Birth and the Giving of the Torah

Birth and the Giving of the Torah

Jun 7, 2003 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Shavuot

As I write these words, I am waiting for the imminent birth of a child which my husband and I hope to adopt.

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How Do You Measure a Year?

How Do You Measure a Year?

May 8, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot

We are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?

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Shavu’ot—Hide and Seek with Torah

Shavu’ot—Hide and Seek with Torah

May 14, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Shavuot

In the kiddush we recite this evening, and in all the traditional services of Shavu’ot, we speak of “chag haShavuot hazeh, z’man mattan Torateinu” (This Festival of Shavu’ot, season of the giving of our Torah. [Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 42]). There is a subtle yet subversive element to this description of the day: the parallels for Pesah and Sukkot speak of the “season of our liberation” and “season of our rejoicing,” each of which can reasonably be derived from biblical sources; however, there is no biblical source that associates Shavu’ot with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Shavu’ot is called chag haKatsir in association with the harvest (Exod. 23:16), and the name Shavu’ot derives from the 49 days of counting the Omer after Pesah; the Talmud (BT Pesachim 68b) even uses the term Atzeret (conclusion), seeing the day as “concluding” Pesah much as Shemini Atzeret serves as conclusion to Sukkot.

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From Duty to Community and Back

From Duty to Community and Back

May 29, 2015 By Nigel Savage | Commentary | Naso | Shavuot

Two weeks ago I was amongst a group discussing the nature of obligation in Jewish tradition and contemporary life. I played some role in convening the group because this is—for me—a central and often unaddressed paradox in the world we live in today. One can argue about the bounds of halakhah and about the nature and pace of its evolution. But it is hard to argue that we are not a people with a halakhic tradition. Halakhah is too engrained in Jewish tradition and in Jewish history to argue otherwise.

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Shavuot Day 2

Shavuot Day 2

Jan 1, 1980

1 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. In the mode of Shigionoth.

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Shavuot Day 1

Shavuot Day 1

Jan 1, 1980

1 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, when I was in the community of exiles by the Chebar Canal, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.

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Shavuot Day 2

Shavuot Day 2

Jan 1, 1980

22 You shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field.

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Shavuot Day 1

Shavuot Day 1

Jan 1, 1980

1 On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai.

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