Eat, Sam, Eat!
"Eat, Sam, Eat! It's Shavuot. You want to learn Torah all-night
with your friends, right? So eat, my child, you need strength
to learn! And besides, it's a Festival, it's a mitzva to eat!"
"But , Savta, Shavuot is the time when the Torah
was given to the Jewish nation. How can I eat at a time like
this ? I want to be completely spiritual, to learn Torah."
But Savta is right once again ! It is important for Sam
to eat on Shavuot. Regarding other Festivals there is a Talmudic
debate as to whether there is a mitzva to enjoy food and drink
or if may choose to forgo eating and instead spend the entire
day in Torah study and prayer. But on Shavuot all Talmudic sages
concur that it is a mitzva to enjoy food and drink. Why? To
celebrate the day of the Giving of the Torah.
You may wonder, why celebrate such a spiritual event by eating
and drinking? Wouldn't a more appropriate way to honor the Torah
be to focus on it to the exclusion of all else? The great medieval
scholar Rashi explains that we rejoice with food and drink to
demonstrate that the Torah is pleasurable and beneficial to the
Jewish nation. The Torah is not only pleasurable and beneficial
to the soul, but to the body as well. So listen to Savta, Sam,
and eat and enjoy!
