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The Everyday Judaism Podcast (formerly Living Jewishly Podcast) is dedicated to learning and understanding the laws and basic how-to of daily Jewish living. Presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in a simple and concise manner, easy for anyone to understand and connect.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen Lerner.
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Everyday Judaism Podcast.
Welcome back everybody to the Everyday Judaism Podcast. Today we're going to do a special segment since we are at the entry days to the holiday of Shavuot. We have what's known as the Shlosh Yitimei Hagbalah, the three days leading up to Shavuot. It's interesting that this year, because today is Rosh Chodesh, Chodesh Tov to everyone, because today is Rosh Chodesh, today is exactly the structure of how the Jewish people received
the Torah, because it was the first day of Sivan was Sunday, Monday, Tuesday was travel days, then they had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday were preparation days, and on Shabbos they received the revelation. Just like we have this year in the calendar, and it's a very, very powerful, powerful time. So what I want to do is, because this Sivan brings a little bit of the laws of Shavuot, it also has the laws regarding all holidays, the mitzvah to rejoice in our festivals.
There's a special mitzvah to rejoice, you know there's a special mitzvah to rejoice on Shabbos. That same mitzvah carries over to holidays. As we will see, you shall rejoice in your festivals. So now we are beginning Sivan 103, Halacha chapter 103, the laws of rejoicing on the festivals. Halacha number one. Just as there is a mitzvah to honor the Shabbos and to delight in it, so too there is a mitzvah to honor and delight in all of the festivals. The Nehmer is the verse that states...
If you proclaim the Shabbos a delight, the holy day of Hashem honored, all of our festivals are called a holy day of Hashem, a holy convocation, and therefore it's a special mitzvah to celebrate on these days. What does that mean to celebrate on these days? That means buy special foods, wear special clothes, drink special drinks, whether it be wine, whether it be something else, something special that we do for Shabbos that we don't do during the week.
There should be foods that we have just for Shabbos that we don't have during the week. There should be clothes that we wear just for Shabbos and not during the week. A person should... we should have, you know, we call it the formal dining room, right? That formal dining room is the Shabbos dining room. That's really what it's for. It's for Shabbos and holidays. It's not for Thanksgiving alone. It's for... Every week is our Thanksgiving.
Every week is our celebration, giving thanks to Hashem for the incredible life He gives us. So that is halacha number one. Halacha number two. Kitzer explains the two obligations mentioned above to honor Yom Tov and to delight in it. What is meant by honor? This is what our sages of blessed memory said. For a person to cut his hair on Erev Yom Tov, before the eve of a festival, get a haircut. In order for a person not to come into the festival unkempt.
So too there is a mitzvah to bathe in hot water. And to wash his head, his hair, and to cut his nails before Yom Tov, just like we do before Shabbos. So too there's a mitzvah to bake bread, to prepare challah in one's house on the eve of Yom Tov, which this year will be on Thursday afternoon. Thursday evening the holiday begins. What does it mean to honor the Yom Tov? Just like you do on Erev Shabbos.
Therefore it is forbidden for a person to eat from mincha time, which is mid-afternoon till the evening, just like before Shabbos. You eat the meal of the holiday with an appetite. You're gonna come in all full. You're not gonna want to eat the Shabbos meal, the holiday meal either. Therefore you avoid eating a significant meal. Don't satiate your hunger before Yom Tov or Shabbos so that you come in with an appetite. And if Erev Yom Tov falls on Shabbos, Yom Tov begins Saturday night, then it's a mitzvah
for you to eat the third meal of Shabbos early so that you don't come into the holiday with a lack of appetite. So too the same applies on the first day of Yom Tov, which outside of Israel in the diaspora where we are now, unfortunately, where the first day leads into the second day, you shouldn't eat too late in the day of the first holiday, the first day of the holiday, so that you come into the second day with an appetite.
Like this, you have this year, Thursday night is the first night, Friday is the first day, and then we go into Shabbos, which is Shabbos and Yom Tov combined. So don't eat late Friday afternoon because then you're gonna have the Shabbos meal, the Yom Tov meal for the second day, and you're gonna come without any appetite, and that is not what we want. Eizu huoneg, what is considered a delight for Yom Tov? Zeh shomer ha-b'seinu zal, this is what our sages of blessed memory said, sheh chayiv le-echo
bi-yom tov be-chol yom be-seudos, to eat two festive meals on each day of the holiday, achos be-laylo achos be-yom, one at night and one by day. Aval seudah shlishus einogim, the third meal is just for Shabbos, it's not for a holiday, we don't have the third meal on the holiday. And we are obligated to recite Kiddush on a cup filled with wine before the meal. And additionally, just like we do on Shabbos, we make hamotzi, we recite the blessing at
the beginning of the meal on two loaves of bread, just like we do on Shabbos. And as well, a person should have meat and wine and delicacies in abundance, kifi yecholto, commensurate to his means. Halacha number four, be-chol yom tov, in every yom tov, kiddush sheh ba-laylo omerim le-achrof b'rchas shehecheyanu, you always recite on the holiday, you recite the blessing of shehecheyanu after kiddush. Al simchas ha-chag, upon the joy of the festival, chutz b'lel shvish, the exception to this
is the seventh night of Pesach, b'lel shmini, and the eighth night of Pesach outside of Israel in the Diaspora. She-ein b'varcham shehecheyanu, where we do not recite shehecheyanu, keven she-eino regel b'fni-atzmo, since these days do not constitute an independent festival unto their own. It's part of the earlier days of the holiday, and therefore it's considered part of one holiday, which we already recited shehecheyanu in the earlier part of the holiday. Va'anoshim b'shassad lakasnerus, when the women recite the blessing on the yom tov candles,
just like we do for Shabbos, ein lo-hein l'varch shehecheyanu, they should not recite shehecheyanu blessings b'shum yom tov, on any of the yom tov, u'k'tzasson agos l'varch, nevertheless, some women do have the custom to recite shehecheyanu at candle lighting, k'tzm l'el zayin v'l'el ches shal Pesach, again, with the exception of the seventh and eighth day of Pesach, v'lo mochinon b'hu, and we do not stop them if they do recite the shehecheyanu. Our custom is to recite, yes, recite shehecheyanu on the holiday Shabbos candles, or the holiday
candles that are lit by the women, the women do recite shehecheyanu, whatever is recited by Kiddush, the women recite as well on the candles. Okay, halacha number five. In addition to the obligation to honor and delight the yom tov, just as on Shabbos, there is a mitzvah to rejoice on yom tov, as the Torah writes, v'samachto v'chagecho, ato, v'ncho, v'techo v'avdecho, you should rejoice in your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your servant, here the kitzer explains how this obligation is fulfilled, chayev, this
is halacha number five, chayev l'sameach es ishto u'banov, one is obligated to gladden and satisfy his wife and children for the festival, v'chol anuv'l'ilov, and all of those who rely upon him, so anybody who's part of your home, kol echod koro iloi, as is appropriate for each one of them, haktanim nosilim egozim m'gdonos, he says to the children, you give them treats, you give them things that will satisfy and please them, v'anoshim b'vigodim v'tachshitim, women love Jewish law, you know that? Because you know what the Jewish law says?
That a man is obligated to satisfy his wife with buying her new clothes and jewelry for the holiday, and this is for every holiday, three times a year, not only a birthday, not only anniversary, Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, a woman should have new clothes, should have new jewelry, she should feel excited and elevated by the festival, kefi echotot, again commensurate with his means, v'anoshim b'vosav yayin, and men, they don't need clothes, they don't need jewelry, just give them meat and wine, v'nochim lehargos b'minim acholim b'yom tov, and it
is customary to serve various dishes in abundance on yom tov Yosemite Shabbos, even more than on Shabbos, kibi yom tov ne'em arbo simcha, because there's a special obligation to rejoice on holidays which does not as well apply on Shabbos, v'lo b'Shabbos, it doesn't say that you have to have simcha on Shabbos, it says you should have oneg, you should have pleasure, but it doesn't say simcha, this added element of rejoicing, v'gam b'ikdei yom tov, yu yukarim
yosem ishal Shabbos, he says the garments that one wears for holidays should be more expensive than those garments that one wears on an ordinary Shabbos. Again we have to remember though that the holiest day of the year is Shabbos, transpires 54 times a year, sorry 52 times a year we have the celebration of Shabbos, and we have to remember this, Shabbos is so special, it is so powerful, even though we have it every single week, we have to treasure each and every Shabbos, the festivals, we only have
three festivals annually that are biblical, so we have to make the festivals special as well. B'yom sheyni shall Pesach, on the second day of Pesach, yey shlasos b'seudah eizeh dovor, lezei her seudahs Esther. One should prepare something special for the meal on the second day of Passover, why? To commemorate the feast of Esther when she hosted Achashverosh and Haman, shehoyseh b'yom zeh, which was on that day, sheh bo b'yom nitlah haman, on that day Haman was
hanged so it's a special celebration that we should have on Pesach for the meal that Esther had with Achashverosh and Haman and had Haman hung right there and then. Now he's going to talk about Shavuot, b'yom rishon shal Shavuot, in the diaspora where there are two days of Shavuot, just an interesting side note, so Shavuot is going to be Thursday night Friday, Friday night Shabbos, but in Israel they only have one day of Shavuot, it's only going to be Thursday night Friday, so Shabbos they're going to read already the
next Torah portion but here in the diaspora we're going to read the holiday reading. So what's going to happen? The following week we're going to be reading the next Torah portion, they're going to be reading two portions from now because they already had a Shabbos, you don't read on a Shabbos that has a festival, you read the festival reading not the Shabbos reading. So it's the most remarkable thing, if you look in the magnificent torch calendar you
will see that we are going to read Parashat Naso next week on the 30th of May while in Israel they're going to be reading Bahaloscha which is the following week because this week already they read Naso and we're going to be off schedule until the end of the book of Numbers where we have Matos, we're going to have Chukas Boloch, that's going to catch us up, and in some cases Matos Maseh is what catches us up at the end of the book of Numbers.
So it's very just an interesting side note. Here the halacha now continues regarding Shavuot. It is customary to eat dairy foods and there are several reasons for this custom. Now what are the reasons? In addition there's an allusion to this custom that can be found in the verse a new meal offering to Hashem on your festival of weeks which is Shavuot. What is mincha chadoshah l'hashem b'shvu oseichem? The first letter spells out mei chalav, from milk.
And people also have a custom to eat foods that were prepared with honey. So that why? Because the Torah is compared to honey. We can look, we'll see soon the reason why we eat dairy foods. We're going to learn from a different book here about the dairy. Shenei Amar is the verse that states, honey and milk are under your tongue, since we eat dairy foods, and we must also eat meat that day, because there's an actual mitzvah to eat meat and wine on the festival.
This is just a custom to have dairy. So tzvichim l'hizor shelo yavol l'deisur, a person has to be very careful not to violate the prohibition of mixing meat and milk. This is a severe biblical prohibition not to mix the two. Therefore what many people do, I've seen, I've been at the house of a very very prominent sage of our generation, Anshavot. And what they did was they started the meal, they had a plastic tablecloth on top of their
regular tablecloth, they had cheesecake, they had cheese platters, they had a bunch of different things that were dairy. Then they rolled up the plastic tablecloth, they all rinsed their mouth either with wine or with other drinks, and then they had their meat meal. But that you can only do if you don't have hard cheeses. If you have a hard cheese, you have to wait six hours just like you do for meat, after meat.
So that was, it's a very interesting, you can eat the cheese before the meat, but you can't have the cheese till you wait six hours after the meat. Okay, it's just an interesting pointer. Halacha number eight, even though eating and drinking on Yom Tov is a performative commandment of the Torah, as the Torah says to rejoice in Yom Tov, a person shouldn't be busy all day gluttonously eating and eating and eating, because don't forget the Torah
says in Deuteronomy, there shall be an assembly for Hashem your God, implying that the festival be observed by consecrating oneself in the service of Hashem. Even though it says that the assembly is for you, implying that one should attend to his personal pleasures on Yom Tov, our sages already explained, half the holiday for Hashem, half the holiday for you. So yeah, enjoy your delicacies, enjoy your family and eating, but also spend time investing in your relationship with Hashem.
Therefore one should also spend time engaging in Torah study on the festival. When one drinks and eats in enjoyment of the holiday, make sure you have an obligation to feed the orphan, the widow and the convert, together with anyone else who is downtrodden and poor, because we see you shall rejoice in your festival, you, your son, the Levite, the proselyt, the convert and the orphan. But one who, heaven forbid, locks his courtyard, does not invite other people in, eats and
delights with his wife and children only, and does not open up his home to others. And he doesn't welcome other poor people, depressed people, he doesn't, you know, downtrodden people, he doesn't invite them in. What kind of celebration is this with no mitzvah added to it? This is just a celebration purely of physical appetites. Their offerings, as the verse states in Hashayah, their feast offerings will be to them like the bread of mourners. A celebration like this is a disgrace.
Always try to find a way to include other people in your meal. They don't have to be beggars from under the bridge who haven't showered in six months. You don't have to suffer on behalf of other people, but do your best to invite other people to your home. Share the joy, share the excitement that you have in your festival with Hashem, with other people. That's really, really special for one to do that. Be careful not to engage excessively in drinking wine in levity and in light-headedness.
Justifying such behavior by saying to himself, that the more I engage in drinking or things like this, you see, I'm just rejoicing in the holiday, it's okay, it's not a big deal, I'm drunk, so what? Who cares? Right? No. He says, the drunkenness, levity, and light-headedness is not rejoicing. That's not what rejoicing means. This is madness and folly. This is not what was intended by the Torah when it says to be joyous on our festivals.
And we were not commanded to engage in madness and folly, but rather only to engage in rejoicing that involves the service of He who created all, as the verse states, as the verse states in Deuteronomy, because you did not serve Hashem, your God, with gladness and goodness of heart when everything was abundant, we learn from this, that the service of Hashem must be performed with simcha, and a person cannot serve Hashem properly amidst levity nor amidst light-headedness nor amidst drunkenness.
A person is drunk, that's not real joy, that's the lack thereof, that's numb, you're not connected in a real way, you just lost yourself. Okay, a person has to be very careful about this. Yeah, enjoy wine, enjoy meat, enjoy the foods, and have extra foods on the holiday, but be careful that it doesn't bring to levity. Halacha number 11. Kitzu describes how a time of joy is used in the service of Hashem. The characteristic of the pious, who are constantly cognizant of the presence of Hashem before
them, and who know Hashem in everything that they do, they're constantly conscious of Hashem, they're Hashem conscious, even at their times of joy, which is why, by the way, we break the glass, the Talmud says that, why do we break the glass by the chuppah? The reason is because there was once a wedding that they were dancing and so joyous, they didn't realize, they were already too drunk. So one of the great sages, the Talmud says in Baruchot 31a, he took a glass and broke
it so that it would startle people and they would awaken from their drunkenness and from their levity. So he says, the pious ones, at their times of joy, they increasingly bless and praise Hashem, who gladdened them, and a person should say in his heart, at the time of his joy and pleasure, if this is the joy available in this world, which is a fleeting world, which is a futile world, which is followed with sorrow and pain, what kind of great joy will
there be in the world to come, which is eternal, which has no sorrow that follows it, and one should pray to Hashem that He turn His heart towards Him, towards His service, and He should perform His will wholeheartedly, and be gladdened with the eternal joy, and make us worthy of the life of the world to come, and to bask in the light of the countenance of a living king. So this is the prayer that one should recite, say, you know what, Hashem, it's such a special
day, I love this, this is so unbelievable, but this is a fleeting joy. Imagine the joy of the world to come, which is not fleeting, which is eternal, what a great privilege, what a, Hashem, please make it so that I can merit to that, that I should not focus on things that are futile, that I should not focus on things that are wasteful, but rather things that are proper in your eyes. Halacha number 12, we just have three more left, and by the way, this is regarding all festivals,
not only Shavuot, not only Sukkot, and not only Pesach, they're all of them. Chayiv kol odam, every man is obligated, la'ashgiach ha'bnei Moshe sholei yitayelu, a person should supervise the members of his household that they not go on a field trip, b'mokom sheyovo u'chas v'shalom u'idei kalos rosh, they shouldn't go to a place where there is lightheadedness, u'bi yis'arvam imkali adas, and mingling with frivolous people, rak yukdoshim, be cautious to keep them engaged with holy people, with good influences, ki kadosh ha'yom, because the day is holy, a person
should therefore ensure that whatever it is that we're doing, even the intermediary days of Sukkot and Pesach, where a person goes, then those are days to prepare for the second days of the holiday, that's the time where people go on trips and people go and enjoy family time, make sure that it's still in the in the flavor of a elevated, uplifting holiday style joy. Halacha number 13, b'motsei yom tov, on the departure of yom tov, lechol o lechol hamoed, whether
it be transitioning to a weekday or to the chol hamoed, which is the intermediary days, omer betfilo atachon antonu, we recite the passage of atachon antonu, which is a transitional prayer from Shabbos to weekday and holiday to weekday as well, ve'amavdil b'kos, oh and one is to recite havdola at the end of the holiday on a cup of wine, avalol anavol samim, but not with a fragrant spice nor with a flame, as we do in the conclusion of Shabbos, unless the conclusion of the holiday
is also the conclusion of Shabbos, like it will be this year in the diaspora, where we're going to go from holiday and Shabbos into the weekend, next Saturday night. So then we will, the only time you do the candle and the b'samim and the scent is on Saturday night. Okay, and finally, noah agim, it is customary, lehav b'sksas b'achil u'shtiya, b'yom shel achar chag, to somewhat, it is customary to somewhat increase the amount of food and drink that we eat on the day following the
holiday, which is called Isru Chag, b'chol shol shugol, I mean all three of the festivals, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, sh'hu Isru Chag, which is Isru Chag, what is Isru Chag? Isru Chag is literally the bind, binding of the festival. It's the final closing out of the festival, it's like you got to unwind. Ve'noah agim she'ein m'sanem bo, and it is customary not to fast on that day, afilu chosem v'kal b'yom chupasem, even if a bride
and groom are getting married on that day, which would be this coming Sunday, right? So a week from today will be Isru Chag, will be the the final day of the holiday, even though it's not a holiday itself, the holiday is just going to be Thursday night Friday and Friday night Shabbos, so Saturday night the holiday is over. Isru Chag is an extra day just that we attach to the holiday after each of the
three festivals, we're permitted to do our regular work, it's just a day to wind down, it's like when you go on vacation you have to, you need a vacation for the vacation, right? You have a great festival, now you got, okay, he says that you don't fast on that day, even a bride and groom would get married, so if there's a wedding next Sunday night, Sunday before sunset, the bride and groom do not
fast, you're not supposed to fast on that day, as well below yard site, nor should someone fast in the observance of a yard site, and a day of memory for someone who passed on that day should not be a day of fasting, will be Isru Chag, and like we have for this holiday, Isru Chag that follows the holiday of Shavuos, so like this year in the diaspora, if Shabbos fell out in the times of the temple,
if Shavuot fell out on Shabbat, the day of the slaughtering of the personal festival offerings would be the day after Shavuos, but Pesach and Shavuos, they wouldn't do that, rather it would be on the first day of Chol HaMoed. Okay, so this concludes the laws of general holidays, and obviously for the upcoming holiday of Shavuot that we will celebrate, so this episode, hopefully I'll release it before each of the coming holidays, God willing, before each holiday, so we know the basic laws, but I want to share with
you a few things that apply specifically to the holiday of Shavuot, okay, so although it is customary to pray Marev, the evening service, on Yom Tov night before dark, nevertheless on the night of Shavuot, we delay starting Marev until after nightfall. Why is that? Because the Torah states, the verse in Leviticus, seven whole weeks of counting shall there be, we're counting now the days of the Omer, and it needs to be seven full weeks, so you need to wait till that last day
is over, and then you can begin the holiday, okay, so we wait until the 49 days have completely ended before commencing the Marev service. Staying awake at night, we know that there's a special custom to stay awake on the holiday of Shavuot, right, we stay awake Thursday night, y'all are all welcome, we're going to give out the information of all the different torch classes that are going on all night during the holiday of Shavuot, so there's going to be Thursday night,
the whole night, there'll be classes till sunrise, we will begin the morning service, and then after the service, you can eat, you can drink, or you can sleep, and catch up on your much-missed sleep that night, okay, so it is customary in Shavuot to remain awake all night studying Torah. Why? The Midrash relates that the night before receiving the Torah, the children of Israel slept all that night, since the sleep of Atzeret is particularly enjoyable on this short night,
and Moshe had to wake up the Jewish people to receive the Torah. Regarding that night, the prophet Yeshayahu, Isaiah, spoke critically saying, why when I came was no man waiting, I called but there was no answer. To correct this error, we stay awake this night, demonstrating our eagerness to receive the Torah. Dairy foods, everyone's favorite. Now, I'll just tell you, my mother is a great cook, but I never really, we never really had so much of an investment in the
dairy department of our, we had a dairy meal, but it was, my wife, when we got married, she says, I really, really want to do a dairy meal on Shavuot. I was like, okay, fine, like whatever you want, right, and then she showed me what it's supposed to be like, and it's become a staple in our home, that meal of, the dairy meal is just absolutely remarkable. She pulls out all the stops and there's, it's really amazing. So, what's the reason for this custom? So, we're customary to eat
dairy foods on Shavuos. This is parallel to the shank bone and the egg on the Seder plate, which commemorate the Pesach and Chagigah sacrifices, respectively. Similarly, on Shavuos, we eat two dishes, one of meat and one of milk, separately, obviously, as a remembrance of the two loaves offered in the Besam Yigdush. This is the Ramaz reason. Then we have, as well, that this alludes to the Torah, which was given on Shavuos, and is compared to milk, as the verse states,
honey and milk shall be under your tongue. So, the Torah is compared to milk, and therefore, we eat milk. There's another reason. To commemorate the first Shavuos celebrated in the wilderness, where our forefathers ate only dairy dishes. Why? This is because eating kosher meat, after the giving of the Torah, required much preparation. A special slaughtering knife, the exact, the extracting of the veins, salting and rinsing. They also needed new eating utensils, since those they had cooked
in previously, were now forbidden to use. Hence, they ate dairy foods. Imagine, they were given the new laws now, at Mount Sinai, they're given the Torah, now what's going to be? Now, oh, one second, maybe we didn't eat it properly, maybe we didn't prepare it properly. They had to clean up with their utensils before they can have meat dishes. So, they ate dairy at Mount Sinai. Okay, very interesting. A fourth reason. The Torah indirectly alludes to this, in the verse, and we mentioned this,
the first letters of chadashah la'ashem, b'shvu oseichem, mincha, right? Ismei chalav is, chalav is milk, and there's a hint over there, that we eat dairy on Shavuot. The fifth reason. This is in accord with the verse, the first fruits of your land you shall bring to the house of Hashem, your God. You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. This is a veiled reference to Shavuos, which is called the festival of first fruit, in which dairy dishes are eaten, you shall
not eat them with meat. Okay, great. Another reason. Dairy foods, in contrast to meat dishes, symbolize frugality. Thus, our sages expanded on the verse, and you shall be sufficient, and there shall be sufficient milk and goats for your sustenance. It should be enough for a person, the milk of his goats and the sheep that he possesses in his home, their milk should be enough for you, and you should not find it necessary to slaughter them and to eat them. Accordingly, in the festival
of Matan Torah, which is the holiday of Shavuot, we eat dairy dishes to teach us that the Torah demands us to subsist on what Hashem apportions us. In a similar vein, our sages said, this is the way of the Torah, you shall eat bread and salt. Furthermore, they said, this should be a simple, a simplistic way of eating, and that's why we eat dairy. One of the ways the Torah is acquired is we mentioned this in our 48 ways, is limiting one's pleasures, and therefore, if a person can
eat dairy on Shavuot, it's a special thing. Another thing is Mount Sinai had many names, one of them is Har Gavnunim. Gavnunim is similar to Gevina, which is cheese, and therefore, we learn from there that this is brought in in Tehillim, in Psalms. King David writes this in chapter 68. The numerical value of Halav is 40, alluding to the 40 days which Moshe Rabbeinu stayed on Mount Sinai. So, that's also another hint to the reason, and the ninth and final reason
brought here is on Shavuos, Moshe Rabbeinu was plucked from the river, he was on the holiday of Shavuot. We derive from this, from his date of birth, the seventh of Adar, for three months he was hidden, which is the sixth of Sivan. That day, the daughter of Pharaoh found him in the basket and gave him to his mother to nurse, because Moshe refused to nurse from the Egyptian women, we thus recall the great merit of Moshe Rabbeinu on Shavuos by eating dairy foods.
Okay, and then, finally, why do we read the book of Ruth on the holiday of Shavuot? So, number one is the Torah teaches us that we acquire the Torah with difficulty and affliction. Torah is acquired through difficulty and affliction. We see that Ruth and Ami didn't go through an easy time, they had a very, very difficult time. In order to become part of the Jewish people, Ruth had to endure tremendous travails and difficulties, and that's one of the lessons that we learn,
and that's why Ruth is read on Shavuot. Additionally, Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. The festival of Shavuos is called Chag HaKadzer, the festival of the reaping, of the harvesting. Okay, so that makes sense as well. Ruth converted to Judaism, accepting upon herself the yoke of the Torah in the midst of it, as she said, your people are my people, your God is my God. Hence, we read the book of Ruth on the festival
of the giving of the Torah, because we all were converts as well at Mount Sinai. We all accepted upon ourselves that same thing that Ruth did. So, this is really our story. King David was born and died on the holiday of Shavuot. The last verses of the book of Ruth relate David's lineage, which goes back to Yehudah, the son of Yaakov. The Megillah concludes with the words, and Yishai bore David. Okay, so that's great, and we have two more. Ruth converted and entered
the community of Israel despite the admonition of the Torah. The Anamoite and Emoavite shall not enter the congregation of Hashem. This is because our sages interpret the verse, an Ammonite male is forbidden, but not an Ammonite female. Emoavite male is forbidden, and not an Emoavite female. It's the Gemari of Amos 76b. So, on the festival of Matan Torah, we read Megillah's Ruth to underscore the unity of the written and the oral Torahs, and one is incomprehensible
without the other. We know that is a fact. You cannot understand the written Torah without the oral Torah. And finally, the sixth reason brought here as to why we read the book of Ruth is the numerical value. Ruth is 606, and together with the seven Noahide mitzvahs, they total 613 mitzvahs, which Hashem gave us on Shavuot. My dear friends, this concludes Simon 103 in the Ketzer Shulchan and our interesting addition to this episode with regard to the uniqueness of the holiday
of Shavuot, why we eat dairy foods, and why we read the book of Ruth. And now we are going to turn the floor to you, my dear friends, for Ask Away number 43. My dear friends, I look forward to hearing your questions on the next broadcast. Have a great week, and have a magnificent, beautiful holiday of Shavuot, a beautiful Shabbos as well. I look forward to all of us being in Jerusalem, in our Holy Temple, where we can bring our offerings. Amen. My dear friends, Chag Sameach.
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