Shavuot feature
By: Rabbi Moishe Schnerb
“Hashem told Moshe to instruct the women that they must give over the message to the men.”
From the get-go, it’s really not easy to get our teeth stuck into what the actual holiday of Shavuot is all about. This is partially due to the fact that there is so little ceremony connected to it. It is bereft of the hectic preparation, and the millions of laws that accompany our other holidays. We don’t have to scrub our houses and turn them upside down, nor do we have to build external structures that we’re going to live in for the duration of a Sukkot holiday, nor do we have the intense soul searching and long hours of hectic prayer and repentance, which are the hallmarks of preparation for our high holidays. Not only does Shavuot come and go in a flash, but all there is a custom for some people to earn their “red-eye” status by staying up the entire night and studying, and of course the overindulgence in the ubiquitous cheesecake.
In order to obtain a really startling and deep insight into the celebration of Shavuot, we need to look no further than the very first words that Hashem says to Moshe when the Jewish nation arrives at Har Sinai. Moshe was instructed by Hashem, “This is what you must say to the House of Jacob, and tell the Israelites.” The seeming redundancy in the verse draws the attention of the Medrash. The first phrase was addressed to Beis Yaakov, the women, while the second statement was intended for the men. The Medrash asks, why did Hashem address the women first? The Medrash provides three answers. Firstly, women are extremely enthusiastic about the performance of Mitzvos. Secondly, so that they will know how to educate the children. Finally, Hashem reminisced: “When I created the world, I first commanded Adam what I needed done, and only afterwards did I tell his wife. Chava went against my word and caused ruination to the world. Now, if I don’t tell the women first, they might ignore my commands. That is why I should address the women first.” This Medrash seems almost impossible to comprehend. Firstly, these reasons seem somewhat disparate and don’t present any kind of a cohesive picture of what Hashem was doing. Secondly, according to the third answer, why was what happened nearly two and a half thousand years ago to Adam and Chava have any indication of what would happen at Har Sinai? Why is there a necessity to inform the women first and, lastly, why would there be separate messages for men and women if we all received the same Torah?
The Chasam Sofer brings new light to this Posuk and explains that even before giving the Torah, Hashem taught Moshe Rabbeinu what he must say to the women. Every woman has the responsibility to give over to the significant men in their lives, their husbands and children, the following message: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of Kohanim and a holy nation,” and Hashem’s instructions to Moshe concluded with the command: “This is what every woman must instruct every Jewish man.” This means that Hashem did not give two separate messages, one for men and one for women, but He told Moshe to instruct the women that they must give over the message to the men. This is a significant new revelation in beginning to unravel this puzzle.
The famous commentator Maharsha makes a similar comment on the Gemara that asks, if women are not obligated to learn Torah, how can they merit the great reward promised to those that study Torah? The Gemara explains that women earn the rewards by waiting for their husbands to return from the daily or nightly shiur, and by encouraging their children to go to the Beis Hamedrash to learn. Posits the Maharsha: this is the mandate of the Jewish woman for all times, and this was the message Hashem transmitted to Moshe even before the Torah was given.
“The greatness of women is expressed by the monumental role they play in the survival of the Jewish nation during this period of confusion and upheaval.”
This message is especially poignant in our lives. The Gemara in Berachos comments that the night is divided into three watches, at the end of the first watch the donkeys bray, at the end of the second watch the dogs bark, and at the end of the third watch, babies suckle from their mothers and women are speaking with their husbands. Rav Elyashiv ztz”l explains that the night here is referring to the Galus. As we approach the end of the Galus, there is going to be a tremendous amount of influence that mothers have on their children, and wives on their husbands. The greatness of women is expressed by the monumental role they play in the survival of the Jewish nation during this period of confusion and upheaval, by encouraging the menfolk to spend significant time studying Torah, even sometimes at their own personal expense.
We find that Moshe davened for his student Yehoshua to be saved from the nefarious plans of the other 10 spies who were intending to malign Eretz Yisroel to the rest of the Jewish nation. However, for Calev, the other trustworthy and reliable spy, Moshe did not Daven. Why not? Chazal explain that the wife of Calev was Miriam, Moshe’s older sister, and therefore he had “a different spirit in him”. He had a wife who was a righteous woman and therefore Moshe was absolutely sure that Calev would not be influenced at all by the designs of the spies and would remain steadfastly loyal to Moshe.
Just how distinguished and important the role of a Jewish woman is can be discerned from the punishment that the great King David received for somehow demeaning the honour of a Jewish woman. This is brought out by the Alshich, who says that after David killed Goliath, he wanted to remove his special armour and behead him, but he could not find where to open the suit. Uria, who at that point was a non-Jew and the arms-bearer for Goliath, approached David and asked, “If I tell you how to open the armour, will you allow me to marry a Jewish woman?” King David answered affirmatively, and Uria showed him that the opening was by his foot. David was punished for merely suggesting the demeaning of a Jewish woman by offering Uria such a possible matrimonial partner. The punishment was that the woman that was designated to be David’s wife, Batsheva, instead married Uria after he converted. [See Kli Yakar Samuel 2 chapter 11-2].
Let’s share one more amazing concept, and this will bring the Medrash into sharp context. We read in the book of Samuel about the tremendous love that existed between King David and Yonatan, the son of King Shaul. David was unsure as to how deep the enmity of Shaul towards him ran, so he agreed with Yonatan to do the following test: David would not attend the monthly Rosh Chodesh feast, and Yonatan would gauge Shaul’s reaction, and would be able to inform David of the exigency of his danger. David went to hide in the field, and on the second day of the feast Shaul realised that David was not present. He became very angry and said to Yonatan, “You son of the perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen that son of Jesse to your own dishonour and the shame of your mother’s nakedness!” What kind of an outburst is that? One can maybe understand Shaul’s anger that Yonatan wanted to usurp the kingdom not for himself, but for somebody else, but what does this have to do with Shaul’s wife, Yonatan’s mother? Rashi brings a Medrash that when the men of Binyomin went to choose wives, Shaul was embarrassed and held back until his wife Avinoam actually courted him and convinced him to marry her. The Chasam Sofer (in his comments to that Haftorah) explains that King David was chosen to be king over Israel in order to finally repair the damage done to the world by the original sin of Adam and Chava and bring the world back to its perfect state. This was especially important to David, since Adam had gifted him the 70 years of his life. Shaul, however, thought that because of his great piety, he had already accomplished that rectification. This notion was strengthened by the fact that his wife had to seek him out. You see, in the original blueprint from which the world was created, women would run after men in order to marry them. It was only because of the curse given to Adam and Chava, that “you shall rule over her” a contrived situation would exist where men would dominate women and be the active force in seeking a marriage partner. Shaul thought that if his wife had cajoled him into marriage, it could only be that the world has reverted to its original, perfect state. When he now realised that King David was going to take his throne, he became painfully aware that he had not brought about that level of perfection. If so, his wife chasing him smacked slightly of an act of lewdness and immodesty. This was the cause of his tirade against Yonatan, and why he presented his wife, Yonatan’s mother, in such a negative light.
Is it not totally fascinating that we find three instances in Tanach of women who ran after men for the purpose of producing children. Leah, who went out to meet Yaakov; Tamar, who made such an effort to have a child from Yehuda; and Rus, who ventured out to the fields to arrange her marriage with Boaz. All three of these women were connected with the creation of Moshiach, which of course will usher in the return to the world’s perfect reality of women being dominant in this world.
We are told that at Har Sinai, the world also returned to its perfect state, as it was before the sin of Adam and, therefore, we now understand why Hashem specifically spoke to the women and gave them their marching orders, highlighting their importance in this world. He exhorted them to fulfil their role of encouraging, cajoling, and convincing all the men in their life to devote every moment they can to the study of Torah. Hashem gave that instruction then, because this was the moment of the rectification of Adam’s sin, and the opportunity for women to reassert their positions as leaders in this world, with the holy mission of bringing their menfolk to perfection, through the acceptance and assiduous learning of Hashem’s Torah.
It is now brilliantly apparent how the opinions in the Medrash fit so beautifully together. There was no separate message for men and women, but one message directed to the women who, because of their great enthusiasm for Mitzvot, and the role they play as educators of the next generation, were fully qualified, and this time would accept the mission to become re-established at the helm of the Jewish family, with the sole mandate of upscaling and motivating the men to not only accept the Torah, but to devote all of their efforts to knowing, understanding, and practising a Torah life.
Shavuot may not have huge ceremonies or complicated laws we have to fulfil, but it’s very easy to see that if the first message Hashem transmitted, even before the giving of the Torah, was to establish the woman’s role of prominence as the “coach and cheerleader” in the Torah growth of the family, then Shavuot must be the time for us to acknowledge, appreciate, and give a huge ‘yeyasher kochaich’ to all the women whose proficiency in their role is the power behind the growth of all men in the pursuit of Torah excellence.
Gutt Yomtov!
