Boulder Aish Kodesh

The three days before Shavuot are called ‘shloshet ye’mei hagbalah’ – the three days of boundaries. The clearest manifestation of this is that Moshe tells the men of Israel not to have relations with women. In Hebrew – ‘al tigshu el ishah’. It is curious that the word isha is singular – literally, ‘to woman’.

We might perhaps understand this in context of Maharal’s explanation of the relationship between male and female – in many places, he describes male as tzurah – form, and female as chomer – material. When they are joined together, they produce an entity.

Moshe was telling Israel ‘do not approach a state of particular manifestation.’ This is a warning to the Jewish people: Once a tzurah-form commits itself to a specific material, it no longer has infinite possibility. While it is necessary at certain points to commit one’s self to specificity, there are moments when we are capable of stepping toward a new tzurah. Any commitment to specific chomer at that time will limit one’s ability to receive a new tzurah

As the Jews approach the receiving of the Torah, they are decidedly female – as Rashi writes on the verse ‘and Moshe brought forth the nation toward G-d’, we learn that the Divine Presence went out to greet them like a groom goes out to greet the bride. This imagery is reflected in Gemarra Ta’anit 26b, commenting on the verse ‘and the day of his wedding’ – this is the giving of the Torah.

Similarly, it is brought in the name of the Chidushei HaRim that, though a person would usually not cut his fingernails and toenails on the same day, on the Eve of Shavuot it is permitted, as we are like a woman who has finished her seven clean days and is preparing for the mikveh so that she may be with her husband.

Thus, as we approach the day of Shavuot, we are encouraged not to ‘approach the female’ – meaning not to be in a state of specific manifestation. In ‘approaching the female’ – limiting ourselves to a specific manifestation - we make ourselves male. WE become the tzurah imprinting itself upon the chomer. It puts us in a position of being mashpiah. And on this day we need to be female. WE need to be only in a state of receiving. As we say in tachanun, ‘for we are the material, and You are the One Who forms us.’

What does it mean to be female? It implies that we ordinarily function in such a way as to constantly imprint our own sense of the world by how we think, speak, and act. As we ascend toward the giving of the Torah, we must understand that we are capable, on this day, of ourselves being imprinted, rather than doing the imprinting. In this sense, we will automatically have entirely new ways of thinking, speaking, and acting.

This explains why the form of purification that Moshe was ordered to enact onto the people was to clean their garments. It is known that action, speech, and thought are the ‘garments of the soul’. They must therefore be cleaned so that they do not remind us of our habitual ways of being.

It is, however, painful and difficult to change from a process of imprinting to a process of being imprinted. This process is tantamount to a death of that sense of self, so that it can be replaced. The Gemarra in Shabbat says that the Jews died each time Hashem spoke to them. This death was absolutely necessary in order for the full giving of the Torah to take place. This death may be understood as an ego-death, which is necessary for transcending one’s stasis and moving toward a qualitatively new sense of self.

The transformation we go through on Shavuot is not a qualitative change. The inversion from ‘male’ to ‘female’ is not merely an exchange of roles – it is a qualitative change, as it acknowledges a ‘Higher Male’. It is an ascension toward involvement in a higher level of purpose, whereby one becomes a partner in G-d’s intention of bringing greater light into the world.

Therefore, Shavuot carries overtones of conversion. The Jews converting at Sinai is mentioned in the Gemarra Yebamot 46a/b, and the reading of Ruth n Shavuot calls our attention toward the process of conversion. A convert doesn’t just get a new soul – a quantitative change - a convert gets a new level of soul, just as we ascend to a higher level of partnership with G-d.

In order for this movement to be effective, we must let go of the Torah we know. This involves not only a quantitative commitment to gaining more knowledge, it involves a qualitative commitment to allowing Torah to penetrate deeper into our lives. This is an essential component of letting go of our relationship to chomer so that we can receive a new tzurah.

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One of the important questions about Shavuot is how to retain the effect of Shavuot for the remainder of the year. Rebbe Nachman, in describing the giving of the Torah in lesson I:7, writes that, at that time, we received 613 pieces of holy advice, and that amounted to holy matrimony. Meaning, the marriage at Sinai was consumated by the giving of 613 ‘seeds’, which are compared to advice. Each mitzvah is, therefore, a connection to the original consummation at Sinai. Whenever we involve ourselves in mitzvah, we are capable of touching that place of feminine to G-d’s masculine, and are therefore able to receive a new tzurah.