THE BIBLE GIVES US THE PRECISE DATE WHEN TORAH WAS GIVEN TO ISRAEL!
Are you interested in learning the EXACT date when Torah was really given to Israel – the precise day and month, according to the Bible? I can tell you with 100% confidence, it wasn’t at Shavuot! For the non-Massorites among us, I humbly beg your kind indulgence, and ask you to read what I have to say, before you dismiss everything.
If you are observing the biblical calendar, as the Karaite and the Massorite communities do, then you will know that Shavuot is only a week away (Sunday 16th Jun). Furthermore, for Massorites, Shavuot is a celebration of the Covenant and all its blessings, not of the Giving of Torah.
If you read any scholarly book or article describing the history of Shavuot, they will also openly tell you that, until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, Shavuot was not connected to any biblical event. From 1406 BCE until 70 CE, it was celebrated as the Festival of First-Fruits (Num 28:26) – a celebration of the blessings of the Covenant in the Land of Israel. During this time, it never had any connection to the giving of the Torah.
After the Temple was destroyed, however, the ancient Pharisees felt that there was a need to connect Shavuot to a specific biblical event, being strangely unaware of its connection to the Covenant. So they chose the giving of the Torah. There’s just one problem: Torah itself gives us a very precise date for the Giving of the Torah, and it’s NOT Shavuot!
The writer of the Torah felt that the day when the Torah was given to Israel was SO important, that he recorded the actual date of when it happened: the 3rd day after the 3rd New Moon AFTER the Israelites left Egypt (Ex 19:1, 11). In other words, the 3rd of Tammuz. As for Shavuot, it NEVER occurs so late as this.
Ex 19:1-2 describes the date on which the Israelites arrived at Mt Horeb as, “On the third new moon AFTER the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt – on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai……. and Israel camped there in front of the mountain.“
The 3rd New Moon after the Israelites left Egypt would be the New Moon of the Fourth Month (Tammuz). Why would Torah be so precise about telling us when the Israelites arrived at Mt Horeb, if it wasn’t relevant or important?
As for the question of when Torah was given, Ex 19:11 is even more specific; it tells us that God would descend on Mt Horeb on the 3rd day of the month: “and prepare for the third day, because on the third day, YHVH will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people!”
And just in case you missed it the first and second time, Torah repeats the date on which YHVH descended on Mt Sinai yet a third time, in Ex 19:16 – “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a shofar so loud, that all the people who were in the camp trembled.”
Shortly after, YHVH gives Israel the list of the Ten Proclamations (‘Ten Commandments’). After that, Moses ascends Mt Horeb, and is given the words of the Torah.
The Torah itself is *crystal clear* about exactly when the Torah was given to Israel, which we can work out for ourselves as the 3rd day of the month of Tammuz. Shavuot never occurs as late as this date!
Shavuot is a celebration of the Covenant, not of the Giving of the Torah. It has only had that meaning since 70 CE, when the Temple was destroyed – just ask any reliable Torah historian. But why would the Pharisaic rabbis have ignored a date that Torah was so clear about, and was so careful to record? I have no idea myself; the Oral Law often ignores things that Torah is clear about.
The Massorite community will be celebrating the Giving of the Torah on the very date that Torah gives us to remember (this year, it will be on Wed 10th July). As for Shavuot, we will be observing it as a celebration of the blessings and first-fruits of the Covenant – which is how the final editors of the Torah understood it to mean.
Machzor for Shavuot (prayerbook):