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Shavuot: Difference between revisions
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Rav Shternbuch's 2nd Reason for eating Dairy
(Rav Shternbuch's 2nd Reason for eating Dairy) |
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* Additionally, the Olelot Efraim (Ma’amar 141) writes that the reason for the minhag is that Chazal (Eiruvin 52b) compare [[learning Torah]] to a baby suckling milk: just as a baby always finds a new and sweet taste in the milk, so too the learner always a new and sweet taste in Torah. | * Additionally, the Olelot Efraim (Ma’amar 141) writes that the reason for the minhag is that Chazal (Eiruvin 52b) compare [[learning Torah]] to a baby suckling milk: just as a baby always finds a new and sweet taste in the milk, so too the learner always a new and sweet taste in Torah. | ||
* Rav Moshe Shternbuch in Moadim U'zmanim 8:319 says that prior to matan torah, milk was a problem because it could have been considered "ever min hachai," eating from a live animal. Therefore, we celebrate our first opportunity to eat dairy products which occurred at Matan Torah because if the torah in shemot 3:8 praises [[Israel]] for being a land filled with milk and honey it has to be that it is permissible for consumption. | * Rav Moshe Shternbuch in Moadim U'zmanim 8:319 says that prior to matan torah, milk was a problem because it could have been considered "ever min hachai," eating from a live animal. Therefore, we celebrate our first opportunity to eat dairy products which occurred at Matan Torah because if the torah in shemot 3:8 praises [[Israel]] for being a land filled with milk and honey it has to be that it is permissible for consumption. | ||
* Additionally, Rav Shternbuch in Teshuvot Vehanhagos 5:161 suggests that we specifically eat cheese on the day of matan Torah since, unlike other foods that spoil with time, aged cheese is actually better than new cheese. As such, we eat cheese on Shavuot to remind us that the 3000 years since Matan Torah doesn't mean the Torah is "outdated," but that it is even greater and just as applicable to our lives. | |||
* The Yeshuot Yaakov 494:2 gives another reason. He says that the primary change at kabbalat hatorah was that even though the avot could keep mitzvot they didn't have a yetzer hara. We received the yetzer hara at Har Sinai and that's why the gemara tells us that the reward for someone who is commanded in a mitzva is greater than someone's who isn't because he doesn't have a yetzer hara not to fulfill it. Our goal now is to control the yetzer hara and defeat it to achieve the ultimate good. Based on a gemara in Nidda he says that blood is the symbol of tumah so we take the potential for impurity and turn it around completely to achieve the purity of milk. | * The Yeshuot Yaakov 494:2 gives another reason. He says that the primary change at kabbalat hatorah was that even though the avot could keep mitzvot they didn't have a yetzer hara. We received the yetzer hara at Har Sinai and that's why the gemara tells us that the reward for someone who is commanded in a mitzva is greater than someone's who isn't because he doesn't have a yetzer hara not to fulfill it. Our goal now is to control the yetzer hara and defeat it to achieve the ultimate good. Based on a gemara in Nidda he says that blood is the symbol of tumah so we take the potential for impurity and turn it around completely to achieve the purity of milk. | ||
* The Bais Halevi on Parashat Yitro gives his own reason. The gemara says that we were given the torah and not the angels because many mitzvot require performance with the body and angels don't have bodies. We have milk and then we have meat to fulfill simchat [[yom tov]], so we show how our observance of the laws of milk and meat requires physicality. | * The Bais Halevi on Parashat Yitro gives his own reason. The gemara says that we were given the torah and not the angels because many mitzvot require performance with the body and angels don't have bodies. We have milk and then we have meat to fulfill simchat [[yom tov]], so we show how our observance of the laws of milk and meat requires physicality. | ||
