davening and saying Tehillim. Such a day is so important and is the key to success for the upcoming year in Torah needs to be spent fully engrossed in Torah study and prayers for success in our Torah study.
But Chazal tell us that we have a Mitzva to eat and drink.
Why?
In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, Klal Yisrael brought different sorts of Korbonos. Non-Jews were also allowed to bring Korbonos. However they were only allowed to bring a Korbon Olah.
The Korbon Olah is completely burnt on the Mizbeach. Other Korbonos, some of the Korbon was sacrificed on the Mizbeach, and some was eaten by the Kohen.
A non-Jew understood the idea of bringing a sacrifice to Hashem. But where do the Kohanim come in? They’re only human.
Whereas Klal Yisrael understood the deeper concept that Kohanim oichlim – the Kohanim eat and the Baalim Miskaprim – the owners receive an atonement. Through the Avoda of the Kohanim, the Tzaddikim that ate from the Korbon, it also brought the animal to its ultimate purpose and therefore also brought atonement to the owner.
Hashem created us human beings that we have to eat. Even a holy person has to eat. Hashem wants us to eat. When we eat and serve Hashem with the energy of the food we ate, that elevates the food we ate to reach its eternal purpose. The greater the person the greater he elevates all the food he eats. This concept is a Torah concept that a human materialistic person can eat and drink and still elevate themselves through eating and drinking.
Therefore, specifically on Shevuos, the day we receive the Torah, after spending a whole night awake engrossed in learning Torah, we have reached such spiritual heights. That’s when Chazal tell us, we are so holy that we can elevate the whole creation with us. On such a spiritual level, we eat, not like animals, but as humans, as spiritual people. We understand that we are not eating just to satisfy our lust or hunger. We have a much deeper meaning to eating. By us eating we are elevating the food with us. We are elevating all the ingredients of the food we eat, we are elevating everyone who was involved in preparing those ingredients, and so forth, helping them reach their purpose in the creation of serving Hashem.
With this concept we can give another explanation to the custom of eating Milky foods on Shevuos.
Chazal tell us that milk comes from the blood of the animal. The blood is transformed into milk.
We all know that it is forbidden to drink blood or eat foods with blood inside them. That is why we salt our meat to remove all the blood. The Torah repeats many times that it is forbidden to drink blood. One of the reasons the Torah forbids blood is because it is the essence of the animal and therefore has an animal impact on the person.
But here we have blood that has been transformed into milk and now we can drink it. To show that even something so materialistic can be transformed.
Similarly, when we serve Hashem properly, we transform the food we eat and ourselves from materialistic people into spiritual people.
In the times of the Vilna Gaon a Dibbuk entered the body of a boy in Novardok.
A Dibbuk is the spirit of a person that has already died but cannot find rest in Heaven due to it’s sins and tries to find rescue by entering the body of a living person. When inside a live human body it avoids Heavenly punishment and suffering. In such instances great Rabbis were called in to try and help the spirit and force it to leave the person.
The people around told the Dibbuk that they will take him to great Rabbis who are well versed in Kabbala and they will force him to leave. But the Dibbuk laughed and said that it is not scared of those Rabbis.
They told it that they will take him to the Vilna Gaon.
The Dibbuk replied that they are scared of the Vilna Gaon in Heaven and if he says that he has to leave the boy’s body, he will have no choice but to leave.
But he mentioned that there had been a similar case a year earlier and the Vilna Gaon did not want to get involved. So he isn’t really scared.
They asked the Dibbuk why is it sacred of the Vilna Gaon if he doesn’t use Kabbalistic holy words, curses and promises.
The Dibbuk replied that when the Vilna Gaon eats it has a greater impact in Heaven than the Avoda and Kabbalistic power of many other Rabbis.
So powerful was the eating of the Vilna Gaon.
May we merit to a spiritual and meaningful Shevuos and Kabalas HaTorah. But not only in our learning and davening, but, we should have an elevation in our worldly activities and merit to elevate them and ourselves too.
