Next Tuesday night at 2:23am I hope to be sitting up and wide awake on a chair in my living room.
Next Wednesday, I plan on eating some dairy Blintzes & Cheesecake.
No, these are not my Facebook Status Posts or latest tweets, in fact I will be officially taking a break from social media and technology for 48 hours next week in the middle of the week. Instead, the above activities are actually connected to an important refresher course I plan on attending next week.
You see, next Tuesday evening, we begin celebrating one of the important but less famous Jewish Holidays. It is known as Shavuos, and it falls seven weeks after the beginning of Passover, but for some reason, it is a little less known, although it is no less important in the story of Jewish History. In fact, if the kinds of food that we eat on a holiday have anything to do with the contents of the holiday, then all the high carbs and dairy rich food that we eat on Shavuos, probably reference something pretty important and historic.
Step back a few years and take a journey back in time. Rewind a couple dozen, or maybe hundreds of generations until you reach your ancestors who were probably dressed in some flowing robes while they hung out in the desert after the exodus from Egypt. Press stop, and check out the date, and cool, it is 3328 years ago, and you are standing at the foot of a great Mountain. You try looking up the mountain to see what it’s called, but it’s not showing up on Waze or Google Maps despite the vast number of Jews and young hipsters hanging around. Suddenly your phone pings, you were just tagged with some 2 Million other friends @ Mount Sinai.
You quickly snap a Selfie with 2 Million others and make sure you get that crest of the mountain in the picture. You check the picture, but Moses seems to have come out a little blurry. Then, right as you were about to Instagram that photo, you hear a boom and crash, and suddenly the sky lights up with lightning and you hear the crash of thunder. Something powerful is happening, you can sense it, you can hear it, and you can almost smell it.
You put your phone on vibrate and slip it in to the pocket of your jeans. Let’s see if the great…… grandparents know what is going on. You give a tug at their robes, but they motion you to be quiet and listen. Everyone seems to be gazing at something on the mountain. You follow everyone’s gaze and look up, and begin to tremble as you realize you are seeing something of historic importance.
Suddenly, a loud clear and booming voice, cuts through the air, “I am G-d your G-d who took you out of Egypt”. You rub your eyes in disbelief as you realize that this isn’t the movie the Ten Commandments, this is the real thing. You listen, take it in, and hear G-d’s mandate to the Jewish people. You hear about actions being in sync with what G-d wants, you hear about honesty, you hear about faith, and you hear about respecting your parents and honoring the Shabbat.
You feel your phone vibrating, someone is texting you, and you are distracted for a second. You look around at the 2 million Jews swallowing in every word, and then accepting the challenge and committing to keep these commandments and make the world into G-d’s home. You wonder what will the next few thousand years bring, will they succeed and will they somehow remember these values and integrate them with their lives and the world around them.
Wait who is texting you, you check your phone and to see who was texting you in the middle of your trance, and realize oh man, it’s the Rabbi again, what does he want. You read the text “Join us for the 3328th reading of the Ten Commandments right here in Sudbury…”. Hey you know what you think to yourself, I think I want to re-experience that, this seems to be a pretty important part of who I am. Bzzzzz…. Oh no another text, and it’s from him again, “Cheesecake, Ice Cream and Dairy Buffet too”. You quickly text back, count me in and see you soon!
Chag Sameach and see you at our Shavuot Celebration next Wednesday at 6pm for the 3328th time in Jewish History! It’s a big Holiday, it’s the beginning of our collective spiritual experience and shared goal as a people, and it’s a day that has tremendous spiritual importance to every Jew.
See you on Wednesday!