Shavuot

Shavuot (listen, from Hebrew: שָׁבוּעוֹת, romanized: Šāvūʿōṯ, lit. 'Weeks'), or Shvues (listen, in some Ashkenazi usage), 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. In addition, 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 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 (in Koinē Greek: Πεντηκοστή, romanized: Pentecostē, lit. 'Fiftieth') 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.
In the Bible, Shavuot is called the "Festival of Weeks" (Hebrew: חג השבועות, romanized: Ḥāġ hašŠāvuʻoṯ, Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10); "Festival of Reaping" (Hebrew: חג הקציר, romanized: Ḥāġ HaqQāṣir Exodus 23:16), and "Day of the First Fruits" (Hebrew: יום הבכורים, romanized: Yom habBikkurim, Numbers 28:26). Shavuot, the plural of a word meaning "week" or "seven", alludes to the fact that this festival happens exactly seven weeks (i.e. "a week of weeks") after Passover.
The Talmud refers to Shavuot as ʻAṣeret (Hebrew: עצרת, romanized: ʻəṣereṯ, lit. 'refraining, holding back') 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".
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 (in earlier times when months were fixed by lunar observation, the date could vary by a day or two). 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:
Most of the Talmudic sages agreed that the Torah was given on the 6 Sivan (the date of Shavuot), but Jose ben Halafta holds that it was given on 7 Sivan. According to the classical timeline, the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai on the new moon (Exodus 19:1) and the Ten Commandments were given on the following Shabbat (i.e., Saturday). The question of whether the new moon fell on Sunday or Monday is undecided. In practice, Shavuot is observed on 6 Sivan in Israel and a second day is added in the Jewish diaspora (in keeping with a separate rabbinical ruling that applies to all biblical holidays, called Yom tov sheni shel galuyot, Second-Day Yom Tov in the diaspora). Thus, according to Jose ben Halafta, only outside Israel does Shavuot fall out on the day the Torah was given.
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 (Jer. 5:24, Deut. 16:9–11, Isa. 9:2). 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 Lev. 23:17.
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 (Shavuot), then New Wine, and then New Oil. (See also below, at "The Book of Jubilees and the Essenes".)
Shavuot was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Jews would visit the Temple in Jerusalem.
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.
The Torah prescribes a unique sacrifice for Shavuot: the shtei halechem or Two Loaves, which (atypically for sacrifices) 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.
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 (אחרית‎, "last"):
The yahrzeit of King David is traditionally observed on Shavuot. Hasidic Jews also observe the yahrzeit of the Baal Shem Tov.
The Aqdamut (Imperial Aramaic: אקדמות) 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 of – or in some communities right before – the 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 (תא‎), 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.
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 Ata Hinchalta [he] 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.
The liturgical poem Yatziv Pitgam (Imperial Aramaic: יציב פתגם) is recited by some synagogues in the diaspora on the second day of Shavuot. The author signs his name at the beginning of the poem's 15 lines – Yaakov ben Meir Levi, better knows as Rabbeinu Tam.
Dairy foods such as cheesecake, cheese blintzes, and cheese kreplach among Ashkenazi Jews; cheese sambusak, kelsonnes (ravioli filled with tzfatit cheese), and atayef (a cheese-filled pancake) among Sephardic and Syrian Jews; kahee (a dough that is buttered and sugared) among Iraqi Jews; kadeh (a cheese-filled bread) among Kurdish Jews, and a seven-layer cake called siete cielos (seven heavens) among Tunisian and Moroccan Jews are traditionally consumed on the Shavuot holiday. As a dessert, Sephardic Jews traditionally consume sütlaç (a rice pudding cooked in milk) decorated with cinnamon in designs such as the Star of David, flowers, and other patterns. Yemenite Jews do not eat dairy foods on Shavuot.
In keeping with the observance of other Jewish holidays, there is both a night meal and a day meal on Shavuot. Meat is usually served at night and dairy is served either for the day meal or for a morning kiddush.
Among the explanations given in rabbinic literature for the consumption of dairy foods on this holiday are:
The Five Megillot – five books from the Hebrew Bible – are traditionally read in synagogue on various Jewish holidays. Of these, the Book of Ruth is read on Shavuot. Reasons given for this custom include:
In many Jewish communities, there is a tradition to decorate homes and synagogues with plants, flowers and leafy branches on Shavuot. In fact, Persian Jews referred to the holiday as "The Mo'ed of Flowers" (موعد گل) in Persian, and never as "Shavuot".
A common reason given for this custom is the story that Mount Sinai suddenly blossomed with flowers in anticipation of the giving of the Torah on its summit. This idea is first mentioned in medieval Ashkenazi sources such as Maharil. In another interpretation, flowers represent the Jewish people, which received a covenant with God on this date. Other reasons have been suggested as well.
Some synagogues decorate the bimah with a canopy of flowers and plants so that it resembles a chuppah, as Shavuot is mystically referred to as the day the matchmaker (Moses) brought the bride (the nation of Israel) to the chuppah (Mount Sinai) to marry the bridegroom (God); the ketubah (marriage contract) was the Torah. Some Eastern Sephardi communities read out a ketubah between God and Israel, composed by Israel ben Moses Najara as part of the service. This custom was also adopted by some Hasidic communities, particularly from Hungary.
The Vilna Gaon cancelled the tradition of decorating with trees because it too closely resembles the Christian decorations for their holidays.
Some have the custom to learn Torah all night on the first night of Shavuot, a practice known as Tiqqun Leyl Shavuot (Hebrew: תקון ליל שבועות) ("Rectification for Shavuot Night").
The custom is first recorded c. 1300 in the Or Zarua II [he]. According to that work, "Our righteous forebears, servants of the Most High, would never sleep on Shavuot eve—and now we do this on both nights—for all night they would read the Torah and the Nevi'im and the Ketuvim, and they would skip around the Talmud and the Aggadot, and they would read the secret wisdoms until dawn broke, and they would hold the legacy of their fathers in their very hands". The custom was later linked to a Midrash which relates that the night before the Torah was given, the Israelites retired early to be well-rested for the momentous day ahead. They overslept and Moses had to wake them up because God was already waiting on the mountaintop. To rectify this perceived flaw in the national character, many religious Jews stay up all night to learn Torah.
In 1533 Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Arukh, then living in Ottoman Salonika, invited Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz and other Kabbalistic colleagues to hold Shavuot-night study vigils for which they prepared for three days in advance, just as the Israelites had prepared for three days before the giving of the Torah. During one of those study sessions, an angel reportedly appeared and taught them Jewish law.
It has been suggested that the introduction of coffee throughout the Ottoman empire may have attributed to the "feasibility and popularity" of the practice of all-night Torah study. In contrast, the custom of Yemenite Jews is to ingest the fresh leaves of a stimulant herb called Khat (containing cathinone) for the all-night ritual, an herb commonly used in that region of the world.
Any subject may be studied on Shavuot night, although Talmud, Mishnah, and Torah typically top the list. People may learn alone or with a chavruta (study partner), or attend late-night shiurim (lectures) and study groups. In keeping with the custom of engaging in all-night Torah study, leading 16th-century kabbalist Isaac Luria arranged a recital consisting of excerpts from the beginning and end of each of the 24 books of Tanakh (including the reading in full of several key sections such as the account of the days of creation, the Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Shema) and the 63 tractates of Mishnah, followed by the reading of Sefer Yetzirah, the 613 commandments as enumerated by Maimonides, and excerpts from the Zohar, with opening and concluding prayers. The whole reading is divided into thirteen parts, after each of which a Kaddish d-Rabbanan is recited when the Tiqun is studied with a minyan. Today, this service is held in many communities, with the notable exception of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. The service is printed in a book called Tiqun Leyl Shavuot. There exist similar books for the vigils before the seventh day of Pesach and Hosha'ana Rabbah.
In Jerusalem, at the conclusion of the night time study session, tens of thousands of people walk to the Western Wall to pray with sunrise. A week after Israel captured the Old City during the Six-Day War, more than 200,000 Jews streamed to the site on Shavuot, it having been made accessible to Jews for the first time since 1948.
In secular agricultural communities in Israel, such as most kibbutzim and moshavim, Shavuot is celebrated as a harvest and first-fruit festival including a wider, symbolic meaning of joy over the accomplishments of the year. As such, not just agricultural produce and machinery is presented to the community, but also the babies born during the preceding twelve months.
In the 19th century several Orthodox synagogues in Britain and Australia held confirmation ceremonies for 12-year-old girls on Shavuot, a precursor to the modern Bat Mitzvah. The early Reform movement made Shavuot into a religious school graduation day. Today, Reform synagogues in North America typically hold confirmation ceremonies on Shavuot for students aged 16 to 18 who are completing their religious studies. The graduating class stands in front of an open ark, recalling the standing of the Israelites at Mount Sinai for the giving of the Torah.
The Torah states that the Omer offering (i.e., the first day of counting the Omer) is the first day of the barley harvest. The omer count should begin "on the morrow after the Shabbat", and continue to be counted for seven weeks.
The Talmudic Sages determined that "Shabbat" here means a day of rest and refers to the first day of Passover. Thus, the counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover and continues for the next 49 days, or seven complete weeks, ending on the day before Shavuot. According to this calculation, Shavuot will fall on the day of the week after that of the first day of Passover (e.g., if Passover starts on a Thursday, Shavuot will begin on a Friday).
This literal interpretation of "Shabbat" as the weekly Shabbat was shared by the author of the Book of Jubilees, who was motivated by the priestly sabbatical solar calendar to have festivals and Sabbaths fall on the same day of the week every year. On this calendar (best known from the Book of Luminaries in the Book of Enoch), Shavuot fell on the 15th of Sivan, a Sunday. The date was reckoned fifty days from the first Shabbat after Passover (i.e. from the 25th of Nisan). Thus, Jub. 1:1 claims that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Torah "on the sixteenth day of the third month in the first year of the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt".
In Jub. 6:15–22 and 44:1–5, the holiday is traced to the appearance of the first rainbow on the 15th of Sivan, the day on which God made his covenant with Noah.
The Qumran community, commonly associated with the Essenes, held in its library several texts mentioning Shavuot, most notably a Hebrew original of the Book of Jubilees, which sought to fix the celebration of Shavuot on 15 Sivan, following their interpretation of Exodus 19:1. (See also above, at "Agricultural".)