For it was taught in a baraita that these two tanna’im disagreed about this matter: 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, but there is no specific mitzva to eat on the Festival. Rabbi Yehoshua, on the other hand, 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, i.e., the two of them addressed the same textual difficulty, resolving it in different ways. For one verse says: “It shall be an assembly for the Lord your God; you shall do no labor” (Deuteronomy 16:8), which indicates that the day is set aside for Divine service, and another verse says: “It shall be an assembly for you; you shall do no servile labor” (Numbers 29:35), which indicates a celebratory assembly for the Jewish people. Rabbi Eliezer holds that the two verses should be understood as offering a choice: 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.
He should rejoice through eating and drinking, to show that it is acceptable and good this day for Israel, since the Torah was give on that day.
It is prohibited to fast immediately after the holiday of Shavuot. Ramah: And we do not say Tachanun from the beginning of Rosh Chodesh Sivan until the 8th day, which is after the post-holiday day (Hagahot Maimoni, Hil' Tefillah Umnagim). We have the custom to spread out plants on Shavuot in the synagogue and in houses, as a memory for the happiness of the receiving of the Torah. We have a custom everywhere to eat dairy food on the first day of Shavuot. And it seems to me that the reason is: It is like the two foods that are taken on the evening of Pesach, a reminder of the Korban Pesach and a reminder of the Korban Chagiga, so too we eat a dairy food followed by a meat food, and we bring with them two loaves on the table in place of the Mizbeach, and thus there will be a reminder of the two loaves that were brought on "The day of the Bikkurim."
Dairy foods - See Magen Avraham and I also heard in the name of a Gadol who said a correct reason for this: that when Bnei Yisrael stood at Har Sinai and accepted the Torah(When the 10 commandments were revealed, and through this all the parts of the Torah were also revealed to them, like that Rav Sadya Gaon writes, that the 10 commandments sustain the whole torah) and they went down from the mountain to their homes they found nothing to eat immediately except for dairy foods because for meat they would need much preparation to slaughter with a checked knife like Hashem commanded... And to clean out the strings of forbidden fats and blood, and to rinse and salt(the meat). Also to cook in new vessels because their previous vessels had been used to cook meat (that they now discovered was actually trief) had been used in the last 24 houors (which is what is forbidden Biblically) so their old vessels were forbidden to them, therefore they choose on account of the time to eat dairy foods and we do this as a commemoration of this.
(י) גם נהגו לאכול דבש וחלב בחג שבועו׳ מפני התור׳ שנמשלה לדבש וחלב כמו שכתוב דבש וחלב תחת לשונך.
It is customary to eat honey and milk on the holiday of Shavuot, because of the Torah, which is compared to milk and honey, as it says, "honey and milk are under your tongue."
There are many reasons for eating dairy, I will copy the reason written in the Zohar: the previous seven weeks were in parrallel to the seven clean days a woman counts before immersing in the mikvah, we know that blood becomes milk, this is parallel to the movement from judgement to mercy, and the practice of our fathers is in our hands to fulfill. However, it is important to be careful not to violate any prohibitions (see Yoreh Deah 89)...
Rav Sheshet said to them: You learned the answer to your dilemma in the mishna: That which emerges from the non-kosher animal is non-kosher and that which emerges from the kosher animal is kosher, and these fluids also come from a donkey, which is non-kosher. Therefore, they are forbidden. The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita: For what reason did the Sages say that the honey of bees is permitted? It is because they bring the nectar from the flowers into their body, but they do not excrete it from their body as a bodily excretion. So too, the urine of a donkey is not an excretion produced by the body itself. Rather, it is simply ejected in the same form that it entered the body. Why, then, should it be forbidden?
The Gemara answers: This teaches that prior to this, they took Moses around to all the Egyptian wet nurses and he did not agree to nurse from any of them, as he said: Shall a mouth that in the future will speak with the Divine Presence actually nurse something impure? And this is as it is written: “Whom shall one teach knowledge? And whom shall one make understand the message?” (Isaiah 28:9). The prophet is asking: To whom shall God teach the knowledge of the Torah, and to whom shall God make to understand the message of the Torah? The answer is as the verse continues: “Them that are weaned from the milk, them that are drawn from the breasts” (Isaiah 28:9). The conclusion of the verse indicates that the Torah should be taught to the one who did not want to nurse from the milk of a gentile woman, i.e., Moses.
(1) The people took to complaining bitterly before the LORD. The LORD heard and was incensed: a fire of the LORD broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts of the camp. (2) The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. (3) That place was named Taberah, because a fire of the LORD had broken out against them. (4) The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (5) We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. (6) Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” (7) Now the manna was like coriander seed, and in color it was like bdellium. (8) The people would go about and gather it, grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream. (l'shad hashamen) (9) When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall upon it. (10) Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The LORD was very angry, and Moses was distressed. (11) And Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? (12) Did I conceive all this people, did I bear them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? (13) Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ (14) I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. (15) If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!” (16) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you. (17) I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that is on you and put it upon them; they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone. (18) And say to the people: Purify yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have kept whining before the LORD and saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt!’ The LORD will give you meat and you shall eat. (19) You shall eat not one day, not two, not even five days or ten or twenty, (20) but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the LORD who is among you, by whining before Him and saying, ‘Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!’” (21) But Moses said, “The people who are with me number six hundred thousand men; yet You say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month.’ (22) Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?” (23) And the LORD answered Moses, “Is there a limit to the LORD’s power? You shall soon see whether what I have said happens to you or not!” (24) Moses went out and reported the words of the LORD to the people. He gathered seventy of the people’s elders and stationed them around the Tent. (25) Then the LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to him; He drew upon the spirit that was on him and put it upon the seventy elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they spoke in ecstasy, but did not continue. (26) Two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in camp; yet the spirit rested upon them—they were among those recorded, but they had not gone out to the Tent—and they spoke in ecstasy in the camp. (27) A youth ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!” (28) And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!” (29) But Moses said to him, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD put His spirit upon them!” (30) Moses then reentered the camp together with the elders of Israel. (31) A wind from the LORD started up, swept quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and some two cubits deep on the ground. (32) The people set to gathering quail all that day and night and all the next day—even he who gathered least had ten ḥomers—and they spread them out all around the camp. (33) The meat was still between their teeth, nor yet chewed, when the anger of the LORD blazed forth against the people and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague. (34) That place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because the people who had the craving were buried there. (35) Then the people set out from Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth.
את הקשאים THE CUCUMBERS — R. Simeon said, “Why did the manna change its flavor into that of anything one wished (as the Midrash states) except into these vegetables here mentioned, the taste of which it appears not to have assumed since the people lusted for them? Because they are injurious to nursing mothers. So indeed people say to a woman: Do not eat garlic and onions on account of the baby.
מה דד זה? עיקר לתינוק והכל טפל כך היה המן עיקר לישראל והכל טפל להם. מה הדד? אפילו תינוק יונק הימנו כל היום אין מזיקו כך נעשה המן שאפילו ישראל אוכלו כל היום כולו אין מזיקו כך
What is this breast? The most essential thing for the infant, and everything is taken care of, this is like the manna which was the most important thing for Israel and everything was taken care of for them. What is the breast? Even if an infant suckles all day it does not give out, this was how the manna was that even if Israel ate it all day it did not give out.
ותאמר: "מי מלל לאברהם הניקה בנים שרה? כמה בנים הניקה שרה? אמר רבי לוי: אותו היום שגמל אברהם את יצחק בנו, עשה סעודה גדולה. היו כל אומות העולם מרננים ואומרים: ראיתם זקן וזקנה שהביאו אסופי מן השוק ואומרים: בנינו הוא. ולא עוד, אלא שעושין משתה גדול להעמיד דבריהם. מה עשה אברהם אבינו? הלך וזימן כל גדולי הדור ושרה אמנו זימנה את נשותיהם. וכל אחת ואחת הביאה בנה עמה ומניקתה לא הביאה. ונעשה נס בשרה אמנו ונפתחו דדיה כשני מעיינות והניקה את כולן.
And she said: "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah should nurse children?” How many sons did Sarah nurse? Rabbi Levi says: That day when Avraham weaned his son Yitzkhak, he made a great feast. All of the nations of the world were gossiping and saying: See this old man and old woman who brought a child from the market and are saying: He is our son. And not just that, they are making a great feast to support their statement. What did Avraham our father do? He went and invited all of the great men of that generation, and Sarah our mother, invited their wives. Each and every one of the wives brought her child with her but did not bring her nurse. And a miracle happened to Sarah, our mother, and her breasts were opened like two springs, and she nursed all of these children.
רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע: סתם תינוק מסוכן אצל חלב
Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: The average baby is considered to be in danger without access to mother's milk.
סומא מנא ידע? אמר רב אשי בריחא ובטעמא: תנו רבנן יונק תינוק והולך עד עשרים וארבעה חדש, מכאן ואילך כיונק שקץ, דברי רבי אליעזר. רבי יהושע אומר אפילו ארבע וחמש שנים פירש לאחר עשרים וארבעה חדש וחזר כיונק שקץ
How does a blind baby know his mother? Rav Ashi said: Through smell and through the taste of her milk. The Sages taught in a baraita: A baby should nurse until twenty-four months, and from this point, if he continues to nurse, he is like one who nurses from a non-kosher animal. Rabbi Yehoshua says: A child may continue to nurse even for four or five years, and this is permitted. However, if he was weaned, after twenty-four months and then resumed nursing, he is like one who nurses from a non-kosher animal.
דין צואת קטן. ובו ב סעיפים:
קטן שהגיע לכלל שאחר כיוצא בו יכול לאכול כזית דגן בכדי שיכול גדול לאכול אכילת פרס מרחיקין מצואתו או ממימי רגליו:
A child who is in the category of one who can eat the size of an olive in grains (...) we move away from his feces or his urine.
The Gemara continues to cite similar advice dispensed by Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva commanded Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai to do five matters when Rabbi Akiva was imprisoned. Beforehand, Rabbi Shimon said to him: Rabbi, teach me Torah. Rabbi Akiva said to him: I will not teach you, as it is dangerous to do so at the present time. Rabbi Shimon said to him in jest: If you will not teach me, I will tell Yoḥai my father, and he will turn you over to the government. In other words, I have no means of persuading you; you are already in prison. Rabbi Akiva said: My son, know that more than the calf wishes to suck, the cow wants to suckle, but I am afraid of the danger. Rabbi Shimon said to him: And who is in danger? Isn’t the calf in danger, as you are in jail and I am the one at risk?
YOUR TWO BREASTS: these are Moses and Aaron. Just as the breasts are the beauty and the adornment of a woman, so Moses and Aaron were the beauty and adornment of Israel. Just as the breasts are the appeal of a woman, so Moses and Aaron were the appeal of Israel. Just as the breasts are full of milk, so Moses and Aaron filled Israel with Torah. Just as whatever a woman eats helps to feed the child at the breast, so all the Torah that Moses our teacher learned he taught to Aaron, as it is written, "And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord (Exodus 4:28)." The 13 Rabbis say, "He revealed to him the ineffable Name." Just as one breast is not greater than the other, so it was with Moses and Aaron, for it is written, "These are that Moses and Aaron (Exodus 4:27)," and it is also written, "These are that Aaron and Moses (ib. 26)," showing that Moses was not greater than Aaron nor was Aaron greater than Moses in knowledge of Torah. R. Abba said, "They were like two fine pearls belonging to a king which he put in a balance, finding that neither weighed down the other. So were Moses and Aaron just equal." (Song of Songs Rabbah IV:13)
כל הכלים שבמקדש וכו': תנו רבנן כל הכלים שבמקדש ארכן לארכו של בית חוץ מארון שארכו לרחבו של בית וכך היה מונח וכך היה בדיו מונחין מאי קאמר הכי קאמר כך היה מונח מדבדיו כך היה מונחין ובדיו מנלן דתניא (מלכים א ח, ח) ויאריכו הבדים יכול לא היו נוגעין בפרוכת תלמוד לומר ויראו אי ויראו יכול יהו מקרעין בפרוכת ויוצאין תלמוד לומר (מלכים א ח, ח) לא יראו החוצה הא כיצד דוחקין ובולטין בפרוכת ודומין כמין שני דדי אשה שנאמר (שיר השירים א, יג) צרור המור דודי לי בין שדי ילין
§ The mishna states: All the vessels that were in the Temple were placed so that their length was from east to west, along the length of the Temple. The Sages taught in a baraita: With regard to all the vessels that were in the Temple, their length was placed along the length of the Temple, except for the Ark, whose length was placed along the width of the Temple, from north to south. And in this manner the Ark was placed, and in that manner its staves were placed. The Gemara asks: What is the tanna saying in the last clause of the baraita? The Gemara explains that this is what he is saying: One can infer that in this manner the Ark was placed, i.e., along the width of the Temple, from the fact that its staves were placed in that manner, along the length of the Temple. Since the staves were fixed along the width of the Ark, the Ark itself was necessarily placed along the width of the Temple The Gemara asks: And with regard to its staves, from where do we derive that they were placed along the length of the Temple, from east to west? This is derived as it is taught in a baraita: The verse states: “And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the Sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside” (I Kings 8:8). One might have thought that the staves did not touch the Curtain separating the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies, and did not protrude at all. Therefore, the verse states: “The ends of the staves were seen.” If the verse had stated only: “The ends of the staves were seen,” one might have thought that the staves tear through the Curtain and emerge into the Sanctuary. Therefore, the verse states: “They could not be seen outside.” How can these texts be reconciled?
The baraita explains: The staves of the Ark pressed against the Curtain and bulged outward. And they appeared like two breasts of a woman that are discernible through her clothes, as it is stated: “My beloved is to me like a bundle of myrrh that lies between my breasts” (Song of Songs 1:13). Since the staves pressed against the Curtain, they were evidently placed from east to west.
דוחקין ובולטין בפרוכת ודומין כמין שני דדי אשה שנאמר (שיר השירים א, יג) צרור המור דודי לי בין שדי ילין
The baraita explains: The staves of the Ark pressed against the Curtain and bulged outward. And they appeared like two breasts of a woman that are discernible through her clothes, as it is stated: “My beloved is to me like a bundle of myrrh that lies between my breasts” (Song of Songs 1:13). Since the staves pressed against the Curtain, they were evidently placed from east to west.