By Ayala Glicksberg
During our festival prayers we say "you chose us among all the nations." Were we selected as the chosen people once and for all, or should this selection be renewed once in a while? Is it a good thing to be the chosen people or is it a great burden? Echoing the Sages' question, is it good for man that he was created or would it have been better for him had he not been created, this too is a philosophical question, but reality testifies, beyond all debate, to our existence as Jews and to our existence as a strong nation.
Despite the weighty obligations that stem from the existence of the Torah and the injunction to abide by it, everyone agrees that the easiest festival is in fact Shavuot "the time of the revelation of our Torah" which lasts just one day in Israel (two days abroad), in contrast to the other two pilgrimage festivals which last 8 days. The preparations for the latter two festivals are lengthy and demanding. The building of the sukkah, the purchase of the four species prior to the festival and the process of moving out of one's house into a temporary dwelling - the sukkah - during the 8 days - all this demands real change in our regular lives. And it is nothing in comparison to Pessach, a festival which demands immense preparation of the home - scouring, polishing and changing of dishes prior to the holiday - the eating of matzot instead of hametz during the holiday and great stringency with regard to all the laws of Pessach and the prohibitions against seeing and owning hametz. All these actions have a great influence on the soul of man.
In contrast, on the festival of Shavuot, we eat what we want and where we want: dairy or meat dishes, in the house or under the shade of a fig tree. Despite the fact that the day of the revelation of the Torah does not demand any technical, physical or special culinary preparations, the day is of immense significance and for 49 days we prepare our souls for this great day. The days of the counting of the Omar, which link the festival of Pessach, marking the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, to the festival of Shavuot, which marks the time when the Jews received the Torah, are days when we rise progressively in levels of holiness.
The preparation for the festival of Shavuot is a spiritual preparation, and the influence of the day itself does not cease during the rest of the year. At every hour we assume anew the heavenly royal yoke. The central issue is neither the food we eat or the practical things we do: the food we eat is modest - the custom is to eat dairy products.
Why dairy? A popular midrash says that until the revelation at Sinai, the children of Israel did not know the rules of kashrut and when they did receive them at Sinai they needed time to get organized and learn the rules of ritual slaughter etc. So a dairy meal solved all the problems.
Today, people also say that after a meat meal it is impossible to stay awake at night in order to receive the Torah and learn it, and this is why we eat a dairy meal which isn't heavy and doesn't send us to sleep.
The issue of which foods are prohibited and which are permitted is one of the central things that differentiates the Jewish people from other nations and makes it special. "It is this [promise] that has stood by our fathers and us - in every generation they rise up against us to destroy us but the Holy One Blessed be He saves us from their hand." To this verse which is recited on Seder night during the description of the rescue of the children of Israel, our Sages add: the glass which we hold in our hands represents the separation between us and the other nations, for we do not drink of their wine and do not eat of their foods. This glass of pure wine is what gives us credit [in the eyes of God] and protects us.
In respect of the keeping of the mitzvot in general, it is said: "Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statures and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people" (Deuteronomy IV, 6).
The mitzvot cover every cycle of our lives, from birth to death. There are mitzvot that are seasonal and mitzvot that are daily commandments, and there are mizvot that pertain only to special groups of people - such as the blessing of the Cohanim, which obligates only those who are Cohens, or the pidion haben (redemption of the firstborn) which only pertains to the firstborn male child. But the laws that govern the order of foods we eat are daily injunctions and the laws governing milk and meat products and the commandment to separate them are connected to our daily existence.
There are specific laws of prohibition and permission that pertain to the eating of meat: there are beasts that are pure and beasts that are not pure, and the pure beast requires special treatment before it can be eaten. Thus we have laws of ritual slaughter, immersion and salting. What is the point of all these laws? Our Sages say: "does it matter to God whether the ritual slaughterer cuts from the front (the neck) or from the back? The mitzvot were given to Israel to purify human beings, as it is said: 'everything Hashem says is flawless'"(Bereshit Rabba, 44 A)
Today, just as there is greater awareness about eating habits and greater knowledge about the influence of food on the soul of man, there is also greater awareness of the importance of the laws of kashrut of the Jewish people. The knowledge that we are not allowed to eat everything and what we are allowed to eat requires special preparation - teaches us discipline. As Rav Yisrael Salanter commented: just as we are careful about what we put into our mouths, so we should be careful about what emerges from our mouths, that is, man should always be watchful about what he says just as he is watchful about what he eats.
Dr. Ayala Glicksberg lectures in philosophy and is the wife of the chief rabbi of Givatayim. She is the author of "Ha Isha Ba Yahadut Shava Yoter" (Woman in Judaism is Worth More) and "Potchim Halon" (Open the Window). She served until recently as senior advisor to the Authority for the Advancement of Women at the Prime Minister's Office and was a regular columnist for Maariv.