Shavuot

One of the three Judaic pilgrim festivals, along with Sukkot, Tabernacles, and Pessah, Passover, Shavuot, on the sixth of the lunar month of Sivan, is the festival that celebrates the revelation of the Torah by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. Called "the Feast of Weeks," or "Pentecost" (the fiftieth day, that is, counting the days of the lunar months, normally twenty-nine days, from Passover, the fifteenth day of the lunar month of Nisan, followed by the lunar month of Iyyar, and then concluding with the sixth of Sivan), the festival is observed in synagogue worship, cessation of secular activities, and especially Torah study.

The Torah speaks of the festival at Exodus 34:22 as "the Feast of Weeks," "the day of the first fruits" (Numbers 28:26), and "the harvest festival" (Exodus 23:16). In the Talmud the feast is called aseret, "solemn assembly." Shavuot comes, in the natural year of the Land of Israel, at the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. At that festival pilgrims would ascend to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival. Shavuot also marks the end of the daily counting of the sheaf of barley, called the 'omer. For fifty days, from the first night of Passover to the Feast of Weeks, holy Israel counts seven full weeks (Leviticus 23:15–16), noting the passage of the days from Passover to Pentecost. Because of its association with the first fruits, Israeli celebrations may include harvest ceremonies.

In synagogue rites the Book of Ruth is read. The figure of Ruth symbolizes the sincere convert to Judaism, and since conversion means acceptance of God's rule as set forth in the Torah, that book is deemed especially suitable for the occasion on which Israel accepted God's rule in the Torah at Sinai. It is also common to decorate the synagogue with plants and flowers; at home it is traditional to eat dairy foods, diverse reasons being given for the practice. In America it is common for synagogues to organize all-night Torah study sessions, with large numbers of young people staying up for the occasion.

In keeping with the theme of the revelation of the Torah, Torah study is the key motif of the festival. That is why, in Reform and some Conservative synagogues, Shavuot also marks the occasion of confirmation—that is, the conclusion of formal religious education of teenagers celebrating the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Confirmation rites therefore form the center of festival worship at Reform synagogues.

See alsoJewish Observance; Judaism; Passover; Synagogue; Torah.

Bibliography

Gaster, Theodor H. Festivals of the Jewish Year: A ModernInterpretation and Guide. 1971.

Goodman, Philip, ed. The Shavuot Anthology. 1975.

Greenberg, Irving. The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays. 1988.

Schauss, Hayyim. The Jewish Festivals: From Their Beginnings to Our Own Day. 1933; rev. ed., 1969.

Waskow, Arthur I. Seasons of Our Joy: A Handbookof

Jewish Festivals. 1986.

Jacob Neusner