. Indeeed you are correct,the Torah was actually given on the 52nd day of the Exodus - 51 days from the day following the 15th of Nissan. That was because, then, both Nissan and Iyar were 30 days and so the Torah was given on a Shabbos on the 6th of Sivan. However our calendar is fixed such that Nissa is always 30 days and Iyar 29 days.Thus, our 50th day always occurs on the 6th of Sivan which is the calendar anniversary of the giving of the Torah.
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Thank you, Rabbi New, for acknowledging my correction. Now that we have established that in the year of the Exodus, Nisan 15th, the day of the Exodus, occurred on Thursday, this leads me to the following query: The article The Breakthrough says, based on the works of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, that the revelation at Mt Sinai (the giving of the Ten Commandments) occurred on Shabbat, Sivan 6th, in the (Jewish) year 2448 (1313 BCE).
The only way that these two dates can both be correct is if, in the year of the Exodus, the revelation at Sinai occurred on the 51st day following Nisan 15th. If so, why did the Torah command us to observe Shavuot, which in all of Chabad literature (though nowhere in the Torah itself) is called the anniversary of the revelation at Sinai, on the 50th day after Nisan 15th?
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Thank you for your correction. My apologies.
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At about 06:02 to 06:35 in this audio track, Moshe New claims that the calendric circumstances of the Exodus (Nisan 10 = Shabbat Hagadol & Nisan 15 = Thur) cannot occur in our present calendar. (Quote: "it can never happen that the Seder is on Wednesday night going on to Thursday.") This is wrong. It happens quite regularly and last occurred in 2009. Would Rabbi New care to post a correction here?
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this was a very good study, may Hashem be lifted up, we all must give him glory, this must be share with the whole world, G-d give me power to share with everyone that needs to hear.
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Shabbat Hagadol - The Great Shabbat
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The Shabbat before Passover commemorates the day the Jews tied a sheep – an Egyptian God – to their bedposts to be used as a sacrifice. This event occurred on the 10th of Nissan so why is it commemorated specifically on the day of Shabbat? | |
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