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I think people have got Shovuos all wrong.
It’s all very nice to learn all night, and to learn loads of extra hours before the Yom Tov too, and every single minute of Torah is priceless -any time of the year. but that is NOT what Shovuos is all about.Shovuos is not about learning Torah, Shovuos is about accepting the Torah.
We have to look at every single Mitzva (limud Hatorah included) with new, innocent, fresh eyes. We are like Geirim. We have a newfound appreciation of what it means to be a Yid, of what it means to be a personal Eved of Hashem and what unbelievable oppertunity each mitzva is.
There should be palpable excitement when we put on Tefillin on Isru Chag. Like a Bar Mitzva boy. This is such an amazing zechus! Such a beautiful and uplifting experience!
So by all all means clock up those hours of Torah before, during and after Shovuos, but lets have that passion and fire spreading to every single action – Bentching, Shabbos, Zedoko, Chessed, Kibud Horim etc. etc.I once knew a fellow who didn’t learn the classic stuff on Shavuos night but rather a preset limud based on Kabbalah.
“and every single minute of Torah is priceless -any time of the year. but that is NOT what Shovuos is all about.“
That’s right! It’s about the cheesecake!
That was a very nice take, but the tradition to stay up all night (as it were) is to study Torah. The other aspects the original poster mentioned could occupy each person the entire Shavuos. Having said that, to be clear, “all night” is really just 4-5 hours at the most, people who are not used to staying up all night will find their concentration is overcome by sleep, not everyone is seriously learning but take nice shmooz breaks, and after all that, for myself, my davening suffered terribly because of being so tired. I find increasingly the regular-zman minyan are being better attended over the past decades. It may be nice to stay up all night to learn but if you end up sleeping more hours during the day, you’re really not accomplishing much. So those who can, should and those who can’t may decide, as I have, to learn for maybe half the night, then sleep and daven like a mentch.
Some have an interesting custom to stay up all night learning, as is the preferred custom, and then going to sleep and attending a later minyan and davening like a mentsh.
But be careful. I once tried it and slept until after Mussaf at the latest minyan.There is a story between the Dubner Maggid and the GRA were the the GRA said Tikun Leil Shevuos and the Dubner Maggid learned Shavuos night. They asked the Dubner Maggid why don’t you do like the GRA? He gave a mashel. When a peddler shows samples to sell merchandise, it only makes sense if he has a storeroom of merchandize to fulfill the orders. The GRA is an outstanding talmid chacham can show samples but I have to learn to fill up my storeroom in order to be able to show samples. We must learn before one can do, גדולה תלמוד שמביאה לידי מעשה.
Moshe form Midwood: You wrote
“Having said that, to be clear, “all night” is really just 4-5 hours at the most”
That is only true on the eastern seaboard of the USA.. There are plenty of other places (e.g. Australia, Northern England to name 2) where the hours are much different.We makeup for the fact that we overslept at Kabolas Hatorah and Hashem was waiting for us as it says ויוצא משה, Moshe Rabbenu led us like the Kallah towards the Chasan, Hashem.
My Rebby once said: A fellow sleeps in the afternoon Erev Shavuos, so that he can stay up all night and learn.
He sleeps Shavuos afternoon, because he was up all night.
And during Shavuos night, he also catches a dremel or 2.
In the end, he learned less than if he just would have slept all night and learned by day naturally!What did your Rebbe do?
I really do not know what he did but in general the inyan of staying up all night is frowned upon in Yeshivos.
HaRav Shach z”l was even against the regular Thursday night mismar which is kept in many yeshivos. He would encourage yeshiva boys to learn well during the regular sedorim and to sleep well at night.
Also the Chofetz Chaim was known to turn off the lights in the Beis Midrash at night and to tell the talmidim: Tomorrow is another day. You can learn then. Now you have to sleep.”Go to sleep around 2:00 AM and get up to daven with the regular minyan. When davening with a hashkama minyan, being up the whole night, the davenen is asleep.
“Is frowned upon”
Debatable.
The yeshivaliet of a hundred years ago would be shocked at how many battei medrash there are today that are open 24/7. With hundreds of sefarim and full amenities.
They would then be doubly shocked at how often nobody is learning in them.
😉
What do you think goes along with the coffee?
RBZS- In general you are correct.
However, in most yeshivos (at least here in Eretz Yisrael) everyone is up the whole night learning.
Many people go to the Mir, where they have an amazing solidly packed beis medrash with intense learning, and then at amud hashachar they breaking into a niggun for half an hour.Many other yeshivos leave at alos hashachar and walk to the kosel by netz (the kosel is packed!)
I’m trying to understand, Are you saying we should focus on other mitzvos also, not just Torah?
I think we stay up and learn Torah (there is another more important reason why we stay up & learn shavuos night), also because we are learning what we will receive the next day again every year. That’s a reason why we focus on Torah, not for example, gemilas chasadim, or tefillah, or other very important mitzvos.I believe the makor is the Shnai Luchos Habris, the Shelah, who first taught about staying up all night and learning. He did it both nights.
motchah11, The above sefer in Meseches Shevuos quotes the holy Zohar and prescribes to say the text of Tikun Leil Shevuos.
Reb Eliezer. How do you say the mishnayos parts. What if you don’t know what the words mean?
It look like saying Tikun Leil Shavuos does not have to be understood. A person gets a reward for staying up and showing appreciation for the Torah. It might encourage one to learn it in more detail later on.
Tikun is better than shmoozing.
It must be fun, telling everyone they “have it all wrong.” Especially, when you are suggesting nothing at all, if merely to replace practical activities with abstract ideals, only to add that really you’re all for it.
I think that the famous tzddik Rabbi Kulefsky from Baltimore encouraged the shavuois night learning and would quote the shloh who brings a story from earlier generations
I usually find rewarding to do deeper than usual learning, focusing on a small number of subjects, maybe from different aspects (here you can bring Tanach, Mishna, etc). I once moved to a new town around Pesach. On Shvues, the Rav invited several people to his house and we had a great learning experience. In the morning, I thanked the Rav for the learning, he looked at me and said – you’ve been at multiple divrei torah I said already and only now you are saying it was good?! Tirutz (that I did not express on the spot) – difference between regular and Shvues learning …
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