Celebrating Shavuot Next Year 

Let’s face it: Though Shavuot (or Shavuos) is one of the three [shalosh] regalim, the three major Jewish holidays, it’s less likely to be observed than the other two, Passover and Sukkot. Together, these holidays are the three “foot” or pilgrimage holidays. (Regel, singular for regalim, means “foot.”) In the “olden” days, Jews traveled on foot to get to the Beit Hamikdash in Jerusalem. 

What are we celebrating?  Shavuot, also known as Z’man Matan Torahtaynu, the time of the giving of the Torah, commemorates the time when the Jews received the Torah from God at Mount Sinai. The word shavuot actually means “weeks”—and it comes seven weeks after the celebration of Passover. The Hebrew word for “seven”—sheva—comes from the same root word as weeks, probably because there are seven days in a week.  

Seven has other connections to Jewish life. We talk about the seven days of creation. For those who hold the tradition, a bride walks around her groom seven times under the chuppah, the marriage canopy. 

How can we make this holiday more meaningful to us and our families? Clearly the best way to make a holiday meaningful is to learn what we’re celebrating and find ways to incorporate the symbols and customs of the holiday into our lives.   

The first thing you need to know is when the holiday begins. On the Hebrew calendar, Shavuot comes on the same dates every year, the 6th and 7th of Sivan. Here are some suggestions for what you can do to make this holiday more special for you. 

• If you have children or grandchildren, get them excited about the holiday by inviting them to prepare some special food for Shavuot with you. That can include an easy ice cream cake (layer ice cream sandwiches with whipped cream and chocolate sauce then freeze). If you have grandchildren and live far away from them, suggest that one of their parents purchases certain ingredients and you can cook something together over Zoom. 
  
  
• For the young ones in your life, pick out a book about Shavuot from a local bookstore or online. Select a book that focuses on Shavuot that you can either read together or that your child/ grandchild can read to you. There are many different stories or age-appropriate books available. 
  
  
• Challah is also always eaten on Shavuot. If you make your own challah, think about shaping your challah in a form specific for Shavuot like the Ten Commandments tablet, or a Torah. or in the shape of a beautiful flower. I recently saw a challah with food coloring added, shaped as a series of petals overlapping one another with a small circle of dough in the center. It was truly beautiful! 
  
  
• Try this for a fun learning activity for adults or kids: Prior to the holiday, print out a list of the Ten Commandments. Print as many copies as you have people in your household plus one more. Cut up all but one set into individual commandments but put the non-cut set in an envelope or in a drawer for later reference. At some point during the holiday, give each person a set of the Ten Commandments and ask them to put them in order. Who got them all right? (Compare to the list.)  Next, tell everyone to put them in the order they think would work best. Everyone needs to be prepared to explain his or her choices. 
  
  
• Share with your children or grandchildren stories about one or more of the deceased people for which you’re saying Yizkor. Did you have a special relationship with this person? Why were they special to you or your family? Is someone in the family named after them? Sharing stories with your children and grandchildren will help create a closer bond between you and will help your kids and grandkids visualize you when you were younger. 
  
  
• You can serve a new fruit that you have found to add to your Shavuot celebration. Or include a fresh fruit salad at the end of your meal and let others at the table know that you’re serving it in honor of the fruit harvest. 
  
  
• Want to prepare your home for Shavuot? Just as we adorn the sanctuary with flowers, you can dress up your home for the holiday by adding flowers and greenery. 
  
  
• Like most Jewish holidays and Shabbat, we light candles and say the blessing to signify the start of the holiday. (And since the holiday outside of Israel is two days, we light candles. We say the same berakhot for both nights of the holiday: Shel yom tov.) 
  
  
• When the Jews received the Torah, they didn’t know about the laws they were going to be responsible for observing. Those rules included the laws of Kashrut (keeping kosher). Therefore, they ate dairy so they wouldn’t be transgressing. The tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot continues today, and people try to prepare dairy specialties—cheesecakes, dairy kugels, and blintzes. 
  
  
• On the first night of the holiday, known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, it is customary to stay up all night learning. Want to know one of the explanations for staying up all night? They say that the Israelites fell asleep the night before they received the Torah, and Moses had to wake them up. Because we no longer have Moses to wake us, we don’t go to sleep that night. This may not be for you, and you can still learn something without having to stay up all night. Since we received the Torah on this holiday, you may want to brush up on the Ten Commandments or focus on the Book of Ruth, also traditional to read on Shavuot.  
  
  But remember that you don’t have to learn only about Shavuot. Take the opportunity to study something else of interest on the first night of the holiday. 
  
  
• Yizkor is said on the second day of the holiday for any deceased relatives. Yizkor is said on three additional holidays as well: Yom Kippur, the last day of Pesach, and on Shemini Atzeret. 
  
  
• The holidays of Succot and Shavuot have farming references. In fact, two of the other names for Shavuot is Chag HaKatsir, the harvest holiday, and Chag Habikurim, the festival of the first fruits. In ancient times on Shavuot, Jews brought offerings of the first fruits to the Beit Hamikdash. In ancient times as well as today, it is customary to dress in white and adorn the sanctuary with seasonal flowers. 

Are there any more recent traditions connected to Shavuot? In some synagogues, it is traditional to hold Confirmation ceremonies on Shavuot. These events allow teenagers to reaffirm their commitment to the Torah. This evokes both the concept of Z’man Matan Torahtaynu, the season of receiving Torah at Sinai, and Ruth’s pledge of allegiance to the Jewish people, as we read in Megillat Ruth. Some synagogues also choose to officially welcome Jews by choice to their congregations on Shavuot for the same reasons. 

Observing the holidays is a mitzvah but if you can share your observance with others, in any way, you will truly make it a celebration. According to tradition, we ALL stood at Sinai, ready to receive the Torah.  Now that’s something to celebrate!