The days before Shavuot, more bang for your buck

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Rabbi Weiman is a speaker, teaches Jewish history at Esther Miller Bais Yaakov, and is author of the new book, “48 Things, 49 Days,” (Targum Press) as well as “A Simple Guide to Happiness,” “A Map of the Universe,” and “the Everything Learning Hebrew Book.”

BY RABBI MAX WEIMAN
Published May 18, 2011

There are times when we feel we’ve accomplished something, made a positive change in our character. It most often comes over time, not overnight. However, the realization of the accomplishment sometimes comes in an instant when you look at yourself and say, “Boy did I use to handle that same situation so much worse years back.”

According to the sages, the Almighty designed the calendar to encourage us to work on self-growth between Passover and Shavuot. 50 days. You can work on one trait or fifty traits. And during this period of time leading up to Shavuot, we get multiple points of “credit” for this work. In other words when you try to control your anger now for one day, it affects your personality as if you put the same effort in for eight days.

Nachmanides refers to this time period as Chol HaMoed, i.e. one long holiday. Just like Sukkot is a week long holiday that leads to the eighth day holiday called Shmini Atzeret, so too Passover, a week long holiday, is extended for seven weeks to connect to Shavuot as the “eighth” day.

Count each day, and make each day count.

And what do we do with this time? We count each day, and anticipate Shavuot, the day commemorating the Mt. Sinai experience when we received the Torah, our compendium of divine wisdom. Our sages have said that the vessel that receives the Torah must be appropriate and fitting or else the meeting can’t happen. Our character defines how much wisdom we can absorb.

If we are coarse, we are not sensitive and can’t realize or understand the beauty of the insight in front of us.

A flimsy paper cup is not fitting for hot coffee. It will be too hot to hold, will leak, and will fall apart. A cracked glass will let the liquid out. A shallow cup won’t hold a full amount. The cup has to fit the liquid. The wisdom of the Torah is the liquid and our character is the cup. Now is the time, before Shavuot, to work on your “yiddisher kup.”

It’s an incredible opportunity. Whatever you do, you get doubles.

Rabbi Max Weiman is Director of Kabbalah Made Easy and author of ‘A Simple Guide to Happiness,’ available on Amazon.com. More of his articles are found online at www.kabbalahmadeeasy.com.