HALACHA OF THE WEEK: DAIRY FOODS ON SHAVUOT One of the most popular customs of Shavuot is to eat dairy foods. According to the Rema, the reason for this custom reason has to do with the unique offering brought on Shavuot, the "Shtei HaLechem" - the two loaves that were used on Shavuot [Orech Chaim 494:3]. The Rama says that just as on Pesach when we have food items to represent the Temple offerings brought on that day (e.g., the shank bone to represent the Paschal offering and the egg to represent the Korban Chagiga), so, too, on Shavuot we eat something to remember the bringing of the Shtei HaLechem.
How does eating dairy foods BEFORE a large meat-based holiday meal accomplish this?
Simply stated, it is based on the halacha, which states that a person should not use the same loaf of bread for both a meat meal and a dairy meal. Therefore, on Shavuot, before we begin our meat meal, we should have dairy foods. This way, when we continue our meal and have meat, we will need another loaf of bread to eat with it - a remembrance of the two loaves that were offered in the Temple on Shavuot. (The Mishna Brura adds that one should make the first loaf dairy by adding butter to it so that it will be necessary to have a second loaf when eating the meat portion of the meal.)
Other reasons for this custom are: 1. Until the giving of the Torah, meat was permitted to be eaten without ritual slaughter. Once the Torah was given, all methods of killing the animal to eat other than "shechitah," ritual slaughter, were prohibited. Since shechitah could not be done on Shabbat, and everyone agrees that the Torah was given on Shabbat, the Jews had to eat dairy.
2. The "gematria," the sum of the numerical equivalents of the Hebrew letters making up the word "chalav," milk, is forty (the letters "chet" (8) plus "lamed" (30) plus "bet" (2) equals forty) which corresponds to the number of days that Moshe studied the Torah with G-d on the top of Mt. Sinai.
3. Mount Sinai has eight names, one of which is "gavnunim" because its appearance resembles that of cheese, "gevina," in Hebrew.
DVAR TORAH At the beginning of this week's parasha, we read about the arrangement in which the Jews lived and traveled through the desert. Surrounding the Mishkan on four sides, each direction was home to three tribes. This order of the Jewish people, according to the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:8), caused Moshe some concern—perhaps one tribe would dislike their assigned location and wish to move. But G-d reassured him that the people already knew their places for living and traveling because Yaakov had already organized them in this way when planning his own funeral. He had instructed his sons on where they should stand and how they should carry him back to Israel.
But what was Moshe so worried about? And why does the Midrash connect their travels in the desert to Yaakov's funeral?
Rabbi Mordechai Rogow, z"l, a former Rosh Yeshiva at HTC, explained that Moshe was concerned about the impact life in the desert would have on the Jews. He feared that their 40-year journey, with all its extraordinary pressures, would lead to confusion, turmoil, and even a loss of their own sense of humanity.
G-d answered, "There is nothing to worry about." Once before, when their patriarch Yaakov died, the people had endured a very difficult time with severe pressures and turmoil—and yet they survived and maintained their sense of dignity. They knew how to travel and remain a united people because they had learned it from their father Yaakov.
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MONDAY NIGHT SEDER - Mondays - 8:00-9:00pm
PARSHAT HASHAVUA - 
SEFER MELACHIM 
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SHABBAT WOMEN'S SHIUR - Shabbat 5:00pm
TALMUD CLASS – Shabbat 45 minutes before mincha
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