The Holiday of Weeks
The Torah refers to it simply as “holiday of the weeks” and many contemporary Jews have never even heard of the holiday. Yet, the holiday of Shavuot celebrates what may be the most important event in Judaism: the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Why does the Torah fail to mention this most crucial detail - the reason for the celebration?
With its silence, the Torah is telling us something important about the giving of the Torah, it is telling us that Divine revelation is not specific to a particular time and place in our history. There is no,one day a year, designated to celebrate the Divine revelation, because Divine revelation occurs every time we open and study the Torah. As we say in the blessing before reading the Torah - ("Notayn Hatorah") "the one who gives the Torah", "gives" is written in the present tense, conveying that G-d is continuously giving us the Torah.
The Torah is silent about the date of the most important event in the history of mankind, in order to teach us, that anytime we open the Torah, G-d is speaking to us, directly, personally.
What then do we commemorate on - Shavuot - the holiday of weeks?
The name "holiday of weeks" describes, not the obligation of the holiday - as does the Holiday of Matzot and Holiday of Sukkot-but rather it describes the lead up to the holiday, the obligation to count seven weeks in anticipation and preparation of the giving of the Torah. Although G-d speaks to us every time we open the book, sometimes we fail to perceive the power of the experience. We are distracted by day to day life, we are tuned out spiritually and we are like an unplowed field being showered with rain: the rain has the power to bring forth growth but the earth is too rough to accept the seed and the water.
So, G-d commands us to designate some time for spiritual refinement, to count forty nine days, to understand that G-d wants to talk to us and we must tune in if we are to benefit from the experience. Finally on the fiftieth day - on the anniversary of the giving of the Torah - after all the preparation, every Jew can finally feel it: yes, G-d is talking to me, personally.
In the final analysis, what is unique about the fiftieth day is only the preparation - the weeks of counting, hence the name "holiday of the weeks" - the actual revelation, however, happens every time we read the book.