CONGREGATION DOR HADASH
SHAVUOT - AWE, REVELATION, PEOPLEHOOD
Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, is also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost to Christians.
The Torah is seen as God’s gift to the Jewish people and the guide for how we are to live in community in the world. It contains our ‘history’ and spells out the details of the covenant.
Sinai isn’t just about getting the Torah. The people who were assembled there experienced the Divine. It is said that Jews, past, present and future, all shared in that experience. We may debate what happened or whether it happened. But in the story of the Jews, it is a defining moment. It is an encounter with a God who cares about this world and wants us to do what is good and just. With the giving of the Torah, we become a people, very different from the rag-tag group bowed down by servitude that fled Egypt.
In the Torah Shavuot is only mentioned as a harvest holiday (chag hakatsir) or as a day for bringing first fruits (chag habikkurim) to the Temple in Jerusalem since it is one of the pilgrimage festivals. The link with Sinai does not appear in the Torah. It probably started out as a holiday based on the viewing of the new moon. It celebrates the grain harvest with a prayer that the next harvests of summer will be successful.
Changes in the holiday began to occur with the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. by the Romans. Since there was no longer a place to bring sacrifices, the idea of revelation at Sinai became important.
Because of its original agricultural nature, the holiday doesn’t have any special rituals associated with it like sukkah building or the seder. One tradition is to decorate the synagogue or home with green plants, herbs and spices. Another is to eat dairy foods. It is said that the area around Sinai was green and that the people bringing first fruits to the Temple decorated their baskets with greenery. It is also a tradition that Moses’ basket was found by Pharaoh’s daughter on Shavuot. Another tale is that as each commandment came forth from God, a fragrant smell of spices filled the air. One explanation for eating dairy is that the laws of kashrut were also received at Sinai. Realizing that their pots weren’t kosher, the people decided to eat dairy which needs no cooking. Some people eat dairy with honey since the Torah is like milk and honey.
At Shavuot services, the Ten Commandments are read while the congregation stands as we stood at Sinai. We also read the Book of Ruth since the story occurs at harvest time. Ruth’s conversion to Judaism is akin to our acceptance of the Torah. Tradition has it that King David died on Shavuot and the Book of Ruth recounts the genealogy from Ruth to David.
It was a custom of the Kabbalists of Safed in the 16th century to stay up the whole first night of Shavuot to study the Torah and Rabbinic literature. It is also a custom to read the Book of Psalms since they are said to have been written by King David. To avoid thinking of the Torah only as a legalistic document, we read psalms which speak of David’s mystical relationship to the divine.
Metaphorically, Passover is God’s courtship of Israel, Shavuot is the marriage (with the Ten Commandments as the marriage contract) and Sukkot is the setting up of a household. One interpretation is that Moses smashes the tablets because, by worshipping the golden bull, the people were unfaithful to their ‘marriage.’ They were afraid when Moses didn’t return. They feared that God had become distanced from them. Even with the experience at Sinai, it is no easy task to maintain the covenant with God.
We go from Passover matzah, the bread of slavery, to the two leavened loaves that in ancient times were waved as the sacrifice on Shavuot. They are the bread of freedom. At Passover we talk of chametz, leavening, which can stand for the way we become puffed up about ourselves. At Shavuot, Torah becomes the guide by which we prevent ourselves from becoming too self-focused. At Passover, we gain freedom – but for what? Freedom isn’t found in anarchy. Only within the framework of Torah do freedom and free will truly exist. Any time a person studies Torah, it is as though it were being given anew.
© Marty Wertlieb
SHAVUOT QUOTES
Three times a year you shall hold a Festival for me: You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread - eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you - at the set time in the month of Aviv, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow inthe field; and the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather the results of your work from the field. Three times a year shall all your males appear before your Sovereign, Adonai. Exodus 23:14-17
And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering - the day after the sabbath - you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week - fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to Adonai…. On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a law for all time in all your settlements, throughout the ages. Leviticus 23:15-16, 21
You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks for Adonai your God, offering your freewill contribution according as Adonai your God has blessed you. Deuteronomy 16:9-10
On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai. Having journeyed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain, and Moses went up to God. Adonai called to him from the mountain…. Exodus 19:1-3
What Adonai requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God. Then will your name achieve wisdom. Micah 6:8-9