Shavuot
Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17
Numbers 28:26-31
Habakkuk 3:1-19
On Shabbat this week, we will be celebrating the second day of Shavuot, and our reading is so appropriate to our current situation. We roll our scroll forward to Deuteronomy 14 to read about the tithes and festivities we would have been enjoying if we had been living in Temple times.
Everyone was to converge on Jerusalem, with either their produce or the value of it, and have a feast. Imagine the picnics throughout the city!
The Torah commands us to fulfill our desires to celebrate — after all, the beginning of the harvest is in and there is reason to think that the summer wheat will be plentiful, and that a good year will bring comfort and security to the people. In an agricultural world, our lives were much more tied to the cycle of sowing and harvest than today.
The portion goes on to talk about the importance of taking care of others, especially in this time of rejoicing: “Then the Levite, who has no hereditary portion as you have, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the enterprises you undertake (Deut. 14:29). The next chapter emphasizes the need to assist those who have less than we do: In the end, the divine desire is that there be no one left without sustenance.
Even though generosity is expected, and even commanded, it is clear that there will always be needy people — in fact, they will be there specifically to help develop compassion and assistance in those who are not needy. If we are caring of others, we are assured that there will be enough food to go around.
The juxtaposition of our own feasting and our requirement to share what we have with others is so lovely here: It recognizes both our desires to have good things for ourselves, and our sometimes selfish natures, while giving us an opportunity to retain blessings for ourselves and others if we overcome the need to have things only for ourselves. We are enjoined to remember others and their needs, to step out of our own circle of joy or stress or incredible business and look to people who have less than we do.
The portion goes on to say, “Give to him readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the Lord your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings. For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land” (Deut. 15:10-11).
The needy perform an important function within our holy society: They act as an insistent reminder of the need to be generous to others.
Especially in this time of less for many, it is important to help those in greater need than ourselves. If we can’t spend money as freely as before, think of what those who make 30 percent less than we do are experiencing.
To quote the great American poet and writer Conrad Aiken, “Let us give freely where the giving is most blessed” — for as we give, so we receive, and as we give, all are nourished in spirit, ourselves the most. May this holiday be full of the blessings of the first fruits: bountifulness for all, and a year of plenty throughout the world.
Rabbi Elisheva Salamo is the spiritual leader of Keddem Congregation in Palo Alto.