Friday, June 10, 2011

Shabbos After Shavuos

In many chassidic circles, the Shabbos after Shavuos—in Yiddish, “Shabbos noch Shavuos”—was also called, “Noch a Shavuos”—another Shavuos. Although the Beis Avrahom of Slonim, zt”l, writes that the same is true regarding the Shabbos after Simchas Torah, the Pachad Yitzchak of Boyan, zt”l, would only use this title for the Shabbos after Shavuos. The Tchortkover Rebbe, zt”l, would also only use this title for the Shabbos after Shavuos.
When the Maharsham, zt”l, was in Tchortkov, someone asked him why the Shabbos after Shavuos was any different than the Shabbos after any other yom tov.
As always, the Maharsham, zt”l, gave a compelling answer. “We can understand this from the explanation of the Radvaz regarding a statement brought on Menachos 96. There we find that during all three holidays the kohanim would exhibit the lechem hapanim which remained hot and fresh despite sitting on the shulchan for a week—and exclaim, ‘See how much Hashem cherishes you!’
“The gemara implies that they exhibited the lechem on all three festivals. Yet the Lechem Hapanim was removed on Shabbos. Regarding Sukkos and Pesach it is easy to understand when they showed them the lechem. Since there is a Shabbos chol hamoed, it is clear that they took out the breads then. But regarding Shavuos this is difficult. Most often Shavous did not fall on Shabbos. So how could the kohanim exhibit the breads?
“The Radvaz explains that presumably the kohanim exhibited the breads on the Shabbos after Shavuos. This is explains why specifically the Shabbos after Shavuos is known as another Shavuos.”

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