Shavuot

For our second toast, we raise a glass to the reason of the season: the sun is shining, the grain harvests are ready, and we still have a whole summer ahead to tend to our gardens. Shavuot honors our ancient connection to land and food, and encourages us to connect deeply with where our nourishments come from.

We give thanks to the seasons of the year, and the crops that nourish throughout each season.

Blessed are You, Adonai Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine (tree).

ברוך אתה יי אלוהנו מלך העולם בורה פרי הגפן (האץ)

Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam, borei pri hagafen (ha'etz)

Shavuot celebrates the Revelation on Mount Sinai. It comes exactly 50 days from Passover, a time we mark as the time it took our ancestors to leave the immediacy of slavery in Egypt to a safe long term camp grounds at the foot of Mount Sinai. Our tradition tells us when God tried to reveal Godself and the Ten Commandments to all of the Israelites, the ground shook and the people saw thunder and heard lightning, and they were frightened. They sent Moses up to receive the commandments for them, and allowed their faith to be further shaken when he was gone for 40 more days up on the mountain.

Like many Jewish holidays, Shavuot was probably originally a harvest festival for ancient Near Eastern pagans from which the Israelites evolved. Continuing in monotheistic times, Jews equate Shavuot with the wheat harvest, which is why we read the Book of Ruth which centers greatly around grain harvesting in the Holy Land. In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, it was a pilgrimmage festival on which people brought their first fruits of spring as a sacrifice to the Temple.

Shavuot is the only Biblically mandated holiday that doesn't have specific laws of celebration around it, other than abstaining from work. Perhaps this is why it has not been widely celebrated in non-Orthodox circles: we don't have strong traditions around it to anchor us to the holiday, the way that Passover has its matzah and Sukkot has the Sukkah. However, over the centuries, celebrations of Shavuot have included all night study sessions to recreate the anxious night of the Revelation, and eating sweet dairy dishes to honor the "milk and honey" of freedom, the Holy Land, and the Torah.

Today we celebrate with our blintz brunch, some prayers and songs, a play, and some classical Jewish wisdom.

Ruth Skit

TBD