## Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 1 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/1) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** READING OF THE TORAH FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SHAVUOT The reading for the first day describes the revelation at Mount Sinai, the event commemorated by Shavuot and the defining moment of Jewish history. It was then that, uniquely, God revealed Himself to an entire people, making a covenant with them that would charge them with the mission of becoming a holy nation, dedicated to God and an inspiration to the world. It was also the occasion on which God spoke the Ten Commandments or “Utterances” that eventually became the world’s most famous moral code. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 3 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 3](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/3) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם *You have seen*. The emphasis is on the immediacy of the experience. The people had witnessed a divine intervention into history. They had been redeemed from slavery under Pharaoh. God was now proposing that they become a nation under His own direct sovereignty in fulfillment of what He had earlier told Moses: “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:7). This would mark the culmination of their seven-week journey from servitude to law-governed liberty. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 5 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 5](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/5) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר וְהָאֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶֽנּוּ בְקוֹל *Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice*. This refers not to the Ten Commandments but to the conversation about preparations for that event (Ramban). Moses’ words were inaudible against the sound of the shofar but the voice of God could be heard by all (Rashbam). R. Elie Munk, citing the *Zohar*(*VaYikra* 7a), suggests a larger idea, that God would confirm what Moses said, even when he spoke on his own initiative. Likewise God ratifies the decisions of the sages in each generation when they apply the principles of the Oral Law. רֵד *Now go down.* God wanted Moses to be at the foot of the mountain not at the top, so that he would be among the people, not apart from them, when the revelation took place. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 6 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 6](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/6) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** אָנֹכִי יהוה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ *I am the*LORD*your God*. According to Maimonides, this is the first command: to believe in God. According to Nahmanides, it is a prelude and prologue to the commands. Judah HaLevi in the*Kuzari* (I:11–25) notes that God does not identify himself as Creator of heaven and earth, but as He who brought the people out of slavery. God as Creator of the universe is the God of all humankind, but He is also, especially in His relationship with Israel, the God of history. Having freed the people from enslavement, He is now giving them their constitution of liberty as a law-governed society under the sovereignty of God. לֹא־יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים *Have no other gods*. Monotheism is more than belief in one God. It is also undivided loyalty to the one God, involving a moral bond, not just an intellectual one. It was this exclusivity of worship that was unique in the ancient world, making faith in Judaism akin to faithfulness in marriage. עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָי *To the third and fourth generation, if they also reject Me*. Deuteronomy 24:16, Jeremiah 31:28–29 and Ezekiel 18:2–4 all make clear that there is no intergenerational transfer of guilt. Children are only punished for the sins of their parents if they themselves commit those sins. The phrase is therefore a warning to parents not to have a negative influence on their children, not a statement of vicarious guilt or punishment. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 8 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 8](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/8) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּֽךָ עַבְדְּךָ ... וּבְהֶמְתֶּֽךָ וְגֵרְךָ *You, your son or daughter…slaves…cattle…stranger.* The difference between a holiday and a holy day is that a holiday is private; a holy day is public. We take a vacation as individuals choosing to do so for our own enjoyment. By contrast, a holy day is not something we choose. It is part of public time, the way a park is part of public space. It and the freedom it represents belong to everyone equally. Thus it is essential that on Shabbat no one – not slaves, servants, employees, even farm animals – can be made to work against their will. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 9 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 9](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/9) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** לְמַֽעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה *So that you may live long in the land.* “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors” (Edmund Burke). ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 16 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 16](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/16) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** וְכָל־הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת־הַקּוֹלֹת *And all the people saw the thunder*. Literally, “they saw the sounds.” According to some, this means they experienced synesthesia: they saw what is normally only heard. An auditory experience became a visual one (*Mekhilta*, Rashi). Moses emphasized later how it was the sound that was the essential element of revelation: “Then God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no image; there was only a voice” (Deut. 4:12). לֹא־תִבְנֶה אֶתְהֶן גָּזִית *Let it not be of stone that is hewn*. The sword shortens life; the altar prolongs it. The sword symbolizes strife; the altar is a symbol of peace. That is why the sword, and metal instruments generally, were not to be used to hew stones for the altar (Mishna, *Midot* 3:4). ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 20 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 20](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/20) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** HAFTARA FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SHAVUOT The Haftara for the first day is taken from the opening of the book of Ezekiel. The connection between it and the Torah reading is Revelation: the direct unmediated encounter with the transcendental God, that, in the days of Moses, transformed the Israelites into “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” and that turned Ezekiel, a priest, into the great prophet of exile, bringing hope to his contemporaries who, like him, had been carried captive to Babylon. Ezekiel lived through one of the great crises of Jewish history. After the death of Solomon, the kingdom had split in two. The northern kingdom, Israel, defeated by the Assyrians in 722 bce, mostly disappeared, becoming known to history as the Lost Ten Tribes. The southern kingdom, Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 bce. The king, Jehoiakim, was taken captive to Babylon, together with the elite of the population, Ezekiel among them. Some years later, those who remained rose in rebellion and were defeated a second time. Jerusalem fell in 586 bce, and the Temple was destroyed. The Haftara opens by locating itself in time. The Temple was still standing in Jerusalem. The revolt that would lead to its destruction had not yet taken place. But Ezekiel, like his older contemporary Jeremiah, believed that disaster was imminent. Both prophets were charged by God to warn the people of the coming catastrophe, to urge them to repent, and to provide a compelling narrative of hope. If the people returned to God, God would return to them and bring them home. Ezekiel’s prophetic mission began with the dazzling vision set out in the Haftara, the most vivid of its kind anywhere in Tanakh. Terrified, the prophet falls on his face and hears a voice speak. The Haftara then moves to the close of the vision, in which Ezekiel, lifted by a wind, hears a great voice saying, “Blessed is the LORD’s glory from His place.” Much of this is deeply obscure, and became the basis of an esoteric tradition known as *Merkava*, or “chariot,” mysticism. This vision, mysteriously transmitted as it were from the Temple in Jerusalem to the prophet in exile, carried with it the assurance that God was still with His people, that their defeat and dispersion were not permanent, that the covenant was still in place, and that when the spirit lifts us, as the wind lifted Ezekiel, we can still sense the glory of God, however opaque, for though we may seem far from Him, He is never far from us. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 25 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 25](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/25) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** HAFTARA FOR THE SECOND DAY OF SHAVUOT The Haftara, taken from the conclusion of the short prophetic book of Habakkuk, was chosen because it describes a future revelation similar, at least in externals, to the one that took place on Mount Sinai on the first Shavuot. As then, so in the future, God will make an appearance in history, shaking the earth to its foundations. Ancient mountains will shatter, age-old hills will collapse – language reminiscent of the theophany at Sinai as described in Deuteronomy 33:2–5, Judges 5:4, and Psalms 68:8–9. The passage culminates in one of the most beautiful sentiments in the entire prophetic literature. Though the fig tree does not blossom and there are no grapes on the vines, though there is no grain in the fields and the flocks and herds have gone, still “I will rejoice in the LORD, will exult in the God who delivers me.” This is faith at its most sublime. Though everything else were to be taken from me, I would still have God, and it would be more than enough. To live in the presence of God, knowing that He is with us whatever fate brings, is to experience ultimate existential joy: joy in the simple fact that He is and we are, that we are *because* He is. Nothing can separate us from the Source of our being. We live in the light of His presence, and thus in hope and joy. ###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 28 [Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Torah Readings, Shavuot 28](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Rabbi%20Sacks%20on%20Siddur/s/Torah%20Readings,_Shavuot/r/28) **English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:** YATZIV PITGAM: MAY THIS PRAISE BE DESIRED This poem, like *Akdamut* said on the first day, is a *reshut*, a request for per­mission to recite the Aramaic translation of the text about to be read, in this case the Haftara from Habakkuk. The reason it is not said on the first day is that the passage read then – the vision of Ezekiel – was considered too mystical and open to misinterpretation to be translated into the vernacular. The custom of verse-by-verse translation of the biblical Hebrew into Aramaic lapsed as the center of Jewish life moved from Babylon to Europe in the Middle Ages, and Aramaic ceased to be the language of everyday speech, but, as with *Akdamut*, the introductory poem remained.