Jacob M. Harlop found himself somewhat ill when he was 19. Doctors advised that he spend a few days bathing in the Mediterranean Sea. So he descended from his home in Jerusalem to Jaffa, on the coast.
The year was around 1905.
The time was a few days before Shavuot.
On Shavuot itself, Harlop entered the local shul and spent the night there studying Torah.
He was a budding scholar. No matter how talented, every Torah student needs a mentor. The tradition of receiving the tradition from a mentor goes back to G-d’s delivery of the Torah to Moses and Moses teaching Joshua, master to disciple, down through the generations.
Suddenly, in the early morning light, it was time in this small shul for the reading of the Torah. On Shavuot, the Aramaic poem, “Akdamus,” is recited before the reading of the Torah.
It is recited only once yearly, when one is too exhausted (at the end of an entire night of study) to perceive anything but the essence.
On that early Shavuot morning Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kuk recited the Akdamus with such spiritual power that young Harlop said to himself: Rabbi Kuk is my mentor. My soul is bound to his for the rest of my life.
So it was that the young man who grew to become a great rabbi became the prime disciple of the man who grew to be the first chief rabbi of Palestine.
A lifelong relationship was established before master and disciple had exchanged a single word. The relationship was established on Shavuot, the commemoration of the revelation of the Divine word, an act that left its recipients speechless.
Like Jacob M. Harlop.
Shavuot is amorphous, hard to grasp. For Shavuot, there is no box score, balance sheet, bank statement, grade point average — no definitive measuring stick. Shavuot is unlike all other Jewish holidays, with their measurable rituals and themes.
Shavuot is unlike Shabbat, with its rituals and restrictions and serenity that liberate. Shabbat can be grasped.
Shavuot is unlike Rosh Hashanah, which one may approach even without having spiritually prepared, for one can always undergo a major reorientation at the last minute. A death, a financial loss, a major illness, or simply the prospect of Rosh Hashanah itself can suddenly compel introspection and life change. Rosh Hashanah can be grasped.
Shavuot is also unlike Sukkot, which one may also approach without having spiritually prepared because it has so much beauty. The surrounding sukkah. The lulav and etrog, intriguing, with their uplifting scent. Sukkot can be grasped.
Shavuot is unlike Passover, with its plethora of rituals: the seder, and before that the preparation for the seder with its matzah, wine, bitter herbs and different dishes and cutlery. Passover is anything but amorphous.
Unlike Shavuot.
Shavuot is mysterious. It can be shimmering, communicative, powerful — but imperceptibly so; powerful like the timbre and depth of the great rabbi’s voice in the ears of a receptive student in Jaffa.
What is the secret of Shavuot? Why is Shavuot difficult to define, to regard as important as Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Passover? Why is Shavuot difficult for many to find meaningful?
Possibly, this: Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah, which can be an open book or a closed book. If one does not delve into it, its meaning is inaccessible. It is possible to approach other Jewish holidays at the last minute. Not so Shavuot. One must open the book of Torah to get something out of a holiday that marks the delivery of the book.
If one lives with the Torah, finds joy in it, is perplexed by it and struggles with it, it acquires meaning. Rituals cannot supply meaning to Shavuot, only the habit of studying the Torah. If one lets the Torah color one’s mind and soul, one can grasp pieces of it.
For Shavuot to have meaning, one must welcome the discipline that the study of Torah entails. It is misleading to consider Shavuot a holiday per se. Shavuot is actually the culmination of a 365-day moment. Shavuot is very difficult to be grasped via a last minute decision, ritual or holiday gathering, since there is no ritual that can supplant a 365-day mental-spiritual pursuit.
Denver has a yeshiva, day schools, a kollel, synagogues, outreach programs, Torah scholars and study partners. Something is spreading in Denver — the study of Torah.
Even though Shavuot cannot be grasped via a last minute decision, Shavuot is the fitting time to climb on the 365-day conveyor belt of Torah study that brings meaning to Shavuot, that gives depth to the celebration of the giving of the Torah, that unveils the mystery of this amorphous holiday.
The Torah was revealed in the desert, where nothing moves and nothing speaks, where the Jewish people, alone with G-d, received the words that established their relationship with their master.
On the sixth day of the month.
On Shavuot.
In the early morning light.
Setting the Jewish people on their destiny to bring the ethics and the holiness of the Torah to the world — and to bring the joy and perplexities of Torah study to themselves.
To bind their soul to His.
Forever.
© IJN 2025
