Rosh Chodesh Sivan
(Some of the following material regarding Rosh Chodesh Sivan is adapted from Mesorah Publications Stone Edition of the Chumash and some from Rabbi Eliyahu KiTov's Sefer HaTodaah).
"In the third month after the Exodus of the Jewish People from Egypt, on that very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai" (Shemot 19:1)
• Significance of Rosh Chodesh (Stone Ed.)
• Special Biblical Significance of Rosh Chodesh Sivan (Kitov)
Special Biblical Significance of Rosh Chodesh Sivan
Jewish Tradition says that "that very day" refers to Rosh Chodesh Sivan. About that day it is written, "And the People of Israel encamped there, opposite the Mountain." The verb written in Hebrew for "encamped" is"vayichan," a singular, rather than plural, form. This is to indicate that the acceptance of the Torah by the Jewish People was as if with a single mind, and a single heart. This was necessary because the Torah was like a marriage contract between G-d and Israel and, as such, there was no room for any hesitation or disloyalty between the parties.
In Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles II) (15:9-12), we find, regarding King Asa of Yehudah, "And he gathered all of Yehudah and Binyamin, and from those who lived with them, from Ephrayim and Menasheh and from Shimon, for they gathered unto him in multitudes, because they saw that the L-rd was with him. And they were gathered to Yerushalayim in the third month, of the fifteenth year of King Asa. And they sacrificed to the L-rd on that day, bringing from the booty, seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep.And they entered into the Covenant to seek the L-rd, the G-d of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul."
And Jewish Tradition teaches us that this entry into a Covenant with G-d by the Jewish People, approximately six hundred years after the Covenant at Sinai, occurred on Rosh Chodesh Sivan.
http://www.ou.org/chagim/roshchodesh/sivan/default.htm
Chodesh Sivan
The Month of Sivan
"In the third month after the Exodus of the Jewish People from Egypt, on that very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai" (Shemot 19:1)
(Much of the material in this section is adapted with permission, from Sefer HaTodaah of Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov)
- Name of the Month
- Zodiac Sign of the Month
- Chodesh Sivan In Relation to Other Months of the Year
- Special Significance
"Sivan" is the Babylonian name of this month, as are all of the "official" names of the months in the Hebrew Calendar. In the Bible, the month is referred to as "the Third Month," with reference to Nisan, the First Month.
Zodiac Sign of the Month
The "sign" of the month is "Twins," a hint of the roles in this month of Moshe and Aharon who were considered equal, and it was through them and by their merit that the Torah was given to the People of Israel.
Chodesh Sivan - In Relation to Other Months of the Year
1 Nisan
2 Iyar (29 days)
3 Sivan (30 days)
4 Tammuz (29 days)
5 Av
6 Elul
7 Tishrei
8 Cheshvan
9 Kislev
10 Tevet
11 Shevat
12 Adar
"Rabbi Yossi HaGelili taught in the presence of Rav Chisda (Shabbat 88a),
'Blessed is our G-d Who gave us a Torah which is divided into three parts:
- The Five Books of Moses
- The Books of the Prophets
- The Sacred Writings
To a People that is divided into three parts:
- "Kohanim" (the Priestly Component)
- "Leviim" (the Levite Component)
The significance of being a member of the "Kohen" or "Levi" Classes of the People of Israel was mainly evident in the time of the Temple, and will hopefully be evident soon, in our time. But significant honors are accorded members of these classes even nowadays, such as in the order of being "called up" to the Torah, and who leads the Grace After Meals, etc. - Yisraelim (the Israelite Component ("plain old" Jews, members of the People which is considered a "Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation," by virtue of its observance of the Laws of the Torah))
Through a person who was himself a "Third" - Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, who was the third child born to his mother, Yocheved, in Mitzrayim, after his elder siblings, Aharon and Miriam.
After another "three days of Preparation," they were to be ready to receive the Torah, as it is written, when Moshe commanded the Jewish People to "Make yourselves ready by the third day."
"Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count, fifty days; And you shall bring a 'New' Grain Offering to Hashem" (Vayikra 23:16)
"And it was on the third day, as it became morning, and there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the Shofar was very strong, and all the people in the camp were seized with trembling" (Shemot 19:16)
One of the Three "Regalim"
Along with Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot, Shavuot is one of the Three "Pilgrim Festivals" on which Jewish families, especially the males, who are freer to leave at specific times, such as the times of these holidays, and are not charged as much with the responsibilities of the home and the raising of children, are commanded to appear at the Temple in Jerusalem.
The root of the word "Regalim" is "regel," which means "foot." "Pilgrim" means one who travels; on each of these festivals, the family is expected to make the effort to travel to Yerushalayim.
Concerning these holidays it is written (Shemot 23, 14-19),
"Three Regalim celebrate before Me each year. Observe the Holiday of the Matzot, Passover; Seven days shall you eat Matzot as I have commanded you, in the month of the Spring, for it was at that time that you left Egypt, and My Presence shall not be seen by you empty-handed."
"And the Holiday of Bringing in your First Fruits (Shavuot) which you had planted in the field,"
"and the Harvest Festival Sukkot, at the turn of the year, when you gather your produce from the field."
"Three times each year shall each of your males be seen by the Master, Hashem…The first fruits of the land you shall bring to the House of the L-rd your G-d…"
Climax of the Sefirat HaOmer
In Vayikra (23,15) the People of Israel is commanded to count seven complete weeks, beginning with the second day of Pesach, or Passover, for a total of forty-nine days. This counting is called Sefirat HaOmer because the Omer Offering is brought on the Second Day of Pesach. The last day of the count, the forty-ninth day, is Erev Shavuot. The day after the full count of forty-nine is complete, the "fiftieth day," is Shavuot. That day is a holiday unto itself, with its own unique character, and ritual.
We read in Vayikra (23,16) "Until the day after the seventh week you shall count, fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem." The meal-offering of Shavuot is called "new" because it was the first Temple offering from the new wheat crop (the Omer-offering of Pesach was of barley).
In the realm of years, there is a similar count. Each seven years is called a Shemitah cycle, with each seventh year called a Shemitah, or Sabbatical, Year. Seven such cycles make up a count of forty-nine years. The year following the count, Year number fifty, is called the Yovel, or Jubilee, Year.
The English name of the Shemittah Year, Sabbatical Year, suggests or, rather, confirms that a major unit of time in Judaism is the number seven, as we see in Shabbat, the Seventh Day, of each week.
"Zeman Matan Torateinu," Time of the Giving of the Torah
The Torah is the life of the Jew. Without the Torah, life would be meaningless, not only for the Jewish People, but for the whole world as well. For it can be said, from the religious perspective, and that is our perspective, that the rest of Nature exists only for the human race, G-d's most beloved creatures. And the human race has no purpose other than to learn from the Jewish People, who will ultimately fulfill their destiny of being "a light unto the Nations." And the light spoken of is none other than the light of Torah, Hashem's Book, which is the "Proper Study of Man."
Therefore, it is obvious that the event of G-d's giving His holy treasure to the Jewish People was a somewhat important date (!) And yet, the Torah itself does not specify the exact date on which the Master of the Universe revealed Himself, so to speak, at Mt. Sinai, and transmitted His Law to the Jewish People and, through them, to the world at large.
The Talmud debates whether it was the sixth or the seventh of Sivan, and the decision is actually in favor of the opinion that it was given on the seventh. Nevertheless, for various reasons, we celebrate it on the sixth of Sivan [which will be assumed in "The Story of Shavuot"] in Israel, and we begin its celebration on the sixth in the Diaspora as well, continuing it into the seventh.
The Midrash records that Moshe debated with the Angels whether Man was worthy of receiving the great gift of the Torah. Fortunately for all of us, Moshe was judged the winner of that debate
Ahhh... the sumptuous delight of blintzes and cheesecake. Eating a dairy meal on Shavuot has become an enduring tradition. But what's the source for this? Here are six fascinating reasons:
Reason #1
When the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, included was special instructions for how to slaughter and prepare meat for eating. Until then, the Jews had not followed these laws, thus all their meat - plus the cooking pots - were now considered "not kosher." So the only alternative was to eat dairy, which requires no advance preparation.
This raises the question, however: Why didn't the Jews simply slaughter new animals, "kasher" their pots in boiling water (hagala), and cook fresh meat?
The answer is that the revelation at Sinai occurred on Shabbat, when slaughter and cooking are prohibited.
Another point to clarify: How were the Jews able to obtain milk on Shabbat, since milking an animal falls under the prohibited activity of mefarek?
The answer is that the Jews already had milk available from before Shabbat, which they had been using to feed the various animals that accompanied their journeys in the wilderness.
Reason #2
Torah is likened to milk, as the verse says, "Like honey and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11). Just as milk has the ability to fully sustain the body of a human being (i.e. a nursing baby), so too the Torah provides all the “spiritual nourishment” necessary for the human soul.
Reason #3
The gematria (numerical value) of the Hebrew word for milk, chalav, is 40. We eat dairy foods on Shavuot to commemorate the 40 days that Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving instruction in the entire Torah. (Moses spent an additional 40 days on Sinai, praying for forgiveness following the Golden Calf, and then a third set of 40 days before returning with a new set of stone tablets.)
The numerical value of chalav, 40, has further significance in that there were 40 generations from Moses who recorded the Written Torah, till the generation of Ravina and Rav Ashi who wrote the final version of the Oral Torah, the Talmud.
Further, the Talmud begins with the letter mem – gematria 40 - and ends withmem as well.
Reason #4
According to the Zohar, each one of the 365 days of the year corresponds to a specific one of the Torah's 365 negative commandments. Which mitzvah corresponds to the day of Shavuot?
The Torah says: "Bring Bikkurim (first fruits) to the God's Holy Temple; don't cook a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 34:26). Since the first day for bringingBikkurim is on Shavuot (in fact, the Torah calls Shavuot "the holiday ofBikkurim"), the second half of that verse - referring to milk and meat - is the negative commandment corresponding to Shavuot day. Thus on Shavuot we eat two meals, one of milk and one of meat, taking care not to mix the two.
Interestingly, we are instructed not to use the same loaf of bread for a meat meal and then later at a milk meal, lest some of the meat substance had splattered on the bread. Thus by eating two meals - one of milk and one of meat - we inevitably have two loaves. This corresponds to the special "Two Loaves" that were offered in the Temple on Shavuot.
Reason #5
An alternative name for Mount Sinai is Har Gav'nunim, the mountain of majestic peaks. The Hebrew word for cheese is gevina, etymologically related to Har Gav'nunim.
Further, the gematria of gevina (cheese) is 70, corresponding to the "70 faces of Torah."
Reason #6
Moses was born on the seventh day of Adar, and stayed at home for three months with his family, before being placed in the Nile River on the sixth of Sivan.
Moses was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted Moses and took him to live in Pharaoh's palace. But right away a problem arose: what to feed the baby. In those days, there was no bottled baby formula, so when the birth mother wasn't available, the caretaker would have to hire a wet nurse. In the case of Moses, he kept refusing to nurse from Egyptian women. The Talmud explains that his mouth needed to be kept totally pure, as it would one day communicate directly with God. Finally Pharaoh's daughter found one woman who Moses agreed to nurse from - Yocheved, Moses' biological mother!
Appreciate the irony: Pharaoh's murderous decree against Jewish babies was specifically intended to prevent a new generation of Jewish leadership. So what happened instead? Moses, the upcoming great Jewish leader, was raised, educated and trained - right under Pharaoh's nose, in Pharaoh's own home, at Pharaoh's expense! And on top of it all, Moses' mother got paid a salary!
The eating of dairy foods on Shavuot commemorates this phenomenon in the early life of Moses, which occurred on the sixth of Sivan, the day on which Shavuot falls.
Reason #6
According to one commentator, that day at Sinai was the first time the Jews ate dairy products. There is a general prohibition of "eating a limb from a live animal" (ever min hachai), which logically should also include milk, the product of a live animal. Ever min hachai is actually one of the Seven Noahide Lawswhich the Jews observed prior to Sinai (and which has applied to all humanity since the days of Noah).
However, upon receiving the Torah, which refers to the Land of Israel as "flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:18), dairy products became permitted to the Jews. In other words, at the same moment that their meat became prohibited, dairy became permitted. They ate dairy on that original Shavuot, and we do today, too.
If the Jews ate dairy for the first time at Mount Sinai, this raises the question how Abraham could have fed dairy products to his three guests (Genesis 18:8).
The answer requires a technical understanding of the prohibition of ever min hachai, "limb from a live animal." One way is to define a "limb" as a piece of meat which contains bones and/or sinews. It is this type of ever min hachaiwhich has always been forbidden to non-Jews. This prohibition does notinclude milk, because although milk comes from a live animal, it does not contains bones or sinews. Hence, Abraham was permitted to feed milk to his non-Jewish guests.
There is a second, expanded definition of ever min hachai, which encompassesall products from a live animal -- including milk. It is this definition which is prohibited to Jews. Thus it was not until the giving of the Torah, with its reference to "land of milk and honey," that dairy products became permitted to Jews.
This distinction is spelled out clearly by the great Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, in "HaElef Lecha Shlomo" (Yoreh Deah 322).
Sources:
Reason #1: Mishnah Berurah 494:12; Talmud - Bechorot 6b; Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (HaElef Lecha Shlomo - YD 322)
Reason #2: Rabbi Meir of Dzikov - Imrei Noam
Reason #3: Deut. 10:10; Rav Menachem Mendel of Ropshitz
Reason #4: Talmud - Makkot 23b; Chidushei HaRim; Rema (OC 494:3, YD 88:2)
Reason #5: Psalms 68:16; Midrash - Bamidbar Rabba 13:15; Rebbe of Ostropole; Reb Naftali of Ropshitz; Rabbi Dovid Meisels
Reason #6: Talmud - Sotah 12b; Yalkut Yitzchak
DAVID HAMELECH / KING DAVID - Shavuot is also the Hillulah/Death Anniversary of David HaMelech/King David. King David was aware that he was supposed to leave this world on Shabbat and to fight that, he would keep himself busy with on Shabbat, studying Torah, for he knew that as long as he studied it, the angel of death could not get him. Every Shabbat he lived, he would commemorate it by having a special festive meal which is now known as the 4th/Melave Malka meal. King David past away on Shabbat during the 3rd meal when he was tricked into leaving his learning to check out a noise outside. It is fitting to learn Tehilim/Psalms in his honor on Shavuot. More on David HaMelech below.
DAVID HAMELECH / KING DAVID - Information below from JudaicaPlus.com
http://nehora.net/index.cfm/category/336/sivan.cfm
Hilulah Day | Name (Click on the name to view more info.) |
|---|---|
| 3 | Rabbi Yaakov Shimshon of Shepetovka Chassidic leader. |
| 6 | King David - David HaMelech The 2nd king of Israel, his son King Solomon(Shlomo) built the First Temple. |
| 7 | Avraham ben Avraham A Ger Tzedek (righteous convert), burned at the stake by the Church. |
| 7 | Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer- The Baal Shem Tov - The Baal Shem Tov Founder of the Chassidic movement. |
| 9 | Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Zidichov Chassidic leader. |
| 10 | Rabbi Elazar Rokach- Baal Maase Rokach - Baal Maase Rokach Rabbi of the Jewish community of Amsterdam. |
| 14 | Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin Talmudist and ethicist. Student of The Vilna Gaon. |
| 17 | Rabbi Aharon of Karlin II Chassidic leader. Grandson of Rabbi Aharon of Karlin I. |
| 18 | Rabbi Yisachar Dov Ber of Radoshitz Chassidic leader, student of the Chozeh of Lublin. |
| 19 | Rabbi Yehudah Ibn Atar Head rabbi of the Jewish community in Fez,Morocco. Kabbalist |
| 25 | Rabbi Yishmael (Ben Elisha) Kohen Gadol Rabbi Yishmael was the Kohen Gadol (high priest) at the end of the Second Temple period, and one of the Asara Harugei Malchut(Ten Martyrs). |
| 25 | The Tana Raban Shimon Ben Gamliel Served as the Nassi (president) of Israel in the period following the destruction of the Second Temple. He was the first of the 'Asara Harugei Malchut' (Ten Martyrs) executed. |
| 25 | Rabbi Chanina Segan HaKohanim Tanna - first generation. He was the deputy Kohen Gadol(high priest) at the end of the Second Temple period. |
| 26 | The Tana Yonatan Ben Uziel It was said on Rabbi Yonatan Ben Uziel that when he studied Torah, any bird that flew over his head would be burnt (Sukkah 28a). |
| 27 | The Tana Rabbi Chanina Ben Teradion Rabbi Chanina was a third generation Tana. He was one of the Ten Martyrs (Asarah Harugei Malchut) |
Shavuot - Cheesecakes, Water & Torah Study - infolivetvenglish — June 08, 2008 — Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks
Please note that the horoscope is not advisable since Hashem Himself said that He supervises all and He, alone has the power to change things. The signs may be useful to determine one's inclination towards a profession and towards a match and never to determine the future
