Photo courtesy of the Jewish Museum, New York City
A Holiday
Of Honey
And Milk
Shavuot: The sweet day .
when God gave the Torah
to the Jews.
ELIZABETH APPLE _ BAUM
AppleTree Editor
The Holiday:
Shavuoi ("weeks" in Hebrew.)
Shavuot, which lasts two days (or one day in
most Reform congregations), begins this year
on Thursday evening, May 16.
Why We Celebrate:
Like all the major Jewish holidays, the ori-
gins of Shavuot are in the Torah. We learn
about Shavuot in Parshat Emor (Leviticus 23:
15-21). Although the holiday is not named
here, we do learn about the method of deter-
mining its date, as well as the rituals associated
with it.
Interestingly, Shavuot has the unusual dis-
tinction of being the only Jewish holiday
whose day is not determined by calendar date,
but by counting days after another holiday. In
this case, God commands the Jewish people to
begin counting on the second day of Pesach
and continue for seven weeks. The 50th day of
the count is Shavuot.
Also Known As...:
In Parshat Mishpatim (Exodus 23:16), the
Torah calls the holiday Chag HaKatzir
("Festival of the Harvest"), and in Parshat
Pinchas (Numbers 28:26-31), the Torah identi-
fies it as Yom HaBikurim, "Day of First Fruits."
These are references to the Shavuot sacrifice,
which consisted of offerings from the crop of
new wheat.
Until Shavuot, all meal offerings were made
of flour from earlier crops. The passage also
Torah Case with Rimmonim, Paris,
circa 1860, Maurice Mayer.
labels the holiday as a festival of "your weeks."
For a third time, in Parshat Pe'eh (Deuteronomy
16:9-12), God commands the Jews to observe
the holiday; here, it is called Shavuot.
In ancient times, when much of the Jewish
population of the Mediterranean spoke Greek,
they took to calling Shavuot by the Greek
name of Pentecost, derived from the Greek
word for "50." Even today, on many secular
calendars, Shavuot is designated as Pentecost,
or "Feast of Weeks."
How To Celebrate:
Beyond the grain and animal sacrifices, the
Torah does not specify the reasons or rituals of
Shavuot. What we are told to do is rejoice.
The last passage, in Reel), also includes the
somewhat unusual statement that in celebrat-
ing Shavuot, we must remember that once we
were slaves in Egypt.
In The Beginning:
From early on, the rabbis viewed Shavuot as
more than an agricultural festival. Based on its
linkage to Pesach, and the commandment to
remember the days of our bondage in Egypt,
the rabbis determined that on the holy day
that later came to be known as Shavuot, God
gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai. So in the
liturgy of Shavuot, the day is referred to as
Zn2an Matan Torateinu, "The Time of the
Giving of Our Torah."
How We Celebrate:
In commemoration-of God's giving us the
Torah, Jewish mystics inaugurated the custom
of staying awake to study the entire night on
the eve of Shavuot.
Initially, only mystics followed this practice.
Over the generations, staying awake all night
to study Torah has become widespread. Most
Orthodox Jews observe the custom and,
increasingly, Conservative and Reform Jews
also participate in late-night study sessions.
Synagogues post all-night schedules, many of
which include a time-out for refreshments —
and plenty of coffee. Then morning services
are held early, usually around 5 a.m., after
which congregants head straight for bed.
As with all the Jewish holidays, Shavuot has
specific prayers and Torah readings, plus a few
extras. On the first day of Shavuot, after the
kohen (descendant of the priestly tribe) has
been called to the Torah for the first aliyah
(Torah reading) and before he recites the bless-
ing, the Torah reader or the chazzan (cantor)
recites Akdamut. This long poem was com-
posed by Rabbi Meir ben Yitzhak, who lived
in Worms, Germany, in the 11th century..
Written in Aramaic, the 90 verses speak of the
majesty of God, the suffering of the Jewish
_people and their ultimate restoration to
Jerusalem and the Land of Israel and the glory
of the coming messianic era.
On the second day of Shavuot, after the
reading of the first verse of the Haftorah -, the -
Yetziv Pitgam is chanted. This is another
lengthy poem in Aramaic, comprising 15 vers-
es, with a theme similar to that of Akdamut.
Yaacov, the son of Rabbi Meir Levi, composed
this work. Some scholars believe he is Yaacov
ben Meir of Orleans, the grandson of the great
Jewish scholar Rashi.
Also on the second day, the Book of Ruth is
read in the synagogue.
Why this book in particular? There are sev-
eral reasons. Many of the events in Ruth occur
at the time of the harvest. Another reason is
that, just as Ruth accepted the Torah and
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