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Shavuot
Holiday of: Judaism and Jews
Title: Hebrew: שבועות or חג שבעות
Translation: "Festival of [seven] Weeks"
Begins: Sixth day of Sivan
Stops: Seventh (inside Israel 6th) day of Sivan
Occasion:One of a Three Pilgrim Festivals. Celebrating a generating of the Ten Commandments by God to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai 49 days when a Exodus from ancient Egypt. Celebrating a harvest & number one fruits in the Land of Israel.
Culmination of the 49 years of Counting of the Omer.
Symbols:Festal meals. Staying higher when asleep (Tikkun leil) to see Torah or Talmud. Eating of dairy foods at one meal.
Related: Passover which precedes Shavuot.
Shavuot (Hebrew שבועות), ("[seven] weeks") (pronounced: shah-voo-OH-t) is one of the threesome Biblical pilgrim's journey festivals. These are the major Jewish holiday, and is also referred to as a Feast of Weeks. Greek-speaking Jews gave it the title Pentecost (πεντηκόστη) since it occurs fifty days fallowing Passover. If you don't count Passover, a holiday is 49 years when Passover, which occurs as jubilee of days. This finishes a Counting of the Omer.

Shavuot has several aspects & following has been known as by numbers of list. In the Hebrew Bible it is called a "Feast of Harvest" (Hebrew: חג הקציר, Hag ha-Katsir; Ex. 23. Sixteen) & a "Feast of Weeks" (Hebrew: חג שבעות, Hag Shavuot; ib. xxxiv. Xxii; Deut. sixteen. Tenner), besides a "Day of the First-Fruits" (Hebrew יום הבכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim; Num. twenty-eight. Twenty-six).

Connection with harvest

Around ancient Israel the grain harvest lasted 7 weeks & was a year of gladsomeness (Jer. v. Twenty-four; Deut. sixteen. Nina from carolina; Isa. ennead. Ii). It began by using a harvest of a barley when you took a Passover & ended sustaining the harvest home of the wheat at Shavuot. Shavuot was so a final festival of a grain harvest, even as the eighth day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) was the final festival of the fruit harvest. Based on data from Ex. 34:18-26, Shavuot is a 2nd of the triad festivals to exist as celebrated at the sanctuary. A Israelites are to bring to a sanctuary "the first-fruits of wheat harvest," "the first-fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field." Which are actually non offerings in spades prescribed for the community; "but with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand . . . shall you rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter,.. the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow" (Deut. 16. 9-12). Within Lev. twenty-three. 15-22 there is a regularly appointive foremost-fruit offering which a whole community must bring. Various carnal sacrifices were enjoined, & there are no function was permitted.

In Rabbinical literature

A festival is known in the Mishnah and Talmud as Atzeret. This term is ordinarily translated the "solemn assembly," meaning a congregation at a pilgrim's journey festivals. A title is applied as well to Passover (Deut. 16. Eight) & to Sukkot (Lev. twenty-three. 36). Inside post-Talmudic & geonic literature the Biblical title Shavuot was resumed.

Shavuot lessens on the 6th of Sivan and never occurs on Tuesday, Thursday, or even Saturday. Inside numerous communities outside Israel, a holiday is celebrated for 2 years.

Shavuot is the fiftieth day of 'Omer (counting of the grain offering). In a period of the being of the Temple in Jerusalem a first-fruits were offered besides as a sacrifice of deuce loaves of bread from either the fresh harvest, etc. (Lev. 23. 15-21).

"The morrow after Sabbath"

On a Biblical commandment to offer a 'omer "on the morrow after the Sabbath" = (ib. verse Xi), a ancient scholarly rabbis maintained that "Sabbath" here means only the day of rest & refers to Passover. A Sadducees and Boethusians disputed this interpretation, contending that "Sabbath" meant "Saturday." Accordingly it would transport a count of "seven weeks" from either a morrow of the number one Saturday inside Passover, thus that Pentecost would universally fall in Sunday. A Boethusians advanced a argument "because Moses, as a friend of the Israelites, wished to give them an extended holy day by annexing Pentecost to the Sabbath." Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai then turned to his disciples & pointed out that a Law by design fixed a interval of fifty years sequentially to show you that a septenary weeks, nominally, don't necessarily lead off from either Sunday (Men. 65a, b). View as well Pharisees. Karaite Judaism today continues to follow a interpretation that a Sabbath within wonder was a Sabbath occuring when you took Passover like than a Passover itself [http://www.karaite-korner.org/shavuot.shtml].

A traditional festival of Pentecost when a birthday of the Torah (i.e. "the time our Law was given"), while Israel became the constitutional person & "a distinguished people," remained a resole celebration fallowing a Exile. A Shavuot prayers develop information to this & particularly to a precepts deduced from either the Torah. Kabbalists (adherents of Jewish mysticism) arranged a favorite service for a eve of Shavuot, consisting of extract from either the beginning & prevent of each book of the Bible & Mishnah, which abridgement it considered equivalent to the reading of the complete works, & accepted when the approval of the Law.

Tikkun Lel Shavuot

A reading occupies a pious till morning; others finish it at midnight. A collection is known as Tikkun Lel Shavuot ("Preparation for Pentecost Eve"). A Pentateuch reading contains 3 to seven verses from either a beginning & a prevent of each parashah (or even sidra). A bit of of a significant sections come page through fully, when follows: the times of Creation (Gen. i personally. One-ii. Ternion); a Exodus and a song at the Red Sea (Ex. 14. One-xv. Twenty-seven); a generating of the Decalogue in Mount Sinai (ib. eighteen. One-xx. Twenty-six, twenty-four. One-18, xxxiv. 27-35; Deut. v. One-vi. Nina from carolina); a historical read & a share of Shema (ib. x. 12-xi. Twenty-five). A equivalent method is utilized sustaining a excerption from either a Prophets: a crucial ch. we. of Ezekiel (a Merkabah) is see fully. A Minor Prophets come considered when a single book: a extract come from either Hos. i personally.One-Three, Hab. two. 20-iii. Xix, & Mal. ternion. 22-2 dozen (The. V. iv. Four-6). Ruth is underst& fully; and of the Psalms, Ps. we., nineteen., lxviii., cxix., chlorine. A a correct sequence of the twenty-24 books of the Scriptures is different from either the accepted of these: probably these are an ancient sequentially, when follows: (Torah) 5 Books of Moses; (Prophets) Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; (Minor Prophets) [Hagiographa] Ruth, Psalms, Job, Adage, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Story, Ezra: 100% from either a Twenty-four books. Next, a excerption from either mishnayyot come scroll through, a beginning & prevent of each treatise, altogether sixty-3, by owning a bit of crucial chapters around extenso; next, a Sefer Yeẓirah; a 613 precepts equally enumerated by Maimonides (look at Commandments, A 613). Late, selection from either a Zohar bearing on the subject were added, with opening & concluding prayers. the whole reading is divided into baker's dozen area, fallowing apiece of which a Ḳaddish di-Rabbanan is recited.

A Zohar calls a instance between Passover & Pentecost the "courting days of the bridegroom Israel with the bride Torah." Victims world health organization participate in the tiḳḳun celebration come a Temple-men significant victims "of the King [God]." A Zohar has 2 quip in Pentecost: (I) "In the twin month [zodiac sign of Gemini] the twin Law [written and oral] was given to the children of twin Israel [Jacob and Esau]." (Two) "In the third month Sivan the treble Law [Pentateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa] was given to the choice [Hebrew word similar to word for three] people" (Zohar, Yitro, 78b).

Because a Law was given in Pentecost, a Rabbis wished to produce that day a virtually all gratifying holy day. R. Joseph ordered the third (better) calf for the festival, locution: "Were it not for this day how many Josephs would there be in the street!" ("without the Law there would be no distinction of scholarship," Pes. 68b). The popular custom around Pentecost is to eat dairy farm nutrients & cheese-cakes in honor of the Law, which is compared to "honey and milk" (Cant.iv. Xi). A meat meal follows a milk meal. These 2 meals represent them loaves of bread, erstwhile offered in the bikkurim offering at a Temple service.

In a tabernacle the scroll of Ruth is read because a story of Ruth embracing Judaism & the description of the scene of harvesting come appropriate to the festival of the Law and of the harvest. A second understanding given is that King David, a descendent of Ruth, died in Pentecost (''Sha'come Teshubah to Oraḥ Ḥayyim'', 494).

Floral decorations and confirmation

A custom widely prevails of displaying greens on a floors & of otherwise decorating a personal & the tabernacle sustaining plants, flowers, & possibly by owning trees. A greens help to remind one of a green mountain of Sinai; a trees, of the day of judgement for fruit-trees in Pentecost (R. H. we. Ii); it as well commemorate a harvest festival of previous days.

Confirmation in Reform Judaism

Around an effort to encourage assimilation & prevent anti-Semitism, numerous Reform Jews inside Europe in the 1800s promoted ending numerous traditional Jewish rituals, & adopting recently rituals according to victims of their Protestant Christian neighbors. Intrinsically, it created what it known as a rite of confirmatiin for 16 season old Jewish boys & girls in the tabernacle on Shavuot. This spread to Reform Judaism inside United states of america. This ritual inside numerous communities replaced a celebration of Bar mitzvah for even some period; in a survive Thirty years virtually all of the Reform movement has readopted the traditional observance of the Bar or Bas mitzvah; confirmation ceremonies come nowadays other uncommon.

Date of the giving of the law

In a Jewish traditiin, a precise day on which a Torah was given is under consideration. Virtually all of the authoritative rabbis say it was given on the 6th of Sivan; based on data from R. Jose it was a 7th of that year. A authoritative rabbinic literature holds that a Israelites arrived at the woods of Sinai on the up to date moon (Ex. nineteen. Unity), & that a Ten Commandments were given on the following Saturday. A wonder whether a future-moin day fell on Sunday or even Monday is undecided (Talmud, tractate Shabbat 86b).

Shavuot - Commemorating the Giving of the Torah !
Chabad Lubavitch Maryland Region's area dedicated to the holiday of Shavout.

Shavuot on the Net
Information about the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday honoring the giving of the Torah.

Shavuot Journal from the VBM
Collection of articles in philosophy and Halakha, about the holiday of Shavuot, from the faculty of Yeshivat Har Etzion. Level: Advanced

The OU.ORG Shavuot Celebration
Print, audio, even video, about the holiday of Shavuot, the giving of the Torah, and the Book of Ruth. Both introductory and advanced level.

Shavuot
Meaning and observances of the Feast of Weeks, from a Karaite perspective.

The Karaite Korner - Shavuot
Karaite explanation of the holiday of Shavuot

VirtualShavuot.com
How to celebrate, say, pray, listen, decorate and eat on Shavuot, plus the Ten Commandments, multi-level study, stories, recipes and kids area

Greetsomeone.com
Send virtual Shavuot egreetings from Greetsomeone.com

Celebrate with JOI: Shavuot
The Jewish Outreach Institute Shavuot page, with stories, explanations of the traditions and links.

The Homer Calendar: Count the Omer with Homer Simpson
Clickable omer calendar, with transliteration and translation of the blessing and count, featuring Homer Simpson. Also pictures of Jewish life in Bart Simpons's Springfield.






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