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Rosh Kollel Rabbi Mordecai Kornfeld
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Re: Shavuos
Sid Mosenkis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked:
If the torah was given on 7 sivan, according to one opinion in the gemara,
why do we say zman matan toraseinu on 6 sivan?
S. Mosenkis, Queens N.Y.
-------
The Kollel replies:
We wrote about this on Shabbos 88a, here is a copy of our Insights to the
Daf there.
Best wishes, Mordecai
==========
Shabbos 88
1) ON WHAT DAY DOES SHAVUOS FALL
QUESTION: The Tur and Shulchan Aruch (OC 494:1) say that Shavuos falls on
the sixth of Iyar, fifty days after the day of bringing the Omer offering
(the second day of Pesach). This implies that Iyar of the year that the
Torah was given was not a full (Malei) month, but was 29 days long, for if
Iyar of that year was 30 days long, Matan Torah would have been on the
fifty-*first* day after the day of the Omer offering, and not the fiftieth.
Our Sugya seems to conclude that according to the Rabanan, who maintain
that the Torah was given on the *sixth* of Sivan, there were indeed
fifty-*one* days between Pesach and Shavuos (since the Gemara (87b)
resolves the Beraisa which conflicts with the opinion of the Rabanan by
saying that Iyar of that year had 30 days). How, then, can we rule that
Shavuos is on the sixth of Sivan and only *fifty* days after the day of the
Omer offering?
Besides, no matter how we rule, according to both Rebbi Yosi and the
Rabanan, the Torah was given on the fifty-first day. According to the
Rabanan Iyar was 30 days, as we explained above, and according to Rebbi
Yosi Iyar was 29 days but the Torah was given on the *7th* of Sivan, or 51
days after the day of the Omer offering.
ANSWERS:
(a) The MACHTZIS HA'SHEKEL explains that this question is only a question
if the Jewish people left Egypt on a Thursday (which would mean that there
are fifty-one days between the second day of Pesach (Friday) and the day
they received the Torah (Shabbos)). The Seder Olam, though, says that they
left Egypt on a *Friday*, and thus the Torah, which was given on a Shabbos,
was given *fifty* days later. (The Seder Olam also states that the Man
started falling on a Monday. Even though the Gemara derived from verses
that the Man started falling on a Sunday, this inference is not at all
explicit in the verses, and the simple understanding of the verses does not
imply that the Man started falling on a Sunday). We rule like the Seder
Olam, and not like the Gemara.
It should be noted that according to the Seder Olam, the tenth of Nisan
(the day that the animals for the Korban Pesach were designated) was not
Shabbos but Sunday -- contrary to what the TUR in OC 430 quotes from the
Seder Olam -- since the Jews left Egypt on a Friday, as the PERISHAH points
out.
(b) The SEFAS EMES explains that the TUR holds that the Jewish people went
out of Egypt on a *Thursday* (as he says in OC 430), and that the Torah was
given on a *Friday* and not on Shabbos, as the Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer ch.
46 maintains.
The Sefas Emes points out, however, that the Tur himself (OC 292) states
that the Torah was given on Shabbos.
(c) The RIVASH (#96) writes that the festival of Shavuos has nothing to do
with the day upon which the Torah was given. Shavuos comes fifty days after
the day of the Omer offering, whether or not it falls on the day that the
Torah was given. The reason we call Shavuos "Z'man Matan Toraseinu" is
because the way our calendar is set up, the festival falls on the sixth of
Sivan, which is the day of the month on which the Torah was given
(according to the Rabanan, whose opinion we follow). Unlike the day upon
which the Torah was given, our 6th of Sivan falls *fifty* days after the
Omer offering, while the original day of Matan Torah was fifty-one days
after the Omer (because they left Egypt on a Thursday and received the
Torah on Shabbos, as our Gemara states).
(d) The MAGEN AVRAHAM (OC 494) cites from SEFER ASARAH MA'AMAROS that by
adding a day on his own, Moshe Rabeinu alluded to the second day of Yom Tov
which is observed outside of Israel. Thus, the Torah was actually
*supposed* to have been given on the fiftieth day after the Omer of that
first year, which is why our holiday begins on the fiftieth day after the
Omer. The Torah was actually given on the fifty-first day to symbolize that
that day would be Yom Tov as well, when the Jews would go into exile. That
is, just like Moshe Rabeinu made that day into the day of Kabalas ha'Torah,
the Rabanan would later make that day into Yom Tov.
The BEIS HA'LEVI (Parshas Yisro) expands on this idea, explaining that even
though the Jewish people received the Torah on the fifty-first day, the day
that the Torah was *given* was the fiftieth day, as we shall explain.
The Gemara (88b) says that the angels did not want the Torah to be given to
Moshe. Why not? What were the angels going to do with the Torah? As Moshe
Rabeinu argued, none of the Mitzvos are applicable to heavenly bodies; they
are relevant only for humans!
The Gemara (Bava Metzia 61a) states that the verse "Lo ba'Shamayim Hi"
("the Torah is not in the heavens") means that the authority to expound and
elucidate the Torah is not in the heavens, but was to the Sages. The angels
argued that *this authority* should not be given to man, because they did
not think that it was appropriate for man to have the power to legislate in
Torah matters.
Moshe's decision to delay by one day the giving of the Torah was based on a
Hekesh, as the Gemara explains ("just like the second day of Perishah was a
day that follows a night, so, too, the first day must be a day that follows
a night"). By using a Hekesh to derive a Torah law (i.e. the day that the
Torah should be given), Moshe Rabeinu was asserting that the Torah was
given to man to expound. The Gemara adds that indeed, Hashem agreed to
Moshe's action.
Therefore, even if we rule in accordance with Rebbi Yosi that we received
the Torah on the seventh day, that was the day of *Kabalas ha'Torah*, when
the Jews *received* the Torah. The day before, though, was the day of
*Matan* Torah, when Hashem *gave* man the ability to make decisions
regarding the Torah. (The CHASAM SOFER in Toras Moshe, on Shavuos, offers a
similar explanation.)
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