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An Israeli child. Today, even the non-religious count the Omer.

Shavuot Unifies Jews
With Their Land, God

DVORA WAYSMAN

Special to The Jewish News

erusalem — Shavuot
has many names, and
a double connotation.
As the "Feast of Weeks" it
signifies the end of the seven
weeks which we are com-
manded to count as the Omer
period from the second day of
Passover. Seven is a mystical
number in Judaism, cor-
responding to the seven days
of the Creation, so seven
weeks each of seven days is a
powerful combination indeed.
When we finish counting
the 49 days, Shavuot has ar-
rived and one of its names is
"Zman Mattan ibrahtenu —
the Time of the Giving of Our
Law" For, according to Jewish
tradition, exactly seven weeks
from the time of the Exodus,
when the Jewish people fled
from slavery in Pharoah's
Egypt, God revealed Himself
directly to 600,000 people.
Here at Mount Sinai, the
children of Israel received the
Ibrah, promising to live by its
commandments and in return
live under God's protection as
a holy people.
Another name for Shavuot
is "Chag Habikkurim —
Festival of the First Fruits,"
while yet another defines it as
"Chag Hakatzir — Festival of
the Harvest." This is a little
more difficult to understand;
although Israel is a tiny coun-
try, its climate is not uniform.
During the Omer period, be-
tween Passover and Shavuot,
barley passes through the
aviv (spring) stage of growth
and begins to ripen. The
Israelite farmer regarded the
beginning of this period with
apprehension because the en-
suing seven weeks would
culminate with the wheat

j

harvest, and he was still
uncertain what kind of crop ,
the land would yield.
Israel is a land of hills and
valleys, and it differs not just
in landscape from place to
place, but also in agriculture.
In some parts the soil is nor-
mal and, in others it is sandy
or alluvial. Each of the
Twelve Tribes dwelt in dif-
ferent parts of the country,
and it is written that their
fruit even tasted differently.
Because Israel is a country
of diverse climates, barley
does not ripen at the same
time all over the country. Yet
the Bible demanded that the
Omer, the barley offering, be
brought to the Temple on one
specific date, during Passover.
It is believed that the reason
was to unify the people — the
one people bringing the same
crop on the same date to the
same 'Ample, as an offering to
the One God in the one city,
Jerusalem.
During the seven-week
Omer period, the farmer
always worried about the fate
of the grain crop and the
blossoming, pollination and
early development of the fruit
crop — especially the grape
and the olive. But his doubts
were resolved on the 50th day,
when he was ordered to bring
an offering of the new grain
to the 'Ample from the just-
harvested wheat. This day
was called "the closing of
Passover," or simple "closing"
(Atzeret — another name for
Shavuot).
lbday, in Israel, farmers on
moshavim and kibbutzim
still anxiously count the days
from the barley crop at
Passover to the wheat harvest
at Shavuot.

World Zionist Press Service