Holiday you’ve probably never heard of
Here’s a joke about the upcoming Jewish holiday of Shavuot: During one of his trials with the Israelites, Moses asks God to give him a sign that all these trials are worth it.
So, God grants Moses a vision of the future: It’s a place of huge houses and green lawns and bright lights and in house after house there is a lamp stand like the menorah in the desert tabernacle.
Moses asks: What IS this place and what ARE those things?
God answers: This, dear servant, is a place called New Jersey, and in the future many Jews will live in beautiful places like this and celebrate a holiday called Hanukkah. Light will pour forth from their homes!
Moses was impressed, saying, “WOW. If that’s what they do for Hanukkah, which I’ve never heard of, just IMAGINE what they’ll do for Shavuot!”
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the most important Jewish holiday that you’ve never heard of (perhaps even if you’re Jewish!), begins Sunday night, May 16, and lasts until Tuesday night. For Reform and Israeli Jews, it’s Sunday night and Monday only. It’s also called the Feast of Weeks (because it’s seven weeks after the beginning of Passover), and the Time of the Giving of the Torah.
Its agricultural names are the Festival of the Harvest, and the Day of First Fruits. Even though it appears four times in the Pentateuch (Exodus 34:22, Leviticus 23:15-21, Numbers 28:2631, and Deuteronomy 16:9-12) Shavuot has been forgotten. As one of my colleagues tells her congregation, “It’s like Rodney Dangerfield: it gets no respect.”
What are potential celebrants missing? A wonderful opportunity to stretch one’s mind, eat dairy, and read a beautiful Biblical
story that centers on two women who deeply care about one another. It’s also a holiday that reminds us that freedom is not license to do anything that you’d like. It’s an opportunity to take responsibility for one’s actions.
Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, which the Book of Exodus tells us occurred in the third month after the exodus from Egypt. Observant Jews count the days from the second night of Passover (called Counting the Omer) until Shavuot. The people received the
commandments, and then Moses went up on the mountain to receive the rest of the written text, along with oral interpretations, which together constitute Torah as we Jews see it. Torah can mean a scroll with the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), but it can also mean our deeper understanding of Jewish traditions and lore.
By studying Torah in the narrower and broader sense, one can find the path to living a holier life. A holy life entails caring about society, one’s family, and the betterment of the
world. The commandments in the Torah are understood in different ways by Jews of different opinions. However religious Jews believe that the commandments, or mitzvot, bring holiness to the life of the Jew.
What way to celebrate the giving of the Torah than to study?
Study on Shavuot follows a practice begun by medieval mystics known as a Tikkun. One stays up all night on the first night and studies. Study may consist of traditional texts, such as the Ten Commandments, the Book of Ruth, or the first chapter of Ezekiel, or selections from the Talmud, or even modern Jewish philosophy, poetry, music or art. It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn something new and stretch your mind!
In the past, a Tikkun on Shavuot night usually meant a small group gathering at someone’s home, or a larger group in a synagogue. There are even places where hundreds would meet for a variety of classes. However, with the coming of the pandemic, many all-night study sessions went virtual, making available scholars from around the world. This year, there will be more opportunities. For those whose religious practices prohibit using electricity on the holiday the all-night study time may be changed. You can look online for many different offerings.
If you like to learn new Jewish religious teachings, this is the holiday for you!
What else does Shavuot offer? It’s customary to eat dairy. Rabbinic lore teaches that the Israelites had a heavy meat meal before the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. They fell asleep and had to be awakened for the spiritual experience. Other rabbis say that Torah learning is like milk and honey. The most traditional food is the cheese blintz, a crepe with sweetened farmers’ cheese inside. Other favorites are a noodle pudding with cottage cheese in it and cheesecake.
Besides reading the Ten Commandments, we also read the Book of Ruth, a beautiful story of a mother and daughter-in-law who bond in deeds of loving kindness. The main part of the story takes place during the barley and early wheat harvests, which occur this time of the year in Israel. Ruth was a Moabite who accepted the Torah and the commandments. She is a role model for deeds of kindness and caring. What better way to use one’s freedom than to take responsibility for caring for one another?