Shavuot: Difference between revisions

# Some communities abstain from this custom because it may be considered a chok akum. <Ref>This is the opinion of the Gr"a as quoted by the Chayei Adam 131:13, Ma'aseh Rav, Aruch Hashulchan O"C 494 and others. Yechave Da'at 4:33 explains that the custom is nevertheless justified based on the Shu"t Maharik S' 88 who explains that there is no concern of "''Bechukoteihem lo telechu''" by a custom that has a good reason for its practice.</ref>

# Some have the custom to eat dairy meals the first day of Shavuot.  <Ref> Rama 494:3 writes that the minhag is to eat dairy on Shavuot because by having a dairy meal one ensures that will have two loaves of bread, one for the dairy meal and one for the meat meal, and the two loaves of bread are in commemoration of the Shtei HaLechem brought in the Bet HaMikdash on Shavuot. Mishna Berura 494:12 says that this custom is in commemoration of the fact that the Jews only had dairy food immediately after matan torah because producing kosher meat would have taken long because they had just been commanded in the laws of slaughtering. 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. 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. </ref>