Spotlight On: Shavuot’s Connections to Service
by Leah Koenig | May 18, 2010 | 0 comments
Reading the Torah. Photo by Allison Taylor. CC
Shavuot is one of the Jewish calendar’s multilayered agri-historical holidays. It was originally a harvest festival that marked the transition from the barley harvest to the wheat harvest in ancient Israel. While that may not seem like a huge deal, for a society that was structured around agriculture and dependent on good harvests, it was crucial. Shavuot’s name (festival of weeks) indicates this significance – it was literally a celebration of the, hopefully, productive weeks between the two grain harvests.
In post-biblical times, Shavuot got layered with a huge historical significance. The rabbis calculated that Shavuot fell on the day that the ancient Israelite’s received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. In other words, it is considered to be the moment that God shared The Torah with the Jewish people. Talk about a big day! In celebration, it is customary to spend the entire night of Shavuot studying texts to commemorate the centrality of Torah in Jewish life and tradition. (Many Jews also eat dairy products like cheesecake, blintzes and cheese bourekas – but that’s another story.)
In preparation for the holiday today, Jews count the omer – the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. The omer (or “sheaf”) was the barley harvest offering brought to the Temple and then watched for seven weeks leading up to the wheat harvest. Over time the agricultural roots have been all but lost from the ritual – and today counting the omer is an entirely disembodied act. But as a result, the seven weeks of the omer open themselves up to interpretation and additional significance.
Like the preparatory month of Elul before Rosh Hashanah – the 49 days of the omer offer an extended period of reflection time. The Jewish mystics viewed this time as a “spiritual harvest,” where each day held a unique mystical possibilities and connections.
To that end, each day of the omer can offer the opportunity to reflect on one’s spiritual and physical life, as well as one’s relationships with others. Rabbi Simon Jacobson’s wonderful book, A Spiritual Guide to Counting the Omer serves as a personal guide to the omer, reflecting on each day’s deeper meanings and ending with a related daily exercise. (Often, the exercises relate to some service or action to make the world better.) As for Shavuot itself, Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s book, Seasons of Our Joy also includes a section on the holiday, which ends with some “new approaches” to celebrating the day. This year, no matter how you personally celebrate the holiday, try to incorporate service – or study around the importance of service – into Shavuot.
