spirituality
Holiday marks the giving of the Torah
at Mount Sinai.
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100 May 24 • 2012
S
havuot, or "weeks" in
Hebrew, lasts for two days.
On the Jewish calendar,
Shavuot is celebrated on the 6th and
7th of Sivan, which this year falls on
Sunday, May 27, and Monday, May 28.
The origins of Shavuot are bibli-
cal, found in Leviticus 23: 15-21. God
commands the Jewish people to count
each day, beginning on the second day
of Passover and continuing for seven
weeks. Verse 21 of the passage states
that the 50th day is a holiday.
Shavuot is known by other names,
alluding to its agricultural significance.
In Exodus 23:16, the Torah identi-
fies the holiday as Chag Ha-Katzir, or
Festival of the Harvest. In Numbers
28:26-31, the Torah calls it Yom
HaBikurim, Day of First Fruits.
From early on, the rabbis viewed
Shavuot as much more than an agri-
cultural festival. They determined
that on Shavuot, God gave the Torah
at Mount Sinai.
On the first day of Shavuot, the
Torah reader chants a poem called
Akdamut. The Aramaic work was
composed by Meir ben Yitzhak,
an 11th-century rabbi of Worms,
Germany. The 90 verses speak of God's
majesty, the suffering of the Jewish
people and their ultimate restoration
to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel,
and the glory of the messianic era.
On the second day, the Book of
Ruth is read in the synagogue. One
reason is the pastoral setting of the
story, which fits in with the harvest-
celebration theme of Shavuot.
Further, just as Ruth accepted the
Torah and became Jewish, so did the
Children of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Traditionally on Shavuot, the syn-
agogue is decorated with flowers and
greenery, based on the belief that
when the Torah was given, Mount
Sinai was lush with vegetation.
Many traditions surround the hol-
iday. In the 16th century, a group of
Jewish mystics began the practice of
studying the Torah the entire night
on the eve of Shavuot (Tikkun Leil
Shavuot). This has become a wide-
spread tradition.
After catching up a night's sleep, it's
time for food. The featured cuisine
on Shavuot is dairy, including such
traditional favorites as cheese blintzes,
cheese kreplach and cheesecake.
Because Shavuot often coincides
with the end of the school year, the
Reform movement instituted the
confirmation ceremony on the holi-
day. Some Conservative congrega-
tions also have their religious-school
graduations on Shavuot.
❑
Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing
specialist for the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Orthodox Paradox from pg 99
of these make it difficult to let go of
Orthodoxy as part of my identity,
despite the dilemmas it creates.
Among the compensations of get-
ting older is learning to accept that
perfection is impossible and that
some things are valuable despite
their inherent shortcomings. A bene-
fit of being younger is the passionate
desire to improve on the imperfect.
So some of the younger generation
have developed their own solution
— independent minyanim that are
not affiliated with any movement
and that combine a commitment to
observance, Jewish learning, social
action and traditional, but totally
egalitarian prayer.
I know the struggle to reconcile
these conflicting values will likely
continue into the next generations.
I was sitting with my 4-year-old
granddaughter, Nava, in the women's
section of her shul in New York.
When they took out the Torah, I
pointed out that the men kissed the
Torah as it was carried through the
sanctuary. She turned to me with
the absolute innocence of a child
and asked, "Are they bringing it to
our side?" When I told her no, she
retorted, "That's not fair"
I neither goaded her sense of
injustice nor denied her indignation,
but simply acknowledged the accura-
cy of her observation. I trust that one
day she will be knowledgeable and
committed enough to come to her
own integration of the matter. My
hope is that she'll have the benefit of
evolving solutions.
❑
Janice Starkman Goldfein lives in
Southfield, is a member of Young Israel
of Southfield and is a psychotherapist in
private practice in Farmington Hills.