Shavuot... Giving of the Torah and... Water?

We just celebrated the Festival of Shavuot, and chances are, many, if not most, people reading this didn’t notice, because Shavuot is probably the least known of our major holidays.  While it is one of the 3 pilgrimage festivals and therefore an actual Yom Tov as opposed to just a holiday, it falls during the summer months (at least in the Northern Hemisphere… wink to my friends Down Under) and is outside the calendar year of Hebrew schools and day schools, so most Jewish kids don’t experience it. As such, it loses the aspect of a family celebration.  In addition, there are no unique observances associated with Shavuot.  No sounding of the Shofar.  No building a Sukkah.  No Menorah and donuts. No dressing up in costumes or screaming.  No Seder meal with a story to tell and matzah balls.  Shavuot is just prayers and Torah.  Yet the holiday itself commemorates the greatest event in the history of the Jewish People: The Giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai.  Sure, the Parting of the Red Sea was amazing, and Creation well… that was a good one too, but the Giving of the Torah represents the point in our history when we expanded and grew from being a people bound together by family ties to a people bound together by a system of laws based on ethics and morality.  Even if one doesn’t observe a single Mitzvah, our collective values and ethics as a people are informed by Torah.  We get Jewish values with our mother’s milk, and it is what guides us in our lives, whether we realize it or not. 

While other holidays incorporate water into their observances, to my mind, Shavuot is the true water holiday. Rosh HaShanah has Tashlich, Sukkot has the Simchat Beit HaShoevah and the addition of the prayer for rain, and Pesach has the Parting of the Red Sea. Shavuot is about the Torah, and the Torah itself is referred to as Makor Mayim Hayim, the Source of Living Water.  Indeed, throughout our tradition, Water is the great metaphor for Torah.  One of the best examples of this is found in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a Midrash on the Song of Songs:

“Just as water extends from one end of the earth to the other…, so too, does Torah.  Just as water provides life to the world…, so too, Torah provides life to the world. Just as water is from heaven…, so too, Torah is from heaven.  Just as water purifies the body…, so too, Torah purifies the body.  Just as water covers the sea…, so too, the Torah covers Israel.” 

I believe the metaphor goes even further.  Just as Water is mostly taken for granted by many people, so too is Torah mostly taken for granted by many Jews.  Just as without water all life will die, so too without Torah the Jewish People will die.  But here is where the metaphor diverges.  Even with the current, terrible increase of global antisemitism, no external force can ever destroy the Jewish People.  Our destruction can only come from within.  While, with regard to water, it is ONLY from external forces (Humans) that the aquatic environment can be destroyed.  Left to itself, the Blue Carbon ecosystem will heal itself and the entire planet; and if we look deeper into the Water, we will see how it can help us ensure the future of the Jewish People.

The Blue Carbon Ecosystem is made up of 4 primary components: mangroves, seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and phytoplankton (some also include marine life).  I won’t go into the details of each of these components of the Blue Carbon Ecosystem.  Suffice it to say that each has a tremendous role in absorbing carbon (far disproportionately to the terrestrial realm), balancing Earth’s climate and ensuring a healthy environment for all life on Earth.  It’s a perfect example of the old saying: “The Whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.”  Each component of the Blue Carbon Ecosystem acts independently, but is unified by the water, which gives it life. 

The Jewish People would do well to emulate the Blue Carbon Ecosystem.  All the different practices and understandings of what it is to be Jewish can exist simultaneously, and even be very different from each other but, if we recognize that we are all united by Torah (however one understands it) then we, like the Blue Carbon Ecosystem can do wonders for ourselves and for the world.  The Jewish People, like the aquatic environment, can be unified without being uniform.    

Shavuot should never go unnoticed.  It should be a model for the Jewish People. The Torah that was given to us on Shavuot, that metaphorical Source of Living Water, gives us our life and our character.  As Bruce Lee said: “You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.  You put it into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.  You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.  Now water can flow or it can crash. Be Water, My Friend.”  

Shavuot should remind us that like water, a Jew can be Reform or Orthodox.  A Jew can be Conservative, Reconstructionist or Secular.  A Jew can be Black or White or Brown or Yellow or Straight or Gay or Trans or…. Whatever.  A Jew is a Jew is a Jew; and like Water, we can flow together with all of our differences… or we can crash.  

Be Water, My Friend.