the florence melton

adult mini-school
of metro detroit

A Project of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Torah Portion

r

is starting its second year...
Will you be a part of it?

We l give you
5,000 years.

* Expand your Jewish horizons in just two years
x:z Geared to the adult learner — no prerequisites, grades or exams
* Classes meet weekly; Tuesday evenings or Thursday mornings
beginning the week of September 10, 2002

The pluralistic curriculum is ,one of the main innovations of the Florence Melton
Adult Mini-School. It integrates text into the study of Jewish history, religion, ritual,
language, ethics, philosophy, literature, theology and contemporary Jewish life.

Join us for a "Taste of Melton"
informational meeting.

Study in the Melton style and learn what Melton is all about:

*Tuesday, May 21, 10:00 AM, Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield

z:g Tuesday, May 28, 10:00 AM, Borders Books in Farmington Hills

x:x Wednesday, May 29, 7:00 PM, Max M. Fisher Building in Bloomfield Hills

For further information, or to attend a
"Taste of Melton" informational meeting,
call the Mini-School office at (248) 661-1894

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education

Co-Sponsored by the Agency for Jewish Education, Federation's Alliance for
Jewish Education and the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit

visit
"Virtual"
Ben Yehuda Mall

Jewelry, T-cfbirtd, Art Work, Cocimettc.

ALL

Icfrael!

Profits will be sent directly
to the merchants in Israel.

Celebrate a succeddfi school year by dhopping for Ill-ael

Sunda , Ma r 19, 2002 10:00am-4:00 I m West Bloomfield Iliah School

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Sunday, June 9, 2002. Cost $300. Pre-Registration required
Call 734.422.8040
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The Oral-Rabbinic Tradition
Influenced Timing Of Shavuot

until Shavuot should begin and end
on Mochorat HaShabbat, which the
Sadducees interpreted as the "day
after Saturday," meaning that
Shavuot must fall on a Sunday. The
Pharisees interpret the verse as
meaning that the count was to begin
on the "day after the holiday (first
day of Passover)" and thus could fall
on any day of the week. This dispute
raditionally, the holiday of seemed to be so critical and con-
tentious that the rabbis declared a
Shavuot is celebrated as
special annual commemoration on
the ZMan Matan
Torateinu (the
the day that they prevailed
in the dispute (Minochos
Time of the Giving of Our
Torah).
65A) .
This seems somewhat a
This dispute as to the
misnomer as there is a dis-
authority of the rabbinic
pute in the Talmud (Gittin
tradition was not limited
60A) whether the Torah
to this specific practice,
was given and-or written
nor was it limited to that
particular time.
piece-by-piece during the
40-year trek in the wilder-
Throughout Jewish his-
ness or given complete at
tory, there have arisen
RABBI
the end of the 40 years.
those within the Jewish
ELIEZER
What the day is identi-
people who have, either as
COHEN
fied with is, rather, the day
individuals or as move-
Special
to the
of the pronouncement of
ments, rejected the tradi-
Jewish News
the so-called Ten
tional interpretations of,
Commandments by God at
and the very authority of,
the rabbis.
Sinai. But even this identifi-
It is the celebration of Shavuot on
cation is also somewhat problematic,
the day determined by this tradition
for the date of the revelation at Sinai
that becomes, then, the celebration
is not given clearly in the Torah.
of the "Giving of Our Torah." The
Further, the date of the celebra-
celebration encompasses not only
tion of Shavuot is not given in the
the giving of the written Torah —
Torah, either. In fact, the celebration
the Five Books of Moses — but also
does not depend on a calendar date
the celebration and acknowledge-
altogether. As the verses clearly state
ment by the Jewish people of the
(Leviticus 23:15 21; Deuteronomy
16:9-10), the celebration of the holi- authenticity and authority of the
rabbinic tradition without which our
day of Shavuot is determined by the
religion would not be Judaism as we
counting of the seven weeks (49
know it. ❑
days) of the Omer. Before the estab-
lishment of the set calendar, the date
could fluctuate.
In fact, the determination of the
day of Shavuot was subject of a dis-
pute in the pre-talmudic times. The
Talmud (Minochos 65A-66A) brings
this dispute between those who
accepted the oral-rabbinic tradition
Can the Torah laws be applied
(the so-called Pharisees), from whom
practically based solely on the
our own traditional Judaism derives,
literal written word without
and those who refused to accept the
some interpretive tradition?
oral-rabbinic authority (the
How have the rabbinic tradi-
Boethusians and so-called
tion and its interpretations
Sadducees) and supposedly based
made Torah relevant in every
their law on the literal written Torah
generation? What would the
itself.
Judaism of the Sadducees be
The Torah (Leviticus 23 :1 5-16)
like? Why is it a truism that
says that the counting of the days
the written Torah and the oral-
rabbinic tradition are indivisi-
ble?
Eliezer Cohen is rabbi of

Shabbat Second Day
Shavuot: Deuteronomy
14:22-16.17; Numbers
28:26-31; Habakuk
2 :20-3 : 19.

T

-

Conversations

Congregation Or Chadash.

