Shavuot Reader
Shavuot is a big deal. While Simchat Torah marks the beginning of the annual cycle of reading the entire Torah from the beginning, Shavuot is the holiday marking the day the Israelites got the Torah. To celebrate, we eat cheese and dairy-related products. And stay up all night to study.
It All About? What’s
As you may recall, the Hebrews left Egypt in a bit of a hurry, and therefore it took some weeks until they were ready to attend to the business of receiving the word of God and become the official Chosen People. is Shavuot? When
Shavuot 2026 begins at sundown Thursday, May 21, and ends after nightfall on Saturday, May 23
How many weeks? Seven, the Hebrew word for which, sheva, shares a root with the word Shavuot, which means weeks. To mark the occasion of having received the divine laws, we do what Jewish parents everywhere would have us do year-round: Study all night long.
Together with Passover and Sukkot, the holiday is also one of the Three Pilgrimages (or shalosh regalim, if you want to rock the Hebrew), annual occasions for the ancient Israelites to bring their harvest and livestock over to the Temple in Jerusalem for festivities and ritualistic slaughter And while the pilgrimage part was abandoned you know, exile and all we still mark these three major holidays with special recitations of the joyous Hallel prayer.
ANY BAD GUYS?
Surprisingly, none. It’s one of those Jewish holidays without a villain. Which is also why it’s one of those Jewish holidays not yet turned into a major Hollywood motion picture.
Do We Eat? What
Delicious dairy products. Cheesecakes are big. If your ancestors hail from the Tri-State area Poland, Russia, Ukraine so are blintzes
The rational explanation for this particular culinary choice is that the Torah was given on the Sabbath, and as no animals could be slaughtered to celebrate the happy occasion, the Israelites likely shrugged their shoulders and collectively agreed to nosh on some brie. More mystical Jews you know, Madonna believe that the numbers speak for themselves: Dairy in Hebrew is chalav, and if you sum up the numerical value of the three Hebrew letters that make up that word you get 40. Which is a number you’d remember if you had to wander in the desert for as many years.
MILK AND HONEY, TO BE PRECISE!
The custom to eat dairy and honey on Shavuot is a custom that goes back over 600 years. A number of reasons are given for this custom. Some say that it is because the Torah is compared to milk and honey (Devarim Rabba 7:3), as we read: “Honey and milk are under your tongue” (Shir Ha-shirim 4:11)
According to another midrash, when the Jews stood at Sinai and said, “All the Lord has spoken we will faithfully do” (Shemot 24:7), God responded with the verse: “Honey and milk are under your tongue” (Tanḥuma Buber, Ki Tisa §9) The idea is that since the Jews agreed to accept the Torah unconditionally, they would find the Torah’s words as sweet as honey and milk.
Receive the Torah? When Did We
It’s a simple question, or, at least, it ought to be: the giving of the Torah is, easily, the single most important occasion in Jewish history, and a crucial moment that has shaped the course of all human events So when exactly did it happen?
The Torah doesn’t tell us
We know exactly when we’re supposed to celebrate Passover Sukkot? We have a specific date But Shavuot, the holiday on which we received the Torah? All the Torah gives us to help us mark the occasion is this hazy instruction, in Leviticus 23:15:
You shall count for yourselves from the day following the day of rest, from the day on which you bring the Omer as a wave-offering; the counting shall be for seven full weeks.
No wonder, that the rabbis quarreled about the holiday’s precise date, with some saying we ought to celebrate it on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan and others arguing that the correct date is the seventh
Why the confusion? Why wouldn’t the Torah be more precise, especially when it comes to something as meaningful as the giving of the Torah? Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz explained:
“On Shavuot, God gives us the Torah The question is whether we choose to accept this gift. Beyond the mere giving of the Torah, there also needs to be the receiving of the Torah, and this doesn’t have to happen specifically on Shavuot. It can happen on any day of any month… It’s like receiving a very prestigious prize: some people win it and faint, and only later they’re able to calm down and celebrate. The same applies to the giving of the Torah: it was a stunning occasion, and joy came later. God gives us the Torah. And when do we receive it? The answer is that each one of us receives it on a different day, whenever he or she is ready For you, it may even be today
Because the Torah, Rabbi Steinsaltz went on to argue, is beyond time and place. And in that way, it’s just like… Shabbat. Our day of rest, noted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, is “a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time,” a taste of the world to come Or, as Heschel so eloquently put it:
The seventh day is like a palace in time with a kingdom for all. It is not a date but an atmosphere.
But the similarities between Shabbat and Shavuot don’t end there. Each week, welcoming the Sabbath, we recite an old and famous piyyut, or poem, called Lecha Dodi. You may know its refrain:
Come, my beloved, to meet the Bride, let us welcome Shabbat.
In the poem’s rich imagery, the entirety of the Jewish people stand in as the beloved, or the groom, while Shabbat herself is the beautiful bride, offering us a celebration of a holy reunion.
The same is true of Shavuot. The famous poet and mystic Rabbi Israel Najara even wrote a hymn in which he imagines Shavuot as the union of groom (God) and bride (the people of Israel):
Friday, the sixth of Sivan, the day appointed by the Lord for the revelation of the Torah to His beloved people… The Invisible One came forth from Sinai, shone from Seir and appeared from Mount Paran unto all the kings of the earth, in the year 2448 since the creation of the world, the era by which we are accustomed to reckon in this land whose foundations were upheld by God, as it is written, ‘For He hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods’ (Psalms 24:2).
The Bridegroom [God], Ruler of rulers, Prince of princes, Distinguished among the select, Whose mouth is pleasing and all of Whom is delightful, said unto the pious, lovely and virtuous maiden [the people of Israel] who won His favor above all women, who is beautiful as the moon, radiant as the sun, awesome as bannered hosts: Many days wilt thou be Mine and I will be thy Redeemer.
How, then, to rejoice on this joyous occasion? We have a simple yet powerful idea: by throwing a festive meal to celebrate the happy union. To help you get started, we’re giving away a host of gorgeous Shabbat Judaica sets that will make your table all the more festive.
For more details, click here: https://simchattorahchallenge.org/shabbat-giveaway Shabbat Shalom, and Chag Shavuot Sameach!
