Many, many people will stay up all night learning tonight. Many, many of those will be a wreck the next day. In fact, the learning at 3:00 AM is not always so great. Davening will be difficult the next morning. Baruch HaShem the reading of Megilas Rus won't be till the second day, so there is a chance I can pay attention. It is also likely that there will be less learning than usual on the first day, as those of us who pulled an all-nighter are going to be recovering. (Just speaking for myself, I do not recover as quickly now as I did in my 20s and 30s and even 40s and 50s.) For all those reasons, many, many people will not stay up all night learning. It just doesn't make sense.
Why do we do it? Apparently because the generation who actually stood at Har Sinai fell asleep that night and needed to be woken with shofar blasts. So we are repairing that. Hang on.. .they were the generation that left Mitzrayim, saw a year of miracles, crossed through the Yam Suf, ate mahn. It is unlikely that the just forgot about literally the most important meeting between man and His Creator since, well, since man's creation. So what did they do wrong and how does staying up all night fix that?
But, first, I have another question. We haven't said tachanun since Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Why? Well the three days before Matan Torah were days of preparation, mandated by Moshe Rabeinu. So.. Rosh Chodesh Sivan we don't say tachanun because it is rosh chodesh. the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of Sivan were the days of preparation; washing clothing, checking themselves, going to the mikveh... lots of stuff. Why not the 2nd? The Mishna Brura just says that is the custom. People say different reasons that more or less amount to "because". Here is what I think.
There is a famous Chazal that when Klal Yisrael arrived at Har Sinai the camped ( -- singular) כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד בְּלֵב אֶחָד/As one person with a single-minded intention. That is different than when Paroh and he army chased Klal Yisrael (again, the Torah uses a singular verb) בְּלֵב אֶחָד כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד/with a single-minded intention, as one person. That is, Paroh and his army acted in unison because they had a single goal (to destroy Klal Yisrael). Klal Yisrael as they camped at Har Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan before they knew that they were to meet with their Creator in just six days encamped as one person, and therefore all aligned their intentions to one, single-minded goal. Not working together to achieve a goal, but aligning their goals because they were a single entity.
What happened after Har Sinai? Did they all go their separate ways? Not at all. That very same Chazal continues, אֲבָל שְׁאָר כָּל הַחֲנִיּוֹת בְּתַרְעוֹמוֹת וּבְמַחֲלֹקֶת/but the other encampments were with strife and disagreements. If they disbanded, there would be no strife and no disagreements. Klal Yisrael had made a commitment to be one entity, to act as one person, and thus we remain to this day. Of course there is strife and disagreements. I often have to contend with a hungry stomach, tired muscles, distracted brain... that is what living at a unified person means.
Now, imagine when Klal Yisrael heard from Moshe Rabeinu on the 2nd of Sivan that HaShem wanted to meet with them! Imagine the joy of "we did it! we are going to do it!" -- it was all and only we. Then the next three days were so busy! No one wanted to sleep. We were all working together to prepare. If any single Jew was not prepared, then Klal Yisrael was not prepared. We worked around the clock to take care of every last detail.
But here's the thing -- a person can't go for more than three days without sleep. So they just dropped from sheer exhaustion. Not at all because they were not excited. Just the opposite! But they ran into a physical barrier. Why didn't they see that coming and take proper care? Because they were in love, and love doest stupid things.
Nowadays, we know long ahead of time that Shavuous is coming. We prepare the food, the house, the laundry, etc. That could become "just another Yom Tov." So we fix that by doing something stupid; we stay up all night. We can't drop from exhaustion out of love like they did, but we can prepare to celebrate Shavuos they way they wanted to, but were physically unable.
We aren't "fixing up their mistake", we are doing everything we can to connect ourselves to them, to be a continuation of them, to show HaShem (and ourselves) that we are still filled with passion for Our Creator, HisTorah, and our lives together.
Comments