Shavuos is the celebration of the greatness of the Human Being
The great Amorah, Rav Yosef, once enigmatically remarked: ‘Were it not for the day of Shavuos, I would be like any other Yosef in the marketplace’. This statement is troubling. What is the problem with just being an ordinary Joe in the marketplace? Is being ordinary not OK? I mean, I won’t be the gadol hador, but I’ll be a regular good guy. Isn’t that fine?
To answer this question, we need to go back to the beginning of creation.
When Hashem created Heaven and Earth, He assigned names to each day. Day One, Day Two, etc. But on the sixth day, at the climax of creation, He called it “THE sixth day.” By adding the letter “Hei,” it became THE special sixth day. Why emphasize it? Six and we’re done! What’s so special about it? So, Rashi teaches from our Sages that creation was not yet finished. Creation was not complete because creation needs a purpose. That purpose is that Hashem created a world to have a relationship with us: to be connected in the most intimate way with us. When would that connection be formed? Only when the Jewish Nation accepted the Torah on THE sixth day of Sivan — Shavuos!
Until Shavuos the connection was not yet solid. The world as a whole lacked guidance; humanity was wandering, lost. We needed the Torah to connect us. So Hashem says I am writing My Soul into the letters of the Torah. אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית. As you come to learn it, you are receiving My Divine Wisdom. You are intimately bonding with Me. You are, so to speak, imbibing the way I think. When do you really connect with someone? When you are in their mind: in their thoughts. When you think as they do. The Torah is welcoming us into the inner recesses of the mind of Hashem, so to speak. On Shavuos, Hashem comes to each and every one of us and says, “I want an intimate connection with you,” and you can find that connection through the Torah. With it, you will never be lost or lonely again.
Shavuos is called our wedding night, יום חתונתו, the day we get married. You see what a marriage is; it is when I say that my whole purpose in living is that I should be connected to a deeper reality. I don’t want to live alone, I want to bond.
Shavuos is when we experience Hashem’s Will to bond with us. We all understand that there are different levels to a relationship. Some can sadly be shallow, some deeper and others even more intimate. Even in the most profound relationships, no one can say I know everything about my spouse or everything about my children. How could we limit their inner world, their soul, to such finiteness? A relationship has many levels of depth. So does the Torah. On Shavuos I touch an inner spark that I want the deepest, passionate relationship with Hashem. As deeply as possible, I encounter a place within me that knows: Hashem, You are right here, right now, and You love me unconditionally. Enunciate those words out loud to yourself now — Hashem, You are right here, right now, and You love me unconditionally.
When we enter this inner relationship, we have touched the world of the Baal Shem Tov: our great teacher who ascended to Heaven on Shavuos and whose light shines within us, guiding us to a life can be lived deeply all the time. שויתי ד’ לנגדי תמיד. I can encounter the deepest intimate connection to You Hashem in Your Torah, right here and right now. You desire me, and I desire You. The purpose of creation becomes complete on THE sixth day of Sivan when I say “YES” to this relationship. It was all to get to this moment.
I realize I am not ordinary anymore; I never was. I have a Torah. My insides are yearning to be close to You, Hashem. On this day, I, the human, became exalted, became great.
On Shavuos the purpose of Creation comes to its zenith. I celebrate my place and my greatness that I have been given the gift to connect with You Hashem.
This Shavuos, open the Torah and feel Hashem’s love embrace you. Thank Hashem that you have the gift of the Torah, that you are not a regular Joe! Open your gemaros and holy books and let the topic you are learning take you over until you can’t distinguish the difference between yourself and the content you are learning. See the sounds, then elevate your five senses into a world of spiritual bliss.
Then you have touched this unity: our greatest pleasure and the purpose of all creation.A Git Yom Tov!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 37 Shavuos 2025.
