Rabbi’s Message

The holiday of Shavuot is the red-headed step child of Jewish festivals.  It comes in the early summer when many are finishing school or starting summer holidays.  It lacks a ritual that endears people to it – there are ritual behaviors associated like all-night Torah study (I can barely focus after 9 PM), dairy products (not that unusual from the rest of the year), greenery on the bima (meh).  Yet the focus of the holiday is perhaps the most important, arguably even more important than the message of Pesah – for the Revelation at Sinai is what distinquishes the Jewish people.  As Amos the prophet stated in the haftarah recited for parashat Kedoshim, God has taken lots of peoples to freedom.  But we are the only the people to receive Divine revelation as an entire People, not a holy man who receives a message and then promotes it. So we should take special care to observe this important festival. 

  A medieval ethical manual called Maalot HaMidot –or the Jewish Moral Virtues – by Rabbi Yehiel ben Yekutiel, was an anthology of lessons on a list of 24 virtues.  In his chapter on the virtue of Torah study he wrote:

In Proverbs (5:6) it states “Don’t attempt to ponder the path of life, her ways meander, and cannot be known.” The sages asked: What does the verse mean?  The Holy One exclaimed: Do not sit and ponder or attempt to weigh the value of each mitzvah in the Torah.  Do not say: This mitzvah’s reward is great, and I will make an effort to keep it; this one’s value is much less so I won’t take it seriously.  All the mitzvot are valuable and incalculable.  This is why God did not reveal the reward for the mitzvot so people should see all the mitzvot as equal.  But God knows how to reward each person for his or her observance.

God is able to calculate all the factors that go into the observance of a mitzvah that each unique person observes – the proper intention, the challenge to the individual, the willingness, the frequency, the obstacles that must be overcome.  In essence no mitzvah performed by two different people is ever the same.  One person acts in a perfunctory manner, another acts with complete devotion; one person learned from birth and was brought up doing it, another learned later in life and has to think consciously about the act to do it; one person lives in a community where everyone observes, another has to overcome the challenge of living where people are unfamiliar with Jewish practice. 

In our community, there are many different tasks that are required to keep this community functioning – there is maintaining our daily minyanim, there is making sure the building is working efficiently; there is leading worship and reading Torah, there is making sure food is available for community gatherings; there is financial support, there is acting to welcome newcomers; there are those who teach our young, and who serve on the board of the synagogue.  All of these activities are important and essential to maintaining this holy community.  One is not more important than another because all are important and essential.  What is crucial is that everyone contributes to the best and most of their abilities.  This is what makes Sinai a holy community. 

We thank everyone who has contributed in our effort to make Sinai a holy community and all of those who are joining the ranks of worship leaders this month and next. 

Shavuot Services

Shavuot falls on Friday May 22 and Shabbat May 23.  Services on Friday as well as on Shabbat will begin at 9:30 AM

And this year on Thursday evening we will enter into Shavuot with dinner and our annual Journey to Sinai program

And our featured speakers this year will be Lizzie Fagen and Rabbi Friedland, who will share their journey to Sinai.