Graduating every year

Every year at about this time, there are numerous graduation ceremonies from pre-school on up.

In all of them, there is a spoken or unspoken understanding that there is a transition to another level or an end. Yes, speakers tell people education doesn’t end, that life is an educational process. Few really hear that. This is truly over, hopefully forever.

Every year, the Jewish religion goes through a process which also tries to teach the world that peak experiences are not ends in and of themselves. In the early spring, Jews throughout the world celebrate Passover, the holiday marking the liberation from Egypt. Although many think that is the end of the story (yippee, freedom!), it is really only the beginning.

Jewish tradition begins a countdown the second night of Passover, which culminates seven weeks later with the holiday of Shavuot marking the giving of the Torah (the five books of Moses) at Mount Sinai. This countdown is called the Omer, which was traditionally a measure of barley counted out each day leading up to what was originally an agricultural pilgrimage festival to Jerusalem.

It is unclear when or how the giving of the Torah became assigned to the holiday of Shavuot but, biblically, it makes some sense. It would take some time (but not too long) for the Israelites to get to Mount Sinai. There should be a holiday assigned for such an event. A holiday mentioned 49 days plus one day later (Lev. 23 verse 15 thru 21) seems a reasonable one to assign for this important event.

And it is an important event — perhaps the important event in the Torah. What has all this (reality and narrative) been for? Why create a world to start with? Why have so many tests and failures? Judaism basically points to the event of God’s appearance to a mass meeting the offer of the Law and the people’s acceptance of it (we shall do and we shall hear Ex. 24; 7) as the big event.

But can this really be like a graduation exercise? Can the Jewish people show up kind of sleepy one morning, say rather sheepishly, “Sure, hand us the diploma, whatever is on it, we will do. I am done.” Not really.

Every year, Judaism marks the giving of the Torah on Shavuot with a rededication of us, each of us, every year. We, not some newbie grads. Although we do have confirmation exercises for our Sunday school programs, that is not why we Jews observe Shavuot. In Jewish tradition, Shavuot is often portrayed as a wedding between God and Israel, and the Torah is the Ketubbah (a wedding contract). Just like in any marriage, anniversaries are important to show confirmations of love or they can be seen as not important. Let me quote one of my favorite teachers, the Sefat Emet, a rebbe of 20th-century Warsaw, Poland.
This is what is truly meant by “redemption” or “freedom:” bringing the precious forth from the ordinary.

The Jewish people are instruments for this. When they came out of Egypt, this purification was performed by them for the entire world, so that the transformed 10 utterances became the Ten Commandments.

Not only did that take place once, but each year on the day after (the beginning of) Passover, that “beginning” is again raised up by the power of the Exodus from Egypt. Therefore, it says, “Bring an ‘omer-measure of your first harvesting … .”

The “first,” or “beginning,” is purified in the ensuing 49 days until it becomes actual Torah, just as happened at the Exodus itself.