Shavuot
Shavuot, or Shvues, is a Jewish holiday, one of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan; in the 21st century, it may fall anywhere between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar.
Shavuot marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel in the Hebrew Bible according to Exodus 34:22. Rabbinic tradition teaches that the date also marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, which, according to the tradition of Orthodox Judaism, occurred at this date in 1312 or 1313 BCE.
The word Shavuot means 'weeks' in Hebrew and marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Its date is directly linked to that of Passover; the Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.
While Shavuot is sometimes referred to as Pentecost due to its timing fifty days after the first day of Passover, it is not the same celebration as the Christian Pentecost or Whitsun, which comes fifty days after Easter. That said, the two festivals are related, as the first Day of Pentecost, related in the Acts of the Apostles, is said to have happened on Shavuot.
Shavuot is traditionally celebrated in Israel for one day, where it is a public holiday, and for two days in the diaspora.
Names
Biblical names
In the Bible, Shavuot is called the "Festival of Weeks" ; "Festival of Reaping", and "Day of the First Fruits". Shavuot, the plural of a word meaning "week" or "seven", alludes to the fact that this festival happens exactly seven weeks after Passover.Later names
The Talmud refers to Shavuot as ʻAṣeret according to Pesachim 68b, referring to the prohibition against work on this holiday and also to the conclusion of the Passover holiday season. The other reason given is that just as Shmini ʿAṣeret brings Sukkot to a close, ʿAṣeret brings Passover to a close.Since Shavuot occurs fifty days after Passover, Hellenistic Jews referred to it by the Koine name "Pentecost".
Significance
Giving of the Torah
Shavuot is not explicitly named in the Bible as the day on which the Torah was revealed by God to the Israelite nation at Mount Sinai, although this is commonly considered to be its main significance.Unlike other major holidays, the Torah does not specify the date of Shavuot, but only that it falls 50 days after Passover, placing it at the 6th of Sivan according to the current fixed calendar. The Torah states that the Israelites reached Sinai on the first day of the third month following the Exodus, i.e. Sivan. Then several events occurred, taking a total of at least three days, before the Torah was given. Thus, it is plausible that the giving of the Torah occurred on or about Shavuot, but no exact date is mentioned.
Besides the timing, scholars have pointed to thematic connections between Shavuot and the giving of the Torah, which are indicated by the Bible itself:
- Several aspects of the Shavuot Temple sacrifice suggest a connection to the Exodus and the giving of the Torah. The shtei halechem is the only holiday sacrifice which includes a communal shelamim offering, recalling the communal shelamim offering which was offered after the acceptance of the Torah. Also, the shtei halechem is one of the few sacrifices to include chametz, suggesting that Shavuot is a counterpoint to Passover and its historical events.
- From an early period, Shavuot was regarded as an appropriate time to make covenants between God and humanity. Asa chose to make his covenant on or about Shavuot. The association between Shavuot and covenants suggests a connection to the giving of the Torah, which itself was a covenant between God and Israel. In addition, the description of Asa's covenant repeatedly alludes both to the giving of the Torah and to the Shavuot holiday, suggesting a link between the two.
Agricultural
What is textually connected in the Bible to the Feast of Shavuot is the season of the grain harvest, specifically of the wheat, in the Land of Israel. In ancient times, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness. It began with harvesting the barley during Passover and ended with harvesting the wheat at Shavuot. Shavuot was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the eighth day of Sukkot was the concluding festival of the fruit harvest. During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, an offering of two loaves of bread from the wheat harvest was made on Shavuot according to the commandment in.The penultimate Dead Sea text to be published has been discovered to contain two festival dates observed by the sect at Qumran as part of their formally perfect 364-day calendar. It was dedicated to New Wine and New Oil, which are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible but were known from another Qumran manuscript, the Temple Scroll. These festivals "constituted an extension of the festival of Shavuot... which celebrates the New Wheat." All three festivals are calculated starting from the first Sabbath following Passover by repeatedly adding exactly fifty days each time: first came New Wheat, then New Wine, and then New Oil.
Ancient observances
Pilgrimage
Shavuot was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Jews would visit the Temple in Jerusalem.''Bikkurim''
Shavuot was also the first day on which individuals could bring the bikkurim or "first fruits" to the Temple in Jerusalem. Bikkurim were so crucial to Shavuot that the Torah twice describes the holiday as a day of bikkurim; wheat was ready for harvest, summer fruits were beginning to ripen, and bikkurim were brought.''Shtei Halechem''
The Torah prescribes a unique sacrifice for Shavuot: the shtei halechem or Two Loaves, which must be chametz, and which are described as bikkurim of the wheat harvest. These loaves are accompanied by a set of other sacrifices.According to Judah Loew ben Bezalel, there is a symbolic contrast between the omer offering of Passover and the Two Loaves. The former consists of barley, which is typically an animal food, and represents the low spiritual level of the Israelites immediately upon leaving Egypt during the Exodus; while the latter consists of wheat and represents the high spiritual level of the Israelites upon receiving the Torah.
Modern religious observances
Nowadays in the post-Temple era, Shavuot is the only biblically ordained holiday that has no specific laws attached to it other than usual festival requirements of abstaining from creative work. The rabbinic observances for the holiday include reciting additional prayers, making kiddush, partaking of meals and being in a state of joy. There are, however, many customs which are observed on Shavuot. A mnemonic for the customs largely observed in Ashkenazi communities spells the Hebrew word aḥarit :- – Aqdamut, the reading of a piyyut during Shavuot morning synagogue services
- – ḥalav, the consumption of dairy products like milk and cheese
- – Rut, the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services
- – Yereq, the decoration of homes and synagogues with greenery
- – Torah, engaging in all-night Torah study.
Liturgical poems
''Aqdamut''
The Aqdamut is a liturgical poem recited by Ashkenazi Jews extolling the greatness of God, the Torah, and Israel that is read publicly in Ashkenazic synagogues in the middle ofor in some communities right beforethe morning Torah reading on the first day of Shavuot. It was composed by Meir of Worms. Meir was forced to defend the Torah and his Jewish faith in a debate with local priests and successfully conveyed his certainty of God's power, His love for the Jewish people, and the excellence of Torah. Afterwards he wrote the Aqdamut, a 90-line poem in Aramaic that stresses these themes. The poem is written in a double acrostic pattern according to the order of the Hebrew alphabet. In addition, each line ends with the syllable ta, the last and first letters of the Hebrew alphabet, alluding to the endlessness of Torah. The traditional melodies that accompanies this poem also conveys a sense of grandeur and triumph.''Azharot''
There is an ancient tradition to recite poems known as Azharot (אזהרות listing the commandments. This was already considered a well-established custom in the 9th century. These piyyutim were originally recited during the chazzan's repetition of the Mussaf amidah, in some communities they were later moved to a different part of the service.Some Ashkenazic communities maintain the original practice of reciting the Azharot during mussaf; they recite on the first day and Azharat Reishit on the second, both from the early Geonic period. Italian Jews do the same except that they switch the piyyutim of the two day, and in recent centuries, Ata Hinchalta has been truncated to include only one 22-line poem instead of eight. Many Sephardic Jews recite the Azharot of Solomon ibn Gabirol before the mincha service; in many communities, the positive commandments are recited on the first day and the negative commandments on the second day.