Ten Facets of Shavuos: A Spiritual Smorgasbord

What transforms an ordinary person into someone extraordinary? On this Shavuos-themed episode, we dive deep into the holiday's multifaceted spiritual landscape through ten distinct perspectives that reveal why this festival matters profoundly to your life.

Shavuos isn't merely about cheesecake and all-night learning—it's about how Torah fundamentally transforms human identity. As Rabbi Yosef beautifully expressed, "Without this day, how many 'Joes' would there be in the marketplace?" Torah elevates us from being ordinary to extraordinary, giving us purpose and direction in an otherwise meaningless existence.

We explore the holiday's multiple names (Chag HaKatzir, Chag HaShavuos, Chag HaBikurim, and Atzeres), each revealing a different dimension of its significance. We examine why the holiday's offering of leavened bread represents our evolution from animal-like instinct to true human consciousness through free will—a powerful counterargument to modern deterministic thinking that claims "we have no choice" in our actions.

Perhaps most movingly, we discuss how Ruth's story exemplifies that Torah is acquired through sacrifice and commitment, and how Shavuos completes what Pesach began—showing that freedom without purpose leads nowhere. We also tackle fascinating questions about Jewish unity, the paradox of choice and coercion at Sinai, and practical perspectives on everything from the proper blessings for cheesecake to whether we should stand during the reading of the Ten Commandments.

This episode culminates in a heartfelt call to action: to recite the words "Ki Heim Chayeinu" (For they are our life) in the evening prayer with renewed enthusiasm, truly internalizing that Torah isn't just something we study—it's the essence of our existence, giving meaning and purpose to everything we do. Listen, be inspired, and transform your Shavuos from ritual observance to spiritual revival.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Being Most Educated
• 3:01 Ten Perspectives on Shavuos
• 5:01 What's in a Name: Multiple Identities
• 7:37 Becoming More Human Through Choice
• 10:42 Celebrating with Delight and Delectation
• 13:18 The Centrality of Torah Study
• 16:48 Rus and Torah Through Sacrifice
• 19:42 Pesach's Completion in Shavuos
• 23:01 Unity: One Heart at Sinai
• 30:28 Making Shavuos Real Through Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

My podcast coach, a wise man. He once told me that if you're going to speak about a given topic, well then you better make sure that you know the most about that topic out of anyone that will be standing in the room that you are to give the talk, so that if any questions should arise, should any further discussion erupt, you should be able to be qualified and armed to answer each and every question. It will also help you to understand the roots of the topic and how everything falls into the right place, and so that is why I currently sit in a room with no one else in the room here in the Motivation Congregation studios, I sit alone, so I'm also the most under-educated or least-educated person in the room, but I'm also the most educated person in the room. And I tell you this, this nugget, because in my attempt to try to become educated about the holiday of Shavuos, I was opening up different sepharim, listening to different shiurim, trying to organize myself with a bunch of the different facets of the holiday of Shavuos and what we're supposed to take home and take to heart from the holiday. I started jotting all my notes down, organizing them, and I realized that there's a whole lot to understand and a whole lot to discuss. And then, thursday we went to go check out a house. We went house shopping See if we could afford ourselves just a little small hut to be able to keep on keeping on and maybe even have room for the Motivation Congregation Studios.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Thursday was a busy day, is what I mean to say? House hopping, dinner, picking, uping and bedtime and bathing, so to make sure that the Torah comes out. I looked down at my notes and I said, wow, I have around 10 or so gold mines about the holiday of Shavuos. I was to select one at least that was the plan and dig deeper, organize it, deliver it, salt and pepper it with some interesting synonyms and some stories and anecdotes to drive the point home. And it was to be the Shavuos podcast. But then I decided to take a step back and make the most of the time that I had to deliver you a product that would be a relatively manicured and relatively cooked through, relatively seasoned smorgasbord of delight about the holiday of Shavuos. Ten different acuities, ten different points, ten different perspectives, ten different themes about the holiday of Shavuos. Ten l'chocham v'yach kam'od, solomon, hamelech, shlomo, he tells us, give to a wise man a piece of wisdom and he'll run with it. And so here you go, I'm giving you the wise man. Ten different pieces, ten different dishes upon our Shavuos smorgasbord. And side note, quick little turn to the left here before we begin.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I was really saddened to learn that the word shmorgasbord isn't even a Jewish word. Maybe I'm embarrassing myself here and exposing myself, but I truly thought that it was a Yiddish origin, jewish style word. You know the shmorgasbord of that terrace of Rome, the shmorgasbord. It just sounded always Jewish. I can picture an Alti Litvak using the word smorgasbord, but apparently it's just of Swedish descent. Smorgasbord consists of the words smorgas, which means sandwich, usually open-faced, and bord, which means table, in Swedish. Smorgas, in turn, actually consists of the word smor, which is butter, cognate with the English smear, and gis, literally goose, later referring to small pieces of butter that formed and floated to the surface of a cream while it was churned. Hence smorgasbord, smorgasbord, swedish.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Anyway, let us jump in to the ten facets. Anyway, let us jump in to the ten facets of the holiday of Shavuos, the Shavuos Shmorkisport. Number one the first place to start, when you break down almost anything in Judaism is to begin with its name. What's in a name A whole lot, its name. What's in a name? A whole lot. Right at the beginning of the Torah we find how Adam HaRishon looked into each aspect, each creation, each object, each item that Hashem created and Adam was commanded to give it a name.

Speaker 1: 5:19

When you look in the sources, each one of the names given to each animal, each thing represents its essence. For example, kelev Ke-lev, the dog. Very much is what a dog is about. It's man's best friend. It's literally a walking heart. It will love you, wag its tail and take care of you, die for you, anything for you, even if it barely knows you, because a dog is Kelev Kelev. So let us turn our attention here to try to unpack what Shavuos is about you, anything for you, even if it barely knows you, because a dog is kelev kalev. So let us turn our attention here to try to unpack what Shavuos is about.

Speaker 1: 5:58

And what you will quickly discover is that Shavuos has multiple names Chag HaKatzir, the holiday of reaping gathering. That makes up a lot of the seasonal aspect of what the holiday is about. The Chag HaShavuos as Torah calls it, which sounds like a holiday of weeks. There's a big, big treasure trove in there. Why would you name a holiday, the festival of weeks.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Chag HaBikurim is another name that the Torah exposes about the spiritually charged and robust time period of the holiday of Shavuos. Chagabikurim, it screams and exudes gratitude at its heart. And lastly, the Oral Law, the great sages. They called it Atzeres, which means to halt, to cease, to end and to complete, which very likely has to do with the cessation of work on the holiday, but maybe even more specifically, it's the ending of the entire Pesach and Shavuos season Because, as we know, shavuos is the completion of what began seven weeks before during the Itzias Mitzrayim. Atzeris means the end of the holiday season.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Each one of those names is the motherlode to be unpacked and understood why the Torah sees that that is what it should be called. But this is the smorgasbord. We've tried the first ditch. Let us now move on to the second part, the second facet of our smorgasbord. After the names, you'll look at what is a holiday's objective, what is the job, what is the halacha? What is the job? What is the halacha? What is to be asked? What are the dinim? And what you'll find in the Torah is that really Shavuos?

Speaker 1: 7:52

There's an obligation to do nothing more than to bring a karbon, a special karbon, shte ha-lechem, two loaves. They're to be chametz, they're to be brought with some other sacrifices, other animals, but brought with some other sacrifices, other animals. But the Maral points out that the karban's depth, everything is to be learned from. Every part of a karban holds a lesson. Just see the Sefer HaChinuch, see the Pirush HaRamban Al HaToyrah and see the Maharal Al HaToyrah and Rav Hirsch's Chumash on Sefer Vayikra, to see the endless depth of what Hashem wants the lessons to be of each Karbon.

Speaker 1: 8:27

But for here, for the Shmorgasbord purposes, check up and hear here for a second how the entire Shavuos, the goal was to become more manly, to become more of a human and to not just follow your instincts. The Maral points out that the karbonos they change from what was brought on Pesach, animal fodder, barley-like animal food, karbon and the she'alechem, which is uniquely human food. It urges us that the call to action of shavuos is to become more human and to shed Just acting by way of instinct. Shavuos wants you to lean into your free will and into choice, to decide not to follow your tivos and lust but to say no to yourself. This concept, of course, we could rant about for hours, but succinctly, there is a modern day ailment, illness where people say I have no choice. Ailment illness where people say I have no choice. They literally deny free will, which is a law codified in the Rambam, and they say that I cannot fight it, I'm born this way and that's following the animal instinct and is quite directly not what we believe in. We have free will. We always did and always will. The Karbon Steah Lechem in Shavuos says Be a human and lean in to the fact that you always have a choice.

Speaker 1: 10:16

Number three, the third perspective, the third item on our Shavuos Swedish-based smorgasbord. It comes from the Gemara, the famous Gemara that's deciphering and discussing, digressing and clarifying as to when and how one should serve Hashem on the said mo'adim on the holidays. Should they be spent in study and in worship or should they be spent in delectation and indulging? The Gemara, back and forth, discusses it. But one thing that all agree upon is when it comes to Atzeret, when it comes to Shavuos, hakol Moedim, everybody across the board Sephardi, ashkenazi, litvak or Hasidic, taimani or Yemenite, hakol Moedim, ba'inan, lochem Everyone agrees that you need to have delight, delectation, self-gratification on the holiday of Shavuos. Shavuos is the only one that we have that across the board.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Declaration of Hakol Maidim that you need to self-satisfy, and the reason that this is is what I would like to point your attention to is that Yosef, the Helig Amoira, rav Yosef, said that if not for the day of Shavuos, ilav HaYoima, what makes Shavuos special and that it requires celebration is that Ilav HaYoimaah, rabi Yosef, says Kamo Ika Yosi Bishuka. How many Joes are there in the marketplace? I'd be a Joe Schmo and I wouldn't be Rabi Yosef if not for the day that we got the Torah. It's a special day because Shavuos made Rabi Yosef from Joe Schmo, from just any ordinary fellow I found another synonym any ordinary Joe lunch bucket, and it makes you different and it makes you Rav Yosef. It takes you from Michael and makes you Michal, and it makes you elevated, different, significant and unique, because you have the Torah and you are part of that one percent of the world. That is elevated.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Number four as we move on here, the smorgasbord in some countries is served mostly cold, in some areas mostly hot and in Jewish quarters, kind of both. You may have a cheese platter with some delicious fettuccine, alfredo al dente, or maybe you'll just have a fully fleischig smorgasbord. But number four either way, we could have focused on. What we focus on in Yeshiva and what is very much the main practice of the entire day of Shavuos, is Talmud Torah. One of the aspects of Shavuos and one of the most important central aspects of all of Judaism is Talmud Torah is learning what it is that God actually wants. So we could spend a whole podcast dredging unearthing why it is that Jews are so obsessed with Talmud Torah.

Speaker 1: 13:53

We could discuss the remarkable story of what happened 500 years ago when the Bais Yosef stood, stayed up all night with his friends, stood up with his, I believe, cousin Rav Shlomo Al-Kabitz, who wrote the Lech Adodi, and how they were visited by an angel and how the story is told that just 500 years ago, exactly word for word. It's been written down and transcribed what message the angel came and told the base Yosef. It spoke from his mouth. I don't want to spoil it, but Shavuos night in Slavinka. You'll find it in the Shlod's writings. The Shlod brings it down. You'll find it in Sefer Alishar and I urge you to go and see it.

Speaker 1: 14:41

But one of the most important parts of Judaism, the highest priority, is Talmud Torah. We could go through the Der HaShem, chapter 4, and the Neve Shachayim. I believe it's Shardalid. All about 101 reasons why the only thing and the main thing that you should obsess over and your great American pastime should be nothing else other than Talmud Torah, a treasure trove to be mined. All about the greatness of Talmud Torah and why it is, why we stay up the whole night and how it is that the Jewish people overslept and that's what we're rectifying. But Talmud Torah, of course, is central to the holiday of Shavuos.

Speaker 1: 15:27

Number five you think it's weird, the reason why we read the Megillah say for Rus, megillah's Rus, on Shavuos. I think it's odd, it needs exploration, it needs pondering, because I found from Chazal that the reason that we read Rus on Shavuos, what's the connection Chazal bring the Paiskin bring, because Torah is acquired through poverty and pain and that's what Rus' life was about the Rus Dovkaba, and she clung, she stayed, she joined the family, she became Jewish and she didn't go back to her multi-billion dollar ranch. Instead, she chose to be Jewish and live in poverty and pain. And that lesson needs to be taught on Shavuos, and it must be. It should bring you ire, it should bring you a bit of intrigue as to why does Torah need to be that way. Why does Torah need to be mitoch. Poverty and pain. Hmm, but that's the lesson of Sefer Ros and that's the fifth. On our smorgasbord of Shavuos concepts.

Speaker 1: 16:51

The sixth it's very interesting to note the relationship. This was probably going to end up be the podcast if we had an extra day and hadn't gone house hopping. But the sixth is that Pesach finds its culmination only in Shavuos. It's very unique, the relationship between these two biblically ordained holidays. I always thought that when you order a donut, the people that have the sprinkles on one side of the donut and they're not on the other side, those people need to see someone for help, because why would they not want sprinkles on the whole donut? And the same should be said why, how come the holidays are not spread out evenly throughout the entire Jewish year? Instead they're all kind of crunched up, smushed together, pesach and Shavuos kind of by itself in one corner, and then we're kind of empty for holidays until Sukkot. But there's this very close relationship that they have. But there's this very close relationship that they have.

Speaker 1: 18:01

The Ramban calls the relationship between Pesach and Shavuos. Chol HaMoed is the time between the two of them. Further, al-piqa Bola, some of the general chapter headings of the topic. I found that what Shavuos completes started at Pesach, and Pesach is the body to the holiday that completes itself with the blowing in of a soul to the body, which happens on Shavuos the entire concept of being free or saving time. Every company wants to market itself as we save you time, but it's always interesting that if you don't do anything productive with your life, you don't spend that extra time that you have saved yourself by buying their product, but instead you use that extra time to continue playing video games. Well then, the saving of time is rather pointless. And in the same vein, we could have discussed and we were and we still are discussing that Pesach it made us finds its direct, positive correlation if you use that freedom to do something great, to be productive. On Shavuos, that was a fulfilling very much of now. Our freedom was there. Now our freedom has found meaning. That is very much connected with how Pesach is very much married to Shavuos.

Speaker 1: 19:52

Number seven, as we continue on our Shavuos smorgas board, is the idea that on Shavuos we know Alpida, gemara and Shabbos 88b, that we screamed out Nasev Enishma at the foot of Harsinai, and that's great. We accepted the Torah and we signed the contract. We shook hands with the boy Re'oilam. But the Gemara tells us there that after the Naseh V'Nishma, hashem picked up the mountain, a mountain held it on top of us like a barrel, like an upside-down bowl, and there was coercion, as Kofu Aleim Harkagigas, god, forced us to accept the Torah. And it's odd because the Rishonim, the great medieval commentators, point out that we've already said nasa v'nishma. So what's the coercion? For? My father-in-law says once you strike a deal, or once you get the response you're looking for, you stop selling. So the whole idea of coercion and commitment and what happened with the Nasa V'Nishma on Shavuos, and what the Kavu Aleim Harkagigas represents of course, should be a point that you, the Chacham, will want to take and run with and think about and investigate on Shavuos. Investigate on Shavuos.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Number eight, I think, is very interesting as we continue on our smorgasbord. It is very clear that the beginning of Shavuos it all starts in one place and as one thing, and the Torah given to the Jewish people could never have come about if not for this thing and it is the fact that the Jewish people came to the foot of Mount Sinai, har Sinai, like one man, with one heart. We take Chazal's words literally here. Just imagine living with one heart, with a bunch of different people all having the same objective. Such a unique oneness, such incredible unity, one heart.

Speaker 1: 22:10

The Medrash tells us about this Pesach that the Jewish people, metaphorically, are on a boat together. And if you decide to throw away your responsibilities and to throw off your yarmulke and remove the yoke of Torah, you're digging a hole in our cruise ship, our boat, and when we all yell and say, what are you doing? You're going to sink the boat. You can't simply respond that don't worry, it's only my side of the boat that I'm going to let water in. It doesn't work that way. The Jewish people are all linked and connected, but to us he gave it, to the sum of all of our parts together, uniting in something brand new called a cloud Yisrael. And only if you're a part of the cloud do you have a share in the Torah. Whether you be a tiny branch, a seed in the ground or large roots, unless you're connected to the tree of life, unless you're a part of the clow God forbid you can be spiritually disenfranchised. Let go and not have a part of the tree and not have a part of the clow, and there are hardly anything worse than that Number nine.

Speaker 1: 23:36

This came about through a friend of mine who is really a halachic guru. It's uniquely clear. It's interessant, interesting, that Shavuos has many different halachic issues, halachic issues or halachic discussions. Many sfarim have been written that are hundreds of pages about the famous halachic disputes of how to go about practical conduct on Shavuos. It seems there's some ambiguity Because there are certain situations which are rare. Situations which are rare, just to name a few of some of the halachic discussions.

Speaker 1: 24:19

For the halachic-interested man that they will take and hopefully look deeper into is what bracha do you make on cheesecake? It has a mazonos crust. It has a shahakol kind of body to it. The cheese cream cheese situation. What brachas do you make in the morning if you've stayed up all night? You didn't send your soul back up while you were sleeping? Do you say Elokein Hashem? Do you wash your hands and make an Atilas Yodayim if you don't have impurity on your hands because you have not slept and now woken up? Do you make a Berchash HaTorah? When do you say akdomos? Do you say it before the Kohen makes the bracha? Do you say it once the Kohen has already made his bracha?

Speaker 1: 25:03

And now one possek into the leaning. Should you stand up during the Ten Commandments? And maybe it should seem like you're giving credence and more respect to that part of the Torah and maybe denouncing God? Forbid the rest of the Torah to say only the Ten Commandments require standing up. For Should you stand for the Ten Commandments or maybe stand for the beginning of the Aliyah If the rest of the congregation is standing up and you choose not to because that's how you found out that it should be done? Should you stand up just so you aren't sticking out? Who should read the Haftorah of the Maiser? Merkava Halachic debates that need clarification and can be clarified. And lastly, on our smorgasbord, as we make our way to the back left of the table, after we've already tasted nine other acuities, nine different motherload loads and treasure troves that truly can be sifted through and looked into.

Speaker 1: 27:18

I'd like to take a moment here to discuss numerology, because numbers play a huge role in Shavuos as well. Everywhere that I went in trying to figure out talking about Shafira Sa'omer the past couple weeks, it was interesting. They all talked about numbers. Seven weeks, 49 days. You need 50 complete days. There's a Ramban that says it's kind of like Shemitah and Yovel. It's a secret, though he says it's a soyd, so don't tell anyone. But the seven weeks is like the seven Shemitah years, the cycle. The 49 days, like the 49 days before the Jubilee year. The seven, representative of Teva, the week and eight going above Teva. The 50 days, representative of the 50 rungs that the Jews can climb or, god forbid descend to. The 50 days between Pesach and Shavuos. The 50 different gates of wisdom that are acquirable and that I believe Moshe acquired nearly all of them.

Speaker 1: 28:33

Numerology, for those that like it, plays a significant role in the holiday of Shavuos. I would like to actually step forward and say something from the heart as to what Shavuos will be about for me and what I think is a practical avodah that we can do to spend our Shavuos wisely. Shavuos is supposed to be a vacation from the hyperactivity. It's supposed to be a turning off of the distractions, the hyperactivity. It's supposed to be a turning off of the distractions and it's supposed to be one of the ragolim, one of the times where you travel with your family up to the Harabias and get a spiritual regeneration, a reviving, a CPR of the important ideas that you are to live by.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Shavuos is supposed to be where you recall the tremendous gift that God gave us, the Torah, and that your life is really special and that you have a goal in life, that you have a place in this world and that you have an objective that you're to accomplish. You're supposed to remind yourself on a holiday, with different actions that bring to merriment, of the celebration that your life should truly be, that you are so blessed and because of that, what I would like to do and propose is that when you sit down Friday night not Friday night, I believe, shavuos is Sunday night to the first Yontif night, mariv and you have this bracha that you're commanded to make on Shema you don't really make the bracha on Shema, but there's two brachas before Shema and avas oilom you say the words that very much encompass all of what we're supposed to be internalizing on Shavuos. The words are these words that installed for us, which means that Torah is, they are our lives. Every word, every mitzvah, the oral law, the written law, it is the length of your years and upon Torah, it is what you work hard at, what you hustle in day and night. Those words, the study of Yisrael wants us to scream them out with pleasure and with merriment, with joy in our hearts, joy in our hearts, that Avodah on the night of Shavuos, to feel and really get into what those words mean and how lucky and blessed we are of Kiheim Chayenu V'Oyrech, yomenu V'Hem Negei, yoimam V'Loylo.

Speaker 1: 31:43

That Judaism and Torah is our lives, that Judaism and Torah is our lives. Everything else should fall by the wayside. God only gave the Torah to the people that were standing at Harsinai and clarity was had for everyone. And he said I want you to be my poster children in the world. I want you to live by these rules. I want you to die by these rules. I want these words to be on your mouth constantly. I want you to be prepared to sacrifice everything for these words. I want you to spend all your money on these words. I want you to live a certain way, ki heim chayenu, because it's your life and what you're supposed to be involved in, until the day that you die. Until the day that you die. And that should lead you to the next conclusion of that.

Speaker 1: 32:53

I better strengthen myself where I have fallen a bit of lax in my service. I should prioritize the important things. I should recommit to what it is that God wants, and it can't be done overnight, but a plan should be made and steps should be had, and slowly you should continue and never stop trying to become someone that brings joy to Hashem's heart, because you're following the rules and you're doing it with happiness, because the Torah gives life, it gives joy, it gives reason and it gives purpose. It's your leban, not the yogurt, but kind of like the yogurt, it's your life. So live it with the Torah with enthusiasm.

Speaker 1: 33:57

Would you make your bracha on your cheesecake? Make it with joy in your heart. Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu melech haolam. I'm not sure if you should make a mazonos or a shehakl, but when you figure it out, make that bracha with all of the enthusiasm and with all of the gratitude that you're connecting to the source of the world and that your service matters, that you have a cheerleader, that you have a cheerleader, that you have encouragement from the one above, that you have your father looking on and cheering you on, encouraging you, Coaching you. Talk to him On Shavuos. Talk to him, learn about what God wants from you.

Speaker 1: 34:48

But I don't want to overpress with too many things to do. The two things that I do want to put forth is say the words of Kiheim Chayenu, the Yisroel V'shar HaShavayitah says say it with enthusiasm, with concentration and with joy that you were chosen to be a part of this group, this fraternity, this brotherhood, and scream out this loud and intense bracha on cheesecake that you don't just get to stuff your face with calorie-filled cheesecake, but instead you get to do it and it's a mitzvah. You get to do it and it makes you better, greater, and you're following thousands of years of custom that connect you back to Harsinai. Eat that cheesecake with a gishmak. Eat it with enthusiasm and happiness. Wipe your face clean, clean your mouth, make an after bracha. That's a good place to start To make shavuos. Connected To make it real. To make it real. There you go Ten different perspectives about this multi-dimensional, multi-faceted and incredibly vast, expansive and deep, spiritually charged and robust time of the holiday Chag HaShavuos, g'dayantif.