Jewish Biblical Festival of Shavuot
June 1st, 2006 | by Walter Greenspan |The Jewish Biblical Festival of Shavuot (shuh-VOO-oht) commemorates the day when G-d gave the Jewish people the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) following Moses’ descent from Mount Sinai. This year, Shavuot will occur from sunset, Thursday, June 1 through sundown, Saturday, June 3 on the civil calendar.
The 2-day Festival of Shavuot (Lev. 21:15-16, 21) occurs each year 7 weeks from the second Seder of the Jewish Biblical Festival of Passover. This explains the name “Shavuot” — which is Hebrew for weeks. If you count from one day earlier, from the first Seder of the Festival of Passover, there are 50 days, or as it’s known in Greek — Pentecost, meaning the fiftieth day. Pentecost is what Christians call their celebration of the giving of the law.
The Shavuot synagogue service includes the reading of the Book of Ruth and the “Akadamot”. The Book of Ruth is the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman, who voluntarily chose Judaism and because of her kindness, became the great-grandmother of King David (and for Christians, the ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth), and who is said to have been born on and died on Shavuot. The other book that is read is the “Akdamot”, written in Aramaic by Rabbi Meir ben Isaac of Worms, Germany in the eleventh century C.E., which describes what it will be like during the days of the “Moshiach” (Messiah).
The custom is to eat dairy foods on Shavuot because once the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) was given at Sinai, all methods of killing the animal, other than by “shechitah”, ritually-approved slaughter, were prohibited. Since animals could not be ritually slaughtered on Shabbat (Sabbath), and the Torah was given on Shabbat, on that day the Jews at Sinai had to eat dairy.
Ashkenazic (central and eastern European Jewry) fare includes a variety of dairy dishes including blintzes (fried, filled crepes), noodle or rice kugels (puddings), knishes (filled pastries), kreplach (filled pasta), priogen (filled pastry turnovers), vegetable salads with sour cream, kaesekuchen (cheesecake), strudel, schnecken (yeast pastries), rugelach (cream cheese cookies), kuchen (coffee cakes) and fluden (layered pastry).
Sephardim (Spanish, Portuguese, North African, Balkan, Greek and Turkish Jewry) serve such dishes as borekas (pastry turnovers), ojaldres (phyllo turnovers), calsones (filled pasta), esfongus (spinach-cheese nests), mengedarrah (lentils with rice) topped with yogurt, yogurt salads, sutlach (rice flour pudding), ruz ib assal (honey and milk rice pudding) and biscochos Har Sinai (mounded cookies representing Mt. Sinai).
A fairly newer custom begun in the U.S. by Reform Jewry, and adopted by Conservative Judaism as well, is to hold religious school graduation exercises on Shavuot. More traditional Orthodox communities begin a child’s formal Jewish education on Shavuot.
Chag Sameach (KHAG sah-MEHY-ahkh = A Joyous Holiday)!
** See ‘Comment’ for Cheese Blintz recipe **
5 Responses to “Jewish Biblical Festival of Shavuot”
By Walter Greenspan on Jun 1, 2006 | Reply
Cheese Blintz Recipe
The following recipe for Cheese Blintzes is derived from a recipe by Natalie Fisher, a one-time resident of Shelby, Montana, and is from “The MAJCO COOKBOOK, VOLUME II”, published by the Montana Association of Jewish Communities (1999):
Crepe:
1 cup milk; 4 large eggs; lightly beaten; 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour; butter or vegetable oil for frying
Filling:
1 lb. cottage cheese; 1/4 lb. farmers cheese (dry cottage cheese); 1/2 lb. cream cheese; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 egg
You will also need:
bowl; whisk or fork; large utility spoon; crepe, or small frying, pan; large plate; wax paper; 2nd bowl (or, a cleaned first bowl); plate; tablespoon; frying pan; spatula; sour cream; applesauce; fruit toppings
1. Beat eggs. Add milk. Beat in flour until smooth.
2. Pour in a utility spoon of mixture into a greased crepe or small round pan.
3. Cook on one side until lightly browned.
4. Flip onto a plate lined with wax paper. Stack crepes with wax paper in between.
5. Mix filling ingredients together.
6. TO SHAPE BLINTZES: Place about 1 heaping tablespoons filling on the cooked side of the crepe. Fold in sides and roll up like an egg roll or burrito.
7. TO COOK BLINTZES: Lightly brown (on both sides) using butter in a large frying pan.
8. Serve with sour cream, applesauce or fruit topping.
For a Montana blintz, replace the sweetened cheese filling with huckleberry preserves.
By Aaron Weissman on Jun 1, 2006 | Reply
Thanks for the great description of the holiday.
There are many Shavuos celebrations planned by Jewish Communities throughout our State.
In Great Falls, the US Air Force is hosting Shavuos services, led by Chaplain Sarah Schecter, at the Malmstrom AFB chapel. Services will be tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday morning. Email me at aaron AT weissman DOT com for locations, times and to have your name added to the base list.
In Helena, Dr. Leonard Schonberg will be giving a discussion of some of his recent books on Judaism, followed by a traditional Shavuos dairy feast. Email me for locations and times.
In Bozeman, Congregation Beth Shalom will be holding Shavuos services tonight at 6:30 p.m. at their synagogue.
Gut Yom Tov,
Aaron Weissman
By Walter Greenspan on Jun 1, 2006 | Reply
Chaplain, Captain Schechter is the first female Rabbi to serve in the United States Air Force, and for a time was the only Active Duty female Rabbi in the Department of Defense.
Chaplain, Captain Sarah Schechter is stationed at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, California.
A native of New York City, she received her certificate of Rabbinic Ordination from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.
She spent her first year of college abroad on a kibbutz program in Israel, and then attended college in Kyoto where she conducted research on the history of the Jewish community of Japan and Israeli-Japanese trade relations.
After graduating from Hunter College in NYC in 1982, she returned to Japan to work for Nippon Telephone and Communications as an interpreter.
Wanting to strengthen ties between Israel and Japan, she worked for the Consulate of Israel in Tokyo as a freelance interpreter for visiting delegations from Israel.
In 1996 Schechter enrolled in rabbinic school, and over a seven-year period she received a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters, a Master of Arts in Jewish Education, and was ordained Rabbi from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.
Her military service began as a Chaplain Candidate, Second Lieutenant in March of 2002. She was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Reserves in September 2003 and entered active duty service in January of 2004.
By Aaron Weissman on Jun 1, 2006 | Reply
More on Rabbi Schecter can be found here.
By david on Jun 15, 2006 | Reply
Interesting — didn’t realize that Captain Schecter had achieved a couple of “firsts!”