Shavuot is always the 50th day following the beginning of Passover. Under the essential Jewish calendar in which the rabbinical court determined the beginning of a month through witnesses who saw the new moon, it could technically fall on any one of three dates since the number of days in a Jewish month could vary from year to year.The synagogue and home are decorated with flowers, plants and fruits. Dairy foods such as cheesecake and blintzes (which represent the shape of the Torah) are traditionally served. Shavuot, which means "weeks", refers to the timing of the festival which is held exactly 7 weeks after Passover.
The name Shavuot alludes to its independence from the standard calendar. The name means "weeks," demonstrating how the holiday marks the culmination of
seven weeks regardless of the date.
What is the essence of that dateless day? Hints to the answer lie within the process that leads to Shavuot, the book we read on Shavuot, and the number 50 itself.
The key to understanding Shavuot lies within the process that leads up to it. We start counting the days from our exodus from Egypt, our birth as a people, and continue to count until Shavuot, the 50th day. That count marks a period of national metamorphosis. The Jewish people had been so entrenched in Egypt that the Torah described the Exodus as the extraction of one nation from amidst another. As a child just born, we were in our spiritual infancy and in just 50 days we achieved the lofty stature that enabled us to receive the Torah. Our count begins with a simple sacrifice of barley, food regarded as animal fodder. It culminates with a special sacrifice of the finest bread, human food, signifying our national arrival at a new level of existence.
Click for some delicious recipes for Shavuot.
Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Moses, right?
Wrong.
According to the Torah, all of the Israelites heard God speak at Mount Sinai. He appeared to everyone, approximately 3 million people and this is mentioned several times in the Torah.
[Moses told the Israelites]: 'Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld. Do not remove this memory from your heart all the days of your life. Teach your children and your children's children about the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horev [Mount Sinai]...Today begins the two day holiday of Shavuot (or Shavuos in the Ashkenazic pronunciation).
God spoke to you from the midst of the fire, you were hearing the sound of words, but you were not seeing a form, only a sound. He told you of His covenant, instructing you to keep the Ten Commandments, and He inscribed them on two stone tablets.' (Deut.4:9-13)
'You have been shown in order to know that God, He is the Supreme Being. There is none besides Him. From heaven he let you hear His voice in order to teach you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words amid the fire.' (Deut. 4:32-36)
Moses called all of Israel and said to them: 'Hear, O Israel, the decrees and the ordinances that I speak in your ears today -- learn them, and be careful to perform them. The Lord your God sealed a covenant with us at Horev [Mount Sinai]. Not with our forefathers did God seal this covenant, but with us -- we who are here, all of us alive today. Face to face did God speak with you on the mountain from amid the fire.' (Deut. 5:1-4)
It is the anniversary and celebration of the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai to the Jewish people more than 3,319 years ago. It is a time of rededication and commitment to learning Torah.
For lots more about Shavuot, go to http://www.aish.com/holidays/shavuot/default.asp
But let's not also forget the Farhud, where Arabs trained by the Nazis in Baghdad, killed, maimed and committed numerous atrocities against the Jewish population on the two days on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in 1941. The Farhud was the beginning of the end of 2,600 years of Jewish life in Iraq. This event commenced with a rampage of mass murder, mutilation, rape, burning and looting. The carnage would be forever seared upon the collective Iraqi Jewish consciousness.
Until now, the term "Farhud" and the riots and subsequent persecution of the Iraqi Jews during Holocaust and has been completely omitted from virtually all Holocaust study and memorials. This turning point event--the Farhud--was recently resurrected, during the fall of 2004, by a series of Iraqi community seminars, an award-winning bestselling book by author Edwin Black, as well as recent lectures and articles on the subject.
FARHUD - The Farhud Recognition Project
Folks, pay close attention. The Farhud happened in 1941. Do the math, folks. Israel wasn't reborn until 1948.
So was it the "occupation" of the "thepoorpalestinianpeople" that caused the Farhud? Or was the murder of Jews by Iraqis in 1941 just plain Jewicide for the sake of Jewicide?
I know you see my point, readers. I know you can't reject this fact. What you must do, is simply denounce the true intentions of the palestinians and convince all the dopey leftwing "peace supporters" to stop their blind encouragement for the palestinian "occupation" claim, because the reality is - it's a shill.
The fact that Jews in the British Mandate have been attacked by Arabs since the early 1900's - was not because of any territorial dispute - but just because Jews existed.
Maybe Islam is the root of the problem.
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