The Jewish Holiday of Shavuot

So, this is Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of Skokie, Illinois. This video is about a holiday of Shavuot. Christians called the ‘Pentecost.’ It comes on the 50th day after the second night of Passover. The bible, just call it as the Feast of Weeks Shavuot. It is also got a name called Hag Ha'Bikkurim, so what was it? Well it is one of the three pilgrimage festival when our ancestors were supposed to leave their firms and go the Jerusalem on the holy day and offer sacrifices. The other two are Passover and Sukkot or Tabernacles. On Shavuot, it was called Hag Ha'Bikkurim—the Holiday of the First Fruits. And our ancestors would offer the first of the harvests to the temple, to the priests. It was a way of glorifying God by offering the first they had to God. And they were suppose the recite a formula on which many bible scholars believe as one of the oldest kernels of Jewish’s history. It was a formula that is now followed at our Passover Haggadah Seder which is called “Arami Oved Avi.” And my father was a warden ‘Arami,’ a soldier down to Egypt. We came by innumerous and we were pressed there and God took us out with a strong hand all stretched arm and brought us to the land of Israel. Now besides Hag Ha'Bikkurim, we have been in a tradition associated with this day—the giving of the Torah, so we call it Zeman Matan Torateinu, the birthday of the Torah, then which the Ten Commandments were received by Moses. And so, we celebrate it with studying all night. Many Jewish communities will spend all night Shavuot studying. It is one day holiday in Israel and among the Jews here, it is two-day holiday among traditional Jews in the Diaspora. In other videos, I explained why that is. Among the customs is the reading of the Ten Commandments is part of the synagogue service and Shavuot. We are also having Yizkor services which we have four times a year and prayers for our dead. Also a custom among non-orthodox Jews is confirmation services for our tenth graders or older students who have completed a certain phase of their Jewish education, they have a confirmation ceremony. We eat milk products and have really wonderful festive of time. It is one of the great major pilgrimage festival of Judaism and I hope that explains it. The main issue to think about in the context in Shavuot is the Matan Torah. We talk about the giving of the Torah but the questions is how do receive the Torah. It is really a time for all of us to reconfirm ourselves to the idea of the giving of the Revelation that God decided, the God had a gift to give and God gave to the children of the Israel, one said that it is because no one else ordered it but once he heard it—that God wanted to give it to us we said we will practice it and then we will try to understand it. And we have been trying to do that since we got it, the holiest gift in the world was given to us to share with the world. Then the Shavuot, in brief, one of the interesting biblical books that is read on Shavuot is the Book of the Ruth. The story of the Book of Ruth is very interesting, it is sad really in the time of the Judges in the bible and Naomi and her husband and two sons left Israel to the time of the great famine. They went to Moab, east. There the two boys married Moabite women. In some terrible disaster, all three men died. So, Naomi decided she wanted to return to her homeland—Israel and she told it to her two daughters-in-law that that is what she wanted, and they very nice girls, but they should probably stay with their people. And then Oprah says, “Well, that sounds good,” but Ruth said “No, if you go, I will go. Your God, be my God. Will you die, I will die and there I will be buried nothing but death can spare me from you.” And Naomi says, “Well, you have no others kids to give you, no others boys” and she said “I just want to be with you and I want to be with you.” basically was the first real conversion and she is blessed in the chronology with being the Great Grandmother of King David himself. The seeds of the Messiah come from Ruth. This woman had converted for being a Moabite woman. And the last of the story is it eventually she goes into the fields to collect grain which the Torah says is a prerogative of the poor people and there she meet a cousin of Naomi Boaz and they married and they have children and how we get to King David. And it is read Shavuot because of its connection too, just as Ruth accepted to Torah and God, so the Jewish people reconnect and recommit the Torah and God.