Shavu’os is different from other holidays because it doesn’t have any practical mitzvos that are special to the day. But there are many customs, many minhagim of the Jewish people, the first of which is reciting Tikkun Leil Shavu’os. This is like the seed of a tree. Planting the seed is the beginning of the tree’s subsequent sprouting and growth. Later it will need to be fertilized, watered and otherwise cared for, but its growth depends primarily on being planting. We know the tree could grow to be very big, and we hope it will, so we don’t plant it in a constricted space that won’t leave room for a tall tree.
The Arizal said that the whole year depends on Shavu’os night. By learning Torah properly in depth, or by the concentrated “seed” of reciting the Tikkun, this causes the tree of Torah, the Etz Chaim, to sprout and grow throughout the year.
If a person doesn’t plant the seed on Shavu’os, all the work and effort of the year will be in vain, because there is nothing there to sprout. The avodah of Shavu’os night is to plant great aspirations, to express our inner desire to devote our energy to Torah learning. Praying for and aspiring to greatness in Torah is in fact attachment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
There is a custom based on Kabbalah to immerse oneself in a mikveh at the end of Shavu’os night. Going under water is like dying, because a person cannot survive without air to breathe. Coming up from the water is an ascent like Techiyas Hameisim. Similar to a ger, whose conversion is completed by immersion in the mikveh, every Jew is renewed by immersing himself in the mikveh. He comes out a new person.
We need to work extra hard on the tefilos of Shavu’os, not to doze off at this eis ratzon, at this special opportunity for our prayers to be answered. It says in Torah sources that Tefilas Musaf of Shavu’os is an eis ratzon. It is like Ne’ilah on Yom Kippur and like Minchah on Shabbos. These three “Ne’ilos” draw down from Above great siyata d’Shmaya in spiritual matters.
It is customary to eat dairy and honey foods on Shavu’os. One of the reasons for this minhag is that Torah is compared to milk and honey. The goal of eating such foods is that we should taste the sweetness and pleasantness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
יםִּדַמֲחַ מֹוּלֻכְים וִּקַתְמַ מֹוּכִח – “His cheeks are sweet and He is all pleasantness.” He who tastes the “honey” of Torah is so fortunate and has such great enjoyment! The joy of Yom Tov, which we celebrate with a festive meal, expresses the feeling exclaimed by Rav Yosef:
Rav Yosef would say on Shavu’os, “Cook for me a choice calf !” He would explain, “If not for what this day did for me, there are lots of ‘Yosefs’ in the street.”
Rav Yosef went out of his way to celebrate Shavu’os with a festive meal because Torah made him what he was. If not for Shavu’os, the day when the Torah was given, he would be just another “Yosef,” with nothing special about him.
This expresses the happiness of every Jew who lovingly receives the Torah. Through the Torah he is spiritually uplifted and can grow in Torah and mitzvos and live a life of attachment and deveikus to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
May we merit that this year and its curses will come to an end, and a new, blessed year will begin, with the blessing of Torah, which brings goodness and blessing, life and peace, to all who wholeheartedly learn it and support it.
2 Shir Hashirim 5:16.
3 Ibid.
4 See Megilah 31b.
