The Unique Custom of Learning on Shavuot Night

(14) You shall rejoice in your festival, with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your communities.

(17) ...One is required to rejoice and be cheerful on those days, along with his wife, children, grandchildren, and all his dependents, as it is written: "You shall rejoice at your festival, you and your son and your daughter, your male and female servants…" (Deuteronomy 16:14). Although the festivity mentioned here refers to the peace-offering, as we are about to explain in the section concerning the rules of the pilgrim-offering, it includes the appropriate rejoicing of each man and his children and the members of his household.

(18) The children, for example, should be given parched grain, nuts, and sweetmeats; the womenfolk should be presented with pretty clothes and trinkets according to one's means; the menfolk should eat meat and drink wine, for there is no real rejoicing without the use of meat and wine.

For it was taught in a baraita Rabbi Eliezer says: A person has nothing but to choose on a Festival; he either eats and drinks or sits and learns the entire day. While Rabbi Yehoshua says: Divide the day, half of it for eating and drinking and half of it for the study hall, for he holds that eating and drinking are obligatory on the Festival. And Rabbi Yoḥanan said: And both of them derived their opinions from one verse, For one verse says: “It shall be an assembly for the Lord your God; and another verse says: “It shall be an assembly for you;. Rabbi Eliezer holds the day is to be either entirely for God or entirely for you. And Rabbi Yehoshua holds that it is possible to fulfill both verses: Split the day into two, half of it for God and half of it for you. Rabbi Elazar said: All agree with regard to Shavuot, that we require that it be also “for you,” meaning that it is a mitzva to eat, drink, and rejoice on that day. What is the reason? It is the day on which the Torah was given, and one must celebrate that.

(1) ...It says in the Zohar that the original pious ones would be awake all the night working in Torah. And already most of those who learn do this. It's possible to give a reason for this according to its simple understanding, that Israel slept all the night, and the Holy One Blessed be He had to wake them, as the midrash says. Therefore, we need to fix this.

(4) The Israelites did not accept the Torah until the Holy One, blessed be He, arched the mountain over them like a vessel, as it is said: And they stood beneath the mountain (Exod. 19:17). R. Dimi the son of Hama stated that the Holy One, blessed be He, told Israel: If you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, your grave will be there. If you should say that He arched the mountain over them because of the Written Law, isn’t it true that as soon as He said to them, “Will you accept the Torah?” they all responded, “We will do and hear,” because the Written Law was brief and required no striving and suffering, but rather He threatened them because of the Oral Law. After all, it contains the detailed explanations of the commandments, both simple and difficult, and it is as severe as death, and as jealous as Sheol. One does not study the Oral Law unless he loves the Holy One, blessed be He, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, as it is said: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might (Deut. 6:5).

“But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord” Rebbe says: A person can learn Torah only from a place that his heart desires, as it is stated in that verse. Levi and Rabbi Shimon, son of Rebbe, were sitting before Rebbe and they were learning Torah. They finished the book, Levi said: let them bring us the book of Proverbs; and Rabbi Shimon said: Let them bring us Psalms. He compelled Levi to acquiesce, and they brought Psalms. When they arrived here, at the verse: “But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord,” Rebbe explained the verse and said: A person can learn Torah only from a place in the Torah that his heart desires. Levi said: My teacher, you have given us permission to rise and study Proverbs.