In the Book of Leviticus, we find a verse that seems to need explanation:

"And on the essence of this day you shall call; a holy convocation it shall be for you." (Leviticus 23:21)

The phrase “this day” in this verse refers to the sixth day of the month of Sivan when we celebrate the Festival of Shavuos, the holy day which marks the Revelation at Mount Sinai, when the Jewish People received the Torah.

The strange fact of the matter is that the sixth day of the month of Sivan, on which the first day of Shavuos falls, is not the day on which the Torah was given to the People of Israel.  We find the events of the Giving of the Torah described in detail in the Book of Exodus, which states that the Torah was given to Israel on the seventh of Sivan, which, incidentally, came out that year to be on a Shabbos (Sabbath).

It is not difficult to collaborate this point; the Talmud tells us in Tractate Shabbat (87) that the Exodus from Egypt took place on a Thursday.  The next day, the Jewish People started the Counting of the Omer, for seven full weeks, as commanded by the Torah.  The fiftieth day, on which we celebrate Shavous, fell on a Friday.  It was on the next day, the Shabbos, that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, the fifty-first day of the counting of the Omer, and not the fiftieth, as we celebrate it.

Ever since that first year of the Exodus, we continue to celebrate the Festival of Shavuos on the fiftieth day, not the fifty-first.  Why should this be so?

Another strange fact about this festival: It is mentioned in the Torah as the Festival of the First Fruits, and as the Festival of Weeks, but nowhere to we find it referred to as the Festival of the Giving of the Torah.  The name “Festival of Weeks” refers to the commandment to count seven full weeks from the second day of Pesach (Passover) in order to determine the date of the festival.  The alternate name mentioned in the Scriptures, the Festival of the First Fruits, refers to the fact that it is from this day onward that one is allowed to bring an offering of the first fruits of the new crops to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

By celebrating Shavuos, we are not commemorating a historical memory of the giving of the Torah at Sinai.  Rather, we are marking the conclusion of a period of counting the fifty days which lead up to this momentous event.  Our Festival falls on the day when we complete the daily count of the days of preparations to make ourselves to be worthy of this momentous event. 

Why did G-d not present the Jewish People with His Torah as soon as He brought them forth from Egypt? 

A slave nation was not ready to accept the Torah. There was a need to prepare them for their new spiritual role by altering their value system. The people needed an interval of time to prepare themselves adequately to meet G-d. The forty-nine days of the Counting of the Omer provided a golden opportunity for a gradual transition and basic transformation in preparation for their new role. They were to become a free nation, chosen by G-d to receive His commandments and to observe them. In order to receive the Torah and internalize its values, there was a need for prolonged and profound reflection which would cleanse their hearts and purify their souls. 

Only in this way would their souls be able to understand the events about to take place in all their profundity.  This preparation was an essential prerequisite for the Revelation. 

This was the reason that the fiftieth day, the day that preceded the Giving of the Torah, is a holiday.  Shavuos celebrates the nation's accomplishment of fully exploiting the fifty days of the Counting of the Omer for spiritual improvement and elevation.  So successful was this generation in achieving their spiritual transformation, that G-d deemed them ready on the fifty-first day to partake of the meeting with Him and the full Revelation of His might and power. 

This was no minor accomplishment; it is indeed the cause for celebration, both at the time of the Exodus, and yet today, in our times.