Shavuot
Shavuot originally was one of the three pilgrimage festivals during the year. (The others: Passover and Sukot). The Rabbi’s later religiously transformed these agricultural festivals.
In the Second Temple, on Shavuot, the High Priest acted on behalf of the people, presenting a special
Shavuot wave-offering, two loaves of bread made of wheat, the first products of
the spring wheat harvest that begins just as the barley harvest comes to an end
on the holy altar on Passover. Thus, Shavuot in Second Temple times celebrated the bounty
of the spring harvest season.
The Festival is Transformed
In
rabbinic times, a remarkable transformation of the festival took place. Based
on the verse "In the third month after the children of Israel were gone
forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came into the wilderness of
Sinai," [Exodus 19:1] the festival of Shavuot became the anniversary of
the giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Although
Shavuot was known in the Bible by several names, including the Feast of the
Harvest, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of the First Fruits, the sages
added the name "Atzeret"-- withdrawal. In the Torah, the last
days of the two other pilgrim festivals (Passover and Sukkot) are referred to
as Atzeret to indicate on the seventh day of Passover and on the eighth day
after the beginning of Sukkot, there must be a withdrawal from all menial
labor.
Shavuot aka as Atzeret by the Rabbi's to emphasize the necessity of
abstaining from menial labor on this holiday as well. They refused to adopt the
theme of "Giving the Torah" because they thought it would be
sacrilegious to limit the celebration of the giving of the Torah to a single
day. To them, every day of the year should be considered as a day of receiving
the Torah anew.
In traditional settings, the Book of Ruth is read on the second day of Shavuot.
Ruth, a widowed Moabite, married to a Jew follows her Israelite
mother-in-law, Naomi, into the Jewish people with the famous words “whither you
go, I will go, wherever you lodge, I will lodge, your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.”
She asserts the right of the poor to glean the leftovers of the barley
harvest, breaks the normal rules of behavior to confront her kinsman Boaz, is
redeemed by him for marriage, and becomes the ancestor of King David.
Read the full text of the Book of Ruth in Hebrew and English on Sefaria.org.
(https://www.sefaria.org/search?q=book%20of%20ruth&var=1&sort=r)
The Talmudic tractate Soferim (14:16) cites the Midrash of Ruth with
the giving of the Torah, establishing this practice by the
time this Midrash was compiled. (Tractate Soferim is one of the latest books of the Talmud, probably
dating no earlier than the eighth century.)
There are many explanations given for the reading of Ruth on Shavuot.
The most quoted reason is that Ruth’s coming to Israel took place around the
time of Shavuot, and her acceptance into the Jewish faith was analogous of the
acceptance of the Jewish people of God’s Torah.
A second explanation relates to genealogy. Since the Book of Ruth ends
with the genealogy of David, whose genealogical line began with Ruth, it is the Book of Ruth be read on Shavuot because there is a legend that David died on
Shavuot.
Another reason for the reading of Ruth on Shavuot is that its story
takes place at wheat harvest time (50 days after Pesach - Pentacost)
Customary Foods - Dairy
 |
| Blintzes |
 |
| Bareakes |
 |
| Cheesecake |
Every Jewish festival has special associated foods.
Although everyone agrees that the
food of choice for is
cheese, most typically blintzes,
or a Sephardic equivalent
such as bourekas, there are differences of opinion
(some quite charming) as to why it is a custom.
Some derive the
practice directly from scripture, saying we eat dairy to symbolize the “land
flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8) promised
to the Israelites, or that “milk and honey are under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11). These passages, along with “The
precepts of the Lord are… sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:9-11) also
indicate we should eat honey, which is customary in some communities.
A sage
discovered that the initials of the four Hebrew words in Numbers 28:26, which describe the sacrificial meal
offering on Shavuot, spell mei halav (from milk), suggesting
that dairy food is the acceptable dinner for the festival. At Sinai, the
Israelites were considered to be as innocent as newborns, whose food is milk.
Those of kabbalistic [mystical]
bent equate the numerical value of
the word halav (milk) = 40 (‘het’=8, ‘lamed’=30, ‘vet’=2),
with the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments and other teachings (Exodus 24:18). Others look to the mountain itself, which
is termed in Psalms mount of gavnunim (68:15), meaning many
peaks. They connect that description with the Hebrew word gevinah, meaning
cheese.
Scholars who
trace all Jewish customs and rituals to practices common among various ethnic
groups claim that spring harvest festivals characteristically featured dairy
dishes, perhaps because cheese was produced during that season.
Along with blintzes and bourekas, cheesecake is
a widely popular Shavuot item. Some eat kreplach, three-cornered
dumplings that are often filled with meat but can be cheese filled or even
vegetable filled. They are supposed to remind us of the Bible, which is
comprised of three sections (Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim
/ Torah, Prophets and Writings), which was given to Israel through
Moses, who was the third child of Amran (after Aaron and Miriam), following
three days of preparation (Exodus 19:11) in the third month of
the year (Exodus 19:1).
Excerpted with permission from Every Person’s Guide to Shavuot (Jason
Aronson, Inc).
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-do-we-read-the-book-of-ruth-on-shavuot/?utm_source=MyJewishLearning+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3439b96317-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_24&;
Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs,
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