Shavuoth, Relationships & Tumah

This article presents ideas and interpretations that emerged from the weekly Chumash learning group that meets in the Young Israel of Oceanside, Long Island.We invite your comments, observations and participation. 

The group attendees are Dr.Yehudah Valledaris, Lenny Koegel, Miriam and Dr. Arthur Nathan, Stu Dubner, Jeff Benkoe, Ed and Elaine Feldman, Marty Langert, Richard Snitkoff and Les Gardonyi.  I am responsible for the integration of the ideas and their formulation.  Thanks to Dr. Isaac Benzaquen for reviewing this article and sharing his insights into the psychological concepts and terms.

"R' Isaac further said that a person is obligated to purify himself for the Festival" (Tractate Rosh Hashanah 16:b).

The need to not be in a state of Tumah is especially important for the upcoming Holiday of Shavuoth, the anniversary of the receipt of the Torah on Mount Sinai. This Divine manifestation and revelation is the fundamental experience that created a unique relationship and bonding between Hashem and us. On Shavuoth we recall and try to relive the emotional experience of Mount Sinai.

How are we to understand this concept of Tumah/Tahra,conventionally translated as states of impurity/purity or unclean/clean? It is noteworthy that there is no Biblical injunction against being in a state of Tumah.  A person's status in this regard is relevant only regarding the permissibility of entry into holy places (Mishkan / Temple/ Mount Sinai).

We think Tumah can best be understood in psychological terms.  Our hypothesis is that Tumah is a state of cognitive loss; a "death" or "dispirited" state during which one is so deeply depressed, apathetic, and/or guilt-ridden (on some level)  that he/she no longer has the capacity to enter into any  relationship--not with Hashem and not with other human beings.

Shavuoth is the holiday for celebrating relationships.  Perhaps we can now understand some aspects of the Counting of the Omer that occurs between Pesach and Shavuoth.  We count up to 49, not down from 49, despite the fact that the latter approach conveys a greater level of anticipation and excitement.  ("We have only x number of days left...") If an individual failed to count one day, he cannot recite the blessing when he counts the remaining days!  Why?  Is the number 49 of days leading up to Shavuoth coincidental or significant? 

To be prepared for the relationship experience that is Shavuoth, we must actively  build a reservoir of positive emotional/religious energies.  It is a building up process, day by day to neutralize the deep feelings of depression and worthlessness that we experienced in Egypt (that is captured in a poetic description of our having plunged to the 49th level of Tumah—meaning, in our view, to the depths of despair.)  If perchance we forget to count one day (i.e., we fail  to think and emote positivity), we have interrupted the integrity of the building process.  Each day is an emotional building block that builds on the previous day's building block.  By missing a link of a day we are no longer able to achieve the totality of the rebuilding of our spirit, a recognition that manifests in the inability to recite the Bracha.

We hope and pray that whatever we experience while counting the Omer helps us emerge from whatever Tumah state we may have been in, thereby preparing us for re-accepting and re- experiencing the defining Jewish relationship at Mt. Sinai on Shavuoth.  And we hope and pray that this healthy emotional condition extends itself to all our personal, human relationships.

Rabbi H. L. Berenholz