18 | MAY 25 • 2023 

APPLE TREE EXTRA

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

S

o back during Passover, 
God took the Jewish people 
out of Egypt. We told the 
story around our seder tables and 
started counting the days until 
Shavuot. Well, it’s here. After 49 days 
of counting, we welcome Shavuot, 
which begins Thursday evening, 
May 25, and runs through Saturday 
night, May 27.
It’s the holiday that celebrates 
God giving the Torah to the Jewish 
people at Mount Sinai. On Shavuot, 
Jewish people around the world 
gather in synagogues for the reading 
of the Ten Commandments. It’s like 
we are standing at Mount Sinai all 
over again.
On Shavuot, people stay up and 
study Torah until late into the night 
— in fact, some stay up to study all 
night long! It’s also customary to eat 
dairy, so it’s a good day to ask your 
grownups for some ice cream treats. 

FAMILY TRADITIONS 
Shavuot is a special time for 
Zeev, Lihi and Hilla Maine of 
West Bloomfield. Their grandma 
decorates the table, with Moses 
coming down from the mountain 
to the Jewish people gathered below. 
The kids put out plates covered in 
pasta, which they shape to look like 
sheaths of wheat.
“It’s very pretty,
” says Lihi, 11. 
“We do traditions from my great-
grandmother, and my family has 
other traditions that we set for the 
future.
”
Her favorite food to eat on 
Shavuot is kahi, a recipe their great-
grandmother passed down. “It’s 
dough with sugar on top, and it’s 
really good,
” she says. 
The family studies Torah together 
on the holiday after they eat dinner. 
“The Torah you can study over 
and over again multiple times, you 
can find so many lessons out of 
it that you can keep doing it over 
and over again and it’s perfectly 
fine,
” Lihi says. “My favorite part 
of Shavuot is the aspect of learning 
with my family and talking it out 

A toy Moses 
comes down the 
mountain on the 
Maine family 
Shavuot table.

Shavuot!

Some extra fun for kids for the holiday.
Some extra fun for kids for the holiday.

