Mazal Tov Bar Mitzvah
MAZAL TOV BAR MITZVAH Shavuot is unfortunately a much ignored holiday, these days, partly because there are fewer rituals associated with it than with other more popular holidays. . On Passover, for example, we have a Seder; on Rosh Hashanah we have the Shofar, on Chanukah the Menorah etc. But, on Shavuot there is relatively little that we do in the form of prescribed rituals.
Shavuot, however, is far from a minor or insignificant Holiday. It is the anniversary of our very existence as a people. While, it is true that the Jewish nation was born on Passover, when they were liberated from Egyptian bondage, nevertheless, our existence as a nation was not completed until we received the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Had we not been given the Torah fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt, we would have been a people without a purpose and goal and hence without a real identity as well. In the words of the great Sage, Rabbi Sa’adia Gaon: “We are a nation only by virtue of the Torah.” Without the Torah, our freedom notwithstanding, we would have been relegated to the ash-heap of history, like a multitude of other nations and empires who have vanished.
Only our acceptance of the Torah at Sinai 3,300 years ago, provided us with the ability to survive. Jews did not have a common language for most of their history, nor did they have their own country for most of their history. Yet, unlike so many other cultures, we survived, because we had the Torah.
Shavuot is thus the celebration of our identity and the miracle of our survival.
If Passover has been described as the birth of the Jewish people, then Shavuot could be described as their collective Bar Mitzvah. Shavuot is when the Jewish people were given, and they accepted, the responsibility to perform all of the commandments, just as a Bar Mitzvah boy or Bat Mitzvah girl accepts all of his/her responsibilities as Jews.
The Bar Mitzvah metaphor can shed light on the significance of Shavuot. Just as a Bar Mitzvah is not born that way, but has to go through 13 years of education and training, similarly, the Jewish people had to go through a period of preparation after the Exodus to get them ready for their Bar Mitzvah experience.
There is a more profound aspect of the Bar Mitzvah metaphor. In our mystical literature we are taught that while the soul enters the person at birth, it does not fully manifest itself within the person until Bar Mitzvah. While the Jewish people were liberated from Egypt during Passover by G- d’s direct intervention in their lives, they could not and did not internalize their relationship with G-d, until they received the Torah at Sinai.
And just as the Bar-Mitzvah can serve as a metaphor for the Sinai experience, the Holiday of Shavuot can help us better understand the true nature of a Bar and Bat Mitzvah.
Tragically, for many children, and their parents, the Bar Mitzvah is the culmination of one’s Jewish education, when, in fact, it is really just the beginning. For just as our first collective Bar Mitzvah at Sinai was the beginning of our peoplehood, so too, Bar Mitzvah marks the beginning of one’s journey through life as a Jew.
Another lesson that can be applied to the analogy of Shavuot to a Bar Mitzvah. Just as Shavuot was not a one-time experience, but repeats itself every year during the Holiday of Shavuot, so too, one’s Bar Mitzvah must be re-enacted every year. One’s birthday is more than a time to make a party, but it is the time when the Bar-Mitzvah energies that were generated the year before are recreated.
Now, despite the analogy of Shavuot to a Bar Mitzvah, Shavuot is still only a sample of the ultimate Bar Mitzvah we will experience collectively when we reach our spiritual maturity when Moshiach will take us out of exile. As long as we are still in exile, we lack the necessary understanding and soul powers to fully appreciate the depth and beauty of Torah and its commandments. Only when the knowledge of G-d will “cover the earth as the sea is covered with water” shall we really celebrate the idea of a Mitzvah to the fullest.
In addition to the Bar Mitzvah analogy, Shavuot has also been described as the wedding of the Jewish people and G-d. On a deeper level, the Bar Mitzvah and marriage metaphors are complementary. Our relationship with G-d (marriage) is based on our commitment to His commandments.
May this Shavuot be a joyous and inspirational one for all.
From the book Light from the Future: Shavuos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
