SHAVUOT

(PENTECOST) The Feast of Weeks

Seven weeks after Passover, in accordance with the Torah (Lev. 23:15-16, 21 and Deut 16:20), the Jewish people celebrate the Festival of Weeks, or Hag Ha-Shavuot. (Shavuot means "weeks"). When the Temple was still standing, Shavuot, along with Passover and Succoth, was one of the three pilgrim holidays (shalosh regalim) on which all Jewish male adults who were able to do so were required to come to Jerusalem to make the temple sacrifice of the firstfruits, where the first loaves from the new grain were offered on the altar.

Shavuot Customs

Greenery

Synagogues are decorated with greenery to stress the harvest festival. Some put grass on the floor to commemorate the grass on which the Israelites stood as they received the Torah. Sweet-smelling herbs and grasses may be given out during services.

Reading the Book of Ruth

Among Ashkenazim, the book of Ruth is traditionally read at in the synagogue. The harvest setting is considered appropriate for the agricultural theme of the holiday, and Ruth was an ancestor of King David (see below).

Dairy Foods

Cheese Blintzes (Jewish crepes with filling) and cheese cake are traditional, along with other dairy foods. Kreplach, a three-sided delicacy, are also customary.

Bread

Two loaves of hallah bread are prepared, to remember the two tablets of the Ten Commandments and the two loaves which were offered in the Temple.

Study Circles

Pious Jews may attend special "study circles" in which they study sacred literature til dawn on the Eve of Shavuot.

Importance

The Bible does not specifically identify Shavuot with a historic event, but tradition associates it with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. For this reason it is also known as Zman Mattan Toratenu, or "the Season of the giving of our Torah." It is said that although the children of Israel were freed at Passover, their minds remained enslaved to idolatrous ideas until they received the Torah.

Messianic Significance

The New Testament recalls something very remarkable which took place during this festival in the year that Yeshua ascended to the Father.. Jews and proselytes from throughout the known world were gathered at Jerusalem. The talmidim or disciples of Yeshua were there too, of course, with more than the usual holiday excitement, as only 10 days earlier they had watched their teacher physically ascend into the clouds. According to the second chapter of the book of Acts, they were all gathered at one house, or building, when there was a sudden sound like a violent wind, then something that looked like tongues of fire came down and rested on each of them, and they began to prophecy in languages they had never learned. Hearing the noise, many of the out-of-towners came around to investigate, and were astonished to hear this crew of mostly uneducated Galileeans speaking the various languages of their respective countries. Visitors from Rome heard Latin, and visitors from Egypt heard Coptic; those from Arabia heard Arabic, and those from Parthia heard the lanuage of the Parthians and so on, so that everyone present heard the message in the language with which he was most familiar.

Amazed, the people began to ask each other what all this could mean. Some made fun, and said the young men must be drunk, but Simon Peter got up and explained that no one was drunk, being as it was only 9:00 in the morning, (in any case, drunkenness would not explain such a phenomenon,) and then proceeded to tell them everything that had taken place concerning the one called Yeshua. His entire speech is recorded in Acts 2:14-36. Here's an outline of the major points:

This event is a fulfillment of prophecy. (Acts 2:16, Joel 2:28-32).
God had accredited Yeshua of Nazareth by miracles which Peter's audience had witnessed. (Acts 2:22)
Yeshua had been handed over (betrayed) to them (the crucifixion mob, the ones who shouted "Give us Barabbas!") and died on a cross as a part of God's plan. (Acts 2:23)
God raised him from the dead, in accordance with Jewish prophecy. (Acts 2:24-31)
Peter and the other apostles were eyewitnesses to their Rabbi's resurrection. (Acts 2:32)
Yeshua had been exalted to the right hand of God. (Acts 2:33)
It was the Ruah ha-Kodesh which Yeshua had promised who had "poured out" what the crowd was seeing and hearing that day. (Acts 2:33)
Conclusion: God had made Yeshua both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36)

"What should we do?" the crowd exclaimed, and Peter said: "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua Ha--Meshiach for the forgiveness of your sins." -- Acts 2:38 Three thousand native-born Jews and proselytes did exactly that, and so the church was born. Shavuot is the day of the sacrifice of the firstfruits, where the first loaves from the new grain were offered on the altar. In the New Testament, Yeshua is called, "the firstfruits of many brethren." "But the Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." -- I Corinthians 15:20 He is called the "firstfruits" because many others will be raised from the dead -- all the believers who have been "born again" (Yeshua's own words, John 3:3) into God's family through the Messiah, the "Second Adam." Will you be among them?

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whosoever lives and believes in me will never die." -- Yeshua, John 11:25

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Shavuot - The Feast of Weeks