SHAVUOS
A Kabalas HaTorah Food Fest?
The Gemara in Pesachim says that on Yom Tov, Rebbi Eliezer and Rebbi Yehoshua argue whether one is supposed to celebrate materially (i.e. eat) or one may spend the day solely involved in spiritual matters. However they both agree that on Shavuos one must indulge in physical pleasures and celebrate with food and drink. This begs the question, out of all the Yomim Tovim the one we would expect to be of the highest spiritual level and least material would be Shavuos, the day we received the Torah. Why do all agree that on Shavuos we must satisfy our earthly body?
The Baalei Mussar answer that when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Shamayim to bring down the Torah, at first the malachim wouldn’t let him. How can a mere mortal safeguard the Torah they asked? Moshe’s response to this was to go through the Mitzvos and prove that the Torah not only was very appropriate for humans but in fact many of the commandments are only relevant to humans and not malachim. Do malachim have parents? Do they get angry? Do they work? Do they desire food and money? One needs to be human for these things to be applicable.
The whole point of creation is to elevate our earthly bodies to the highest levels of kedusha through Torah learning and performing the mitzvos; to enable our Neshama to reign supreme over our body. The gemara in Kedushin (30b) tells us “Barasi Yetzer hara U’Barasi Torah Tavlin”, I created a the evil inclination and I created the Torah as an antidote against it. Therefore on Shavuos we need to recognize our body, since our bodies are the subject matter of the entire earthly challenge and the Torah is our ammunition
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