Machshava:

Shabbat,  Shavuot 

Parsha:

Beshalach 

Description

The date of Sivan 6 is traditionally understood - and celebrated - as זמן מתן תורתנו, the date of the Giving of the Torah. Yet that date, the festival of Shavuot, is not identified directly with the Revelation at Sinai; indeed, that foundational event has no explicit date in the Torah. How did our tradition arrive at the sixth (or seventh!) of Sivan as the date of Matan Torah? The answer may lie in the story of the Manna and the institution of Shabbat.