Shavuot

Historically, from the second night Seder, we count each day journeying towards the next holiday, Shavuot, the holy time of receiving Torah at Mount Sinai.

In June 1941, a horrific pogrom during the Shavuot holiday targeted Baghdad’s large Jewish community and resulted in hundreds of murders, rapes, and the mass destruction and looting of Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses.

The covenant at Sinai that is commemorated on Shavuot, according to this reading, is just the latest example of the loyalty between God and his people, a bond strengthened over and over again, across the generations.

Though the Torah ascribes to Shavuot the aforementioned agricultural significance, the Sages concluded the festival actually commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments amidst the fire and brimstone of Sinai.

While debates may have long defined Shavuot, Ruth’s promise of unceasing devotion to the divine is one that Jews throughout our history — from Jubilees’ era to today — continue to have in common.

I hope as you celebrate Shavuot with your loved ones that this dish may bring you some sweetness too.

MINNETONKA, Minn. (JTA) — When I received a phone call last Saturday morning from the governor and lieutenant governor’s office, I sensed it would be a Shabbat and Shavuot unlike any other.

Although most of them did not attend classes on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, I may have been the only one who did not go to school on Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuot.

Israeli-American Council—Shavuot celebration, 6—8 p.m. at the Roth Family JCC, Cost: $30, family; $10, adult; and $5 child.

Join Congregation Beth Sholom for a very special Shavuot Shabbat Service, led by Rabbi Karen Allen, on June 14, at 7 p.m. The congregation’s beautiful new Ark will be officially dedicated during the service.

The latter kicks off the counting of the Omer, seven weeks of grain harvest in biblical Israel that started with barley and ended with the harvest of wheat and the holiday of Shavuot (“weeks” in Hebrew).

The Shavuot night trilogy: Artist.

The Torah emphasizes the link between Passover and Shavuot through the commandment of “Counting the Omer,” or Sefiras HaOmer.

This Shavuot, add your voice to this unbroken narrative.

During the first day of Shavuot 1942, five German SS butchers, along with a handful of Polish collaborators, rounded up 1,600 Jews in the ghetto of Miyory, my father’s small town in Eastern Poland.

They do not think of Jewish revival on the day of Shavuot (Pentecost), when thousands of Jews were immersed in water in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Different from other Biblical holidays, the date for Shavuot is not explicitly fixed in the Torah.

Many Jews consider a portion of the 49-day period of the counting of the omer between Passover and Shavuot to be a time of semi-mourning and instrumental music is not allowed during that time.

Nevertheless, the Talmud applies the same rule to Shavuot, and to the Seventh Day of Passover and Shemini Atzeret, for consistency.

Since Shavuot occurs 49 days after the first day of Passover (i.e. the 50th day, including Passover itself), Hellenistic Jews gave it the name Pentecost (πεντηκοστή, "fiftieth day").