Matzah, Shofar, Sukkah, Fasting, Menorah, Graggers – these conjure up warm fuzzies about our Jewish connection. They remind us of those special times during the year when we sit around the table with our family and friends and celebrate our Judaism.

But there is one holiday that seems to fall through the crack and there is an element to this holiday that makes it more important than all the other holidays.

Relationships: There are two types of relationships; there is the pleasure relationship and the compelling relationship or the relationship that is built and endures on account of the commitment.

Pleasure relationships are those relationships that bring benefit to me and therefore bring pleasure to me - friends, business associations, etc. I stay in the relationship because I benefit from it and get enjoyment from it.

The compelling relationships are those relationships that once in these relationships are built on our commitment. Children and marriage are an example. It's not that we don't get enjoyment from these relationships, but the success of these relationships are not what I get from them but on the commitment to the relationship.

We have both of these relationships with G-d. There are times that G-d gets pleasure from us and us from him. This is the pleasure relationship. We enjoy certain elements of our practice and that gives us the warm and fuzzies.

In a deeper sense our relationship with G-d is a compelling relationship. It is not something that endures because we get pleasure but because we are committed to each other. 3336 years ago G-d chose us and we stood at the foot of Sinai and chose Him. It was at that moment that we committed to G-d that even if we didn’t experience pleasure we would remain committed. And G-d made the same commitment to us.

We commemorate this commitment and the day that King Solomon calls our wedding day with G-d by celebrating the Holiday of Shavout. It is considered one of the three major Jewish holidays.

It is celebrated by staying up on the eve of Shavout (Tuesday night June 4, 2024) and studying Torah (join us beginning at 9:15 for a delicious dinner and then Ted Talks and more https://www.intownjewishacademy.org/study/p/shavuot). Then on Wednesday, we will read the Ten Commandments and celebrate the Jewish children who the Midrash tells us serve as guarantors and more. And the Young Adults gather as well for socializing and the big 10!

https://chabadintown.org/events/shavuotparty/

https://www.yjpintown.org/events/shavout

Finally we celebrate the two days of holiday (Wednesday and Thursday) by partaking of the physical pleasure of the holiday meals for the Talmud tells us that this holiday needs to be celebrated with the body. We need to integrate our compelling relationship with our pleasure relationship.

(On Thursday those that have lost a loved one participate in the reciting of Yizkor as we do on all major holidays – 11:30 AM.)

So don’t let these two days slip by you, take the lead and celebrate our compelling relationship with G-d and the Torah. Hey, you just might get some pleasure!