My mother would bake a drop-dead cheesecake once-a-year, and around now was that once. When I was a mere child, I asked her, “Ma, why don’t you bake cheesecake more often?” She said, “You eat cheesecake only one time a year.” Thinking of Lindy’s cheesecake in midtown Manhattan, I said, “No, mom, maybe you BAKE cheesecake once-a-year but I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to eat it anytime you want.” Well, she was adamant. It turns out she was partially right, not about the eating part (and really not even about the baking part), but it was around and on Shavuot that cheesecake, blintzes, sour cream and everything like that is traditionally eaten. I’m not sure she connected the two – maybe – and I was not aware of the customs of the festival yet, but dairy products are “in” at this season.
Shavuot begins tonight and continues through sundown tomorrow. Since the festival celebrates the giving of the Torah on Sinai, and the sages of old compared the nurturing aspect of Torah to milk, dairy became the custom. I don’t really care about blintzes (my cultural roots didn’t do that Eastern European thing, remember?) but cheesecake? I bet even the Jews from Ethiopia love cheesecake! Yes, Torah is nurturing. Like a mother’s breast milk, it’s not only the milk but the closeness of baby to mother, Jew to Torah, that is the powerful metaphor.
But there is another metaphor. As the Torah is returned to the Aron HaKodesh we sing, Etz chaim hee l’machazikim bah, or the melody that came from our URJ camps that, in fact, translates Etz Chaim, “It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it and all its supporters are happy.”
In both cases we see what our ancestors meant. Milk strengthens our bones allowing us to stand up straight. We grow from Torah and we live through the lessons of Torah. When I wrote my own ritual for use by Bat/Bar Mitzvah celebrants, I used the image of the tree (actually thinking about Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree”): “It’s roots are deep, it’s branches strong, lush and brilliant are its leaves. Climb its trunk, rest in its shade, the Torah is a tree of life.”
(Speaking of the Ten Commandments, the giving of which is celebrated on Shavuot, Mrs. Jacoby walked into the post office to mail her college student son his Bar Mitzvah bible. He had just enrolled in a Yeshiva but forgot to pack it. The clerk asked, “Is there anything in this package that’s breakable?” Mrs. Jacoby responded, “Only the Ten Commandments.”)