Feast of firstfruits 2023
|
The Feast of Shavuot is a harvest festival that is celebrated on the sixth day of Sivan (between May 14th and June 15th each year). As with other Jewish holidays, observances begin at sundown on the previous day and end at sundown (though many diaspora communities observe the holiday over two days). Show
The Feast of Shavuot coincides with the wheat harvest, which concluded seven weeks of harvest, though the holiday also commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The ancient holiday centred on a pilgrimage in which the first fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple in Jerusalem. After the destruction of the Temple and during the diaspora, the agricultural roots of the holiday remained a prominent aspect of celebrations, and they were reasserted in the kibbutz and moshav cooperative farming communities during the resettling of Israel. Modern Shavuot celebrations, common in farming villages, typically involve harvesting, tractor parades, celebratory meals, and dancing. Anticipation for Shavuot begins with the “counting of the Omer” that starts on the second day of Passover and lasts for seven weeks (thus the English name for the holiday, the Feast of Weeks). This links Shavuot to the full Jewish festival calendar and casts the Exodus from Egypt (celebrated at Passover) as a prelude to the giving of the Torah. Correspondingly, evening study of the Torah in communal Tikkun Leil Shavuot events emphasises the celebrants’ readiness, through dedicated study, for the giving of the Torah. Morning synagogue services for Shavuot typically include readings of the Akdmut—a liturgical poem—and the Book of Ruth (which is set during the wheat harvest). Synagogues, as well as homes, are commonly decorated with flowers and greenery, a custom that evokes the midrash account of the foot of Mount Sinai being covered in flowers when the Torah was given. The origins of the widespread custom of consuming dairy products on the holiday are uncertain (possible explanations include that milk evokes the Torah’s nourishment, or its purity), but the significant increase in dairy sales for Shavuot attests to just how prominent this distinctive feature is in the celebration of the holiday. Previous Years
Festival of Weeks ⛰️🌸Shavuot for Hebrew Year 5783 begins in the Diaspora at sundown on Thursday, 25 May 2023 and ends at nightfall on Saturday, 27 May 2023. The festival of Shavuot (or Shavuos, in Ashkenazi usage; Shabhuʿoth in Classical and Mizrahi Hebrew Hebrew: שבועות, lit. “Weeks”) is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June). Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day G-d gave the Torah to the entire Israelite nation assembled at Mount Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text. The holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Read more from Judaism 101 or Wikipedia Advertisement Dates for Shavuot
TanakhShavuot I / שָׁבוּעוֹת א׳ |
