The Frierdiker Rebbe said: Every year on Shavuos, the same revelation of HaShem that was revealed at the time of matan Torah is revealed anew, and a Yid who at this time arouses himself to establish set times for studying Torah is successful in his avoda.
(סה"ש קיץ ה'ש"ת ע' 116 , תש"ג ע' 129)
“Once,” related the Rebbe Maharash, “on the first night of Shavuos, I went to say Gut Yom-Tov to my great-uncle Reb Chaim Avraham, son of the Alter Rebbe. I found him sitting with his hands covering his tear-stained face. I asked him why he was crying on Yom-Tov. He explained that the Baal Shem Tov said that when one prepares himself properly during Sefiras HaOmer, he is found worthy on Shavuos of being admitted to the Fiftieth Gate of kedusha – “and I can’t feel it,” concluded Reb Chaim Avraham.”
The Rebbe Maharash concluded, “My great uncle Reb Chaim Avraham was then seventy seven years old and was completely removed from all worldly matters. Yet on the night of Shavuos, he wept for the revelation of the Fiftieth Gate. This left me with a deep impression.”
(73 'ע ש"מהר ר"אדמו התולדות ספר)
The eminent chossid, Reb Aizik Homiler, recalled that once before Shavuos, a number of chassidim discussed what they should ask of HaShem on the night of Shavuos. They decided to ask the Mitteler Rebbe, and assumed that he would surely speak of the study and understanding of pnimiyus haTorah.
Instead, he shared his own wish: “I would wish to have the fiery flame of matan Torah.”
(סה"ש תש"ה ע' 108)
Recollecting his experience of Shavuos in תרמ"ה (1885), when he was a child of five, the Frierdiker Rebbe once said:
“On erev Shavuos, our melamed told us how Moshe Rabbeinu led the Yidden to matan Torah. He then called to us, ‘Kinderlach! Come with me and I will take you to matan Torah.’ He took all thirty of us to Reb Binyomin’s beis medrash and told us that the next morning, the first day of Shavuos, we should wake up an hour earlier than usual and come to this beis medrash for kabbalas haTorah.
“On Shavuos morning I awoke at seven o’clock and prepared to go there. My mother [Rebbetzin Shterna Sara] wanted me to eat something before leaving, but I insisted that I wouldn’t eat before matan Torah. I set out to the beis midrash, where I found all of my classmates, and after davening our melamed took us all on a walk.”
(סה"ש תש"ה ע' 100)
It was the custom of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and also of the Rebbe, to wish all Yidden the brocho of kabbalas haTorah besimcha uvipnimiyus – that we receive the Torah with joy, and that it permeate us.
The Rebbe explained this dual blessing as follows: Appreciating that we are HaShem’s holy nation and that we are able to connect to Him via the Torah and its mitzvos, we are joyful – and this joy will enable us to be permeated by the Torah and not regard it (chas veshalom) as a burden.
(לקו"ש ח"ח ע' 292)
CONSIDER
What brought the revelation of the Shechina in the beis medrash of the Beis Yosef: their learning or the auspicious night?
What should one do to receive the revelation of Matan Torah?
