BY LYNN MEREDITH SCHREIBER
PH.OTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS IVEY
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can never justify eating cheesecake on a normal day, so I wait for the
holiday that mandates celebration with rich, dairy meals. Nicknamed
the festival of "milk and honey" for a Song of Songs verse, Shavuot
celebrates the day Jews received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. (Sundown,
Thursday, May 16 through Shabbat, May 18, sixth and seventh of Sivan).
On Shavuot, blintzes and cheesecakes abound, in part as a remembrance of the first time Jews fol-
lowed laws of kashrut and needed time to properly prepare meat.
On the eve of the holiday, congregations offer tikkun leil Shavuot, all-night learning sessions, as
preparation for the Revelation. Kabbalists call it a time to prepare the bride's (Israel's) trousseau for the
wedding (with God) the next morning, according to Rabbi Irving Greenberg, author of The Jewish Way:
Living the Holidays.
The next morning, congregations hear the Ten Commandments and Megillat Ruth, the story of the
first convert. Reform congregations often hold confirmation ceremonies on or near Shavuot.
Although dairy dishes are more decadent and delectable than chicken soup, they can be time-con-
suming to prepare and may not freeze well. Jim Barnett, corporate executive chef for Unique Restaurant
Corporation, which runs Milk & Honey, the kosher dairy restaurant in West Bloomfield, suggests mak-
ing fish as a Shavuot entrée. Just make sure your catch is "firm and doesn't smell" when you select it at
the market.
2 2 • NIAY 2002 • STYLE AT THE JN