Embedded Files
Does the holiday of Shavuot have a special connection to redemption?
The very fact that Shavuot is a holiday during which we celebrate the giving of the Torah reveals its relationship to the time of Moshiach. The main novelty of the era of Moshiach is the “new Torah” that will be revealed by Moshiach.
Shavuot is also distinguished as the holiday on which an offering of two leavened loaves of bread was brought. Rabbi Yeshaya Horowitz, author of Shnei Luchot Habrit, comments: “On this day, an offering of both leavened and unleavened bread was brought. The leavened bread corresponds to the body and the unleavened bread to the soul. The fact that both were offered on the same altar shows that the soul and body will delight together in the World to Come and bask in the glow of the Shechina, as we find with Moses and Elijah.”
The leavened bread, which is puffed up, symbolizes the physical body, while the flat matza symbolizes the soul. Offering them together on one altar symbolizes the harmony between body and soul that will prevail in the era of Moshiach, when the body will be so refined that it will be a vessel for G-dliness and will sustain the soul. Our physical state will be like that of Moses, who survived forty days on Mount Sinai on spirituality alone, and like Elijah, whose body ascended to heaven and still exists without any physical nourishment.
On Rabbi Horowitz’s commentary, the Lubavitcher Rebbe asks: Wasn’t the bread offering of Shavuot eaten by the Kohanim and not burned on the altar? Why does he write that the bread was offered on the altar?
The Rebbe answers: Together with the bread offering, two lambs were brought, and parts of these lambs were offered on the altar. Since the two lambs were brought as one entity with the bread offering, it is as if the bread was also consumed on the altar.
In the future, will we be rewarded for each mitzvah we do separately, or in a general way for all the mitzvot?
With each mitzvah that we fulfill, we create a powerful spiritual radiance. However, at this time we are unable to sense it since it is beyond our spiritual capabilities. In the future, we will be elevated and refined to a state in which we will be able to identify and sense all the spiritual radiance that we introduced to the world through our mitzvot. These are the mysteries of the mitzvot that will be revealed.
The Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch writes: “Just as now each mitzvah is a concept for itself... The seventh day of Passover is one aspect, and the first night of Passover is another aspect, and the holiday of Shavuot is yet another aspect as is Sukkot. The same is true of all mitzvot, which are categorized... Each one has its own meaning and concept that is different from the others.”
The mitzvah of tefillin is unlike the mitzvah of eating matza, and lulav is unlike tefilllin. On Yom Kippur there is a mitzvah to fast and on Shabbat there is a mitzvah to eat. On Shavuot a bread offering is brought, which is chametz, while if one would eat chametz on Passover he would be liable for Karet.
The same is true with regard to the joy that we will have from them in the World to Come. When their inner purpose is revealed, it will also be categorized. The joy and pleasure that we will have in the future from the mitzvah of Passover is completely unlike that of the mitzvah of Shabbat. Each mitzvah will bring its own joy, similar to the fulfillment of the mitzvah itself: Passover from the aspect of Passover, Shabbat from the aspect of Shabbat, and the same regarding tefillin and tzitzit.
The Tzemach Tzedek adds that the spiritual revelation of each mitzvah will also differ from person to person, as appropriate to their conduct before the Geulah: “The tzadikim will rejoice, each according to his grasp in the mitzvot that he did during his lifetime. Just as the mitzvot are categorized, so too one tzadik is unlike his friend, and the joy and pleasure that one tzadik will have will be completely unlike the joy and pleasure of a different tzadik.
It follows, concludes the Tzemach Tzedek, that “In the future there will be multitudes of different types of joy, literally infinite.”
Google Sites
Report abuse