The shalosh regalim, or pilgrimage festivals, are the central holidays mandated by Torah. Each of these three celebrations - Pesach, Shavu’ot, and Sukkot - each have a special agricultural theme and many historians believe that the origin of each of these holidays is rooted in a celebration of the harvest. However, much of Torah may be considered as a pre-configuration story or prologue to the early history of the Jewish homeland and there may also be a strong tie between all of these festivals and the land of Israel.
Yet the 3-fold nature of these festivals goes way beyond merely the historical or the practical. Long ago, the spring festival of Pesach was associated with the signs and miracles with which God created a nation out of an enslaved group of people. The story abounds in deeds of wonders and plagues. Sukkot, on the other hand, was attached to the glory and the majesty of the Temple in Jerusalem. As God is the central figure in the Pesach story, the people of Israel take center stage in the celebration of Sukkot. It is the nation - the Jewish people - that sleeps in sukkot and waves lulavim and marches around the synagogue. Embedded in these celebrations are two thirds of the traditional Jewish mind-set, God and Israel.
The third pillar of the Jewish world view is Torah and, ages ago, the rabbis associated the celebration of Shavu’ot with the giving of God’s teachings. Just as Pesach is a time of freedom and Sukkot is a time of happiness, the ancient sages determined that the Revelation on Mount Sinai occurred on the festival of Shavu’ot. In many ways, then, Shavu’ot is connected with Pesach in the same way that the Exodus from Egypt is connected with the giving of the Torah.
In this regard, Sukkot is the “odd holiday out” since the Exodus and the Revelation of Sinai both happen in the diaspora and not in the Promised Land. Shavu’ot teaches that as long as Jews possess a portable law and are connected to a universal God, no matter where a Jewish community is, its members can be distinctly Jewish; that is to say, Judaism can survive as long as Jews study Torah.
Today, when our brethren in Israel are assailed by barbaric enemies, and anti-Semitism, once again, rears its ugly head proud and strong, the problems of Jewish continuity once more become an issue. We must not forget, therefore, that a key element in insuring the survival of our people - along with fighting wars and seeking peace - is to redouble our efforts at teaching and learning our heritage and traditions. Only then can we know what it is we are fighting to protect.
shalom uverakha (peace and blessing),
Rabbi Ronald B. Kopelman