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"Shavuot is the wedding anniversary
of the Jewish people,
and the Torah is the marriage certificate
between the Jews and God." - a kabbalistic interpretation.
Shavuot (Hebrew : שבועות or, חג שבעות), ("[seven] weeks"), (pronounced: shah-voo-OH-t) is one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It is a major Jewish holiday, and is also known as the Feast of Weeks. Greek-speaking Jews gave it the name Pentecost (πεντηκόστη) since it occurs fifty days after Passover. If you don't count Passover, the holiday is 49 days after Passover, which is a jubilee of days. This ends the Counting of the Omer.
Shavuot has many aspects and as a consequence has been called by many names. In the Hebrew Bible it is called the "Feast of Harvest" (Hebrew: חג הקציר, Hag ha-Katsir; Ex. xxiii. 16) and the "Feast of Weeks" (Hebrew: חג שבעות, Hag Shavuot; ib. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 10), also the "Day of the First-Fruits" (Hebrew יום הבכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim; Num. xxviii. 26).
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All
you want to know about
: SHAVUOT :
|
| Holiday
of: |
Judaism
and Jews. |
| Name: |
Hebrew
: שבועות
or, חג
שבעות . |
| Translation: |
"Festival
of [seven] Weeks". |
| Begins: |
6th
day of Sivan. |
| Ends: |
7th
(in Israel 6th) day of Sivan. |
| Occasion: |
One
of the Three Pilgrim Festivals. Celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments
by God to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai 49 days after the Exodus
from ancient Egypt. Celebrating the harvest and first fruits in the
Land of Israel.
Culmination of the 49 days of Counting of the Omer. |
| Symbols: |
Festive
meals. Staying up at night (Tikkun leil) to learn Torah or Talmud. Eating
of dairy foods at one meal. |
| Related
to: |
Passover
which precedes Shavuot. |
Shavuot (Pentecost, Feast of Weeks) occurs on the sixth day of Sivan (and on the seventh of Sivan for those observing two days in the Diaspora). It celebrates the giving of the Torah, God?s gift to the Jewish people, which is the guide for how we are to live in this world. The Torah is the spelling out of the details of the Covenant that, while initiated by the events of the Exodus, is agreed upon the sealed at Sinai. Sinai is more than the receiving of the Torah ? it is the experiencing of the Divine, an experience shared by all Jews of all time, for each of us was there and heard the Voice of Sinai. While theologians and scholars may debate what actually happened at Sinai, for the religious Jew, Sinai is central to both belief and practice ? to belief in a God, who cares about this world and expects us to strive in our lives to practice what is good and just.
Yet, if we look back at the history of Shavuot, we see a number of problems in associating it with the revelation at Sinai. The biblical references to Shavout (e.g., Exod. 23:14-19; Lev. 23:9-22) regard it only as the feast of harvest (hag ha-katzir) or the first fruits (yom ha-bikkurim). Nowhere in the Bible is link made between Sinai and Shavout. Indeed, even the biblical account of Revelation at Sinai does not connect it with Shavout.
Shavuot, perhaps, more than any other festival, embodies the extraordinary integration of the spiritual-religious side and the earthly-material side of the Jewish people. Shavuot celebrates the Holiday of the First Fruits and the Season of the Giving of the Torah. It is a time for you to reach out to all the people you know and wish them health, prosperity and a meaningful and spiritual season with a special message!
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