Shavuot

 

Shavuot  in the Torah

1‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. [1]

This is our main Scripture for dating Shavuot – the Feast of Weeks, one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals.  The Torah doesn’t provide a specific date for this Festival, linking its date directly to that of Passover. The word Shavuot means “weeks”, and the festival of Shavuot marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. As you’ve just read, the Torah prescribes the seven-week counting “after the Sabbath”; since the previous verses in this chapter of Leviticus speak of the Pesach feasts: the Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits, we understand that counting starts from some Sabbath during the Passover. However, no exact specification is given as to which Shabbat is referred to – therefore different interpretations and consequently different dates for Shavuot have been suggested and celebrated over history. “While the book of Joshua (5:11) suggests that the earliest practice understood mimacharat hashabbat to refer to the ‘morrow’ of the first day of Pesach, a usage confirmed by the Septuagint, Josephus and Philo”,[2] the different groups of the Second Temple period understood it differently: for instance, “the Qumran community understood the allusion to be to the first Shabbat after Pesach”[3].

The Bible also says: “count fifty days”, which is why, in the New Testament, the name for the holiday is usually translated as “Pentecost”. Did you know that Shavuot and Pentecost are two different names for the same Festival? Moreover, we find in the Scripture other names for this festival. For instance, in Exodus 23:16, when the Lord is speaking of three annual feasts, He calls Shavuot Chag HaKatzir, Feast of the Harvest.

Today, Shavuot is held on the 6th of Sivan, fifty days after the second day of Passover. It is one of the three major annual feasts in the Biblical calendar. What does Shavuot commemorate in the Jewish tradition?

 

Traditional Jewish understanding

In Jewish tradition, Shavuot came to be understood as commemorating the giving of the Torah to Moshe. Why? In Exodus 19:1 we read that the Israelites came to the foot of Mount Sinai “in the third month”. The third month after the Exodus is Sivan; since this was also the month of Shavuot, the rabbis deduced that God gave the Torah on Shavuot. Thus, Shavuot became associated with giving the Torah. The earliest references to this reinterpretation date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. Gradually, in Jewish tradition it became מתן תורה     חג the Festival of the Giving of the Torah. The word Shavuot שבועות itself provides additional proof, since it can also be read as “oaths”: on that day, God swore eternal faithfulness to Israel, and Israel became God’s people.

So it is now widely accepted that the Torah was given by God to the Jewish people on Shavuot. In this sense, every year on the holiday of Shavuot the Jewish people see themselves as renewing this experience – renewing our acceptance of the Torah. Thus, each Festival in the Jewish calendar is associated with a major historical event and a major religious theme. “Pesach, celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, has creation as its theme, the creation of the Jewish people. The theme of Shavuot is revelation; and the theme of Succot, associated with the forty years of wandering culminated by entering the Promised Land, is redemption[4]. These three major themes – creation, revelation and redemption – are very important and present in different aspects of Jewish life, but they are most evident in the three Biblical Festivals.


Megilat Ruth

As you might expect, the synagogue readings for this holiday include Exodus 19-20: Moshe’s ascent of Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments. However, there is an additional special reading for Shavuot: the book of Ruth, Megillat Ruth, is also read at this Festival. Why? The first and traditional explanation is because the story of Ruth is the story about a harvest. But I really believe there is more to it, and that the choice of this book for Shavuot was absolutely prophetic.

Just think of it: The Festival of Shavuot is described in the Torah in a very prosaic, very mundane way, as Chag HaKatzir, Feast of the Harvest. However, it became the Day when Heaven was opened and the physical, visible reality was transformed at His touch. It happened both in Torah and in the New Testament, at Mount Sinai and in Jerusalem – on both days, God’s reality shone through the earthly, mundane, visible circumstances. Heavenly reality filled the Earthly, and the story that  seemed earthly and  mundane, became filled with Heaven.

Now, there are many things we could say about the book of Ruth. But for me personally, one of the most amazing things about this book is this seemingly huge gap between the mundane and the heavenly: for Shavuot, for the ‘Day of the Open Heaven’, we read this story with harvest, and threshold, and many other technical details. Yet, as this story unfolds, the gap starts to disappear:  like in a doubly-exposed roll of film with its images overlapped, we  start seeing God’s reality beginning to show through the prosaic visible circumstances. Once again, the story that seemed earthly and mundane, becomes filled with Heaven – and in this sense, the book of Ruth is a perfect match for the Shavuot reading.

 

Next time, we are going to discuss Acts 2 –Shavuot in the New Testament –and we will talk more about the Book of Ruth as well.

[1] Lev.23:15

[2] Hillary Le Cornu, Joseph Shulam, The Jewish Roots of Acts, Netivyah Bible Instructions Ministry, 2003, p.55

[3] Ibid, p. 56

[4] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, Jewish New Testament Publications, 1995 – p. 219

About the author

Julia BlumJulia is a teacher and an author of several books on biblical topics. She teaches two biblical courses at the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, “Discovering the Hebrew Bible” and “Jewish Background of the New Testament”, and writes Hebrew insights for these courses.

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Join the conversation (29 comments)

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  1. José ignacio

    Sigo pensando que la utilización del término “Jehová” para hablar de “Yahveh” es erróneo en la profesora Julia. No es posible que una mujer conocedora de la Palabra divina frivolice el nombre del Santo, más siendo experta de la Escritura. Ese nombre habla de.la falsedad del Contenido del Nombre de D-ios, y resta mucho de la seriedad de los estudios

    1. Eric de Jesús Rodríguez Mendoza

      BS”D

      SHalom JOsé Ignacio.

      Entiendo tu punto… el asunto tácito aquí es que la profesora Julia no habla castellano… así que es la persona encargada de hacer la traducción la que ha introducido ese nombre, quizá en aras de hacerse comprender o ignorando quizá el despertar que muchos como tú ya han tenido respecto de ese nombre “Jehová”.

  2. Carlos Alberto Cueto Salinas

    Estimada profesora: muy significativo como se entrelazan tres conceptos madres para los que creemos en el Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento: creación, revelación y redención, que en cada uno de ellos nos relata como Dios actúa mediante su Palabra que expresa Su Voluntad; los hombres, instrumentos; y Su Hijo, Jesucristo, el Mesías, en la realidad física y el sentido espiritual de Sus Actos, y de nuevo vemos las conexiones y coherencia al decodificar ambos textos de la Biblia que en realidad son una sola cosa: el Plan de Dios para los hombres y su salvación al aceptar, comprender y seguir su plan que se encarna en Jesus, el Redentor prometido; me quedo con la inquietud del libro de Rut, el que básicamente entiendo su conexión con el articulo pero quizá se podría desarrollar mas el misterioso , interesante y místico concepto de “cielos abiertos”

  3. Iris Olivera

    Muchas gracias profesora Julia.
    Seria muy bueno una comparativa entre estas fiestas en el.antiguo testamento con lo sucedido en el nuevo testamento. Con la pascual de Jesús como cordero pascual. Su asencion y luego en el pestecoste con la llegada del Espíritu Santos.
    Dios le bendiga y le siga dando sabiduría.

  4. alejandra

    Leo con el mayor agrado e interés todas las comunicaciones que me llegan de ustedes.

  5. CarlosbLopez

    Interansante information.
    Me gustaria conocer mas.

  6. Ahna Diaz

    Muy bien! Tengo duda Shavuot es ttes cosas. Fiesta de la entrega de Tora, en el nvo. Testamento es el Espíritu Santo y aparte la fiesta de la segunda cosecha?

    1. Eric de Jesús Rodríguez Mendoza

      BS”D

      Shalom Ahna!

      Si, en efecto Shavu’ot se llama Jag Habikurim (fiesta de las primicias de la cosecha de cereales), Jag haqatzir (fiesta de la siega), y ya de modo extra bíblico, zman matán toratenu = la época de la entrega de nuestra toráh.

      Cuando comparas lo ocurrido en hechos de los apóstoles con lo ocurrido en el monte Sinay, te sorprenderás de las similitudes. Allá la toráh fue dada en tablas de piedra, acá, en tablas de carne del corazón.

      Un abrazo,

      Eric

  7. Angelika Walter

    Chag Shavuot Sameach, dear Julia! Thank you for your always insightful and inspiring articles. It´s amazing how the Giving of the Torah and the Spirit is linked in this festival as well as the unity of Jew and Gentile in the story of Ruth. So true, that it became the Day when Heaven was opened and the physical, visible reality was transformed at His touch. I hope we will all experience this transforming touch of Heaven!

  8. Fr Christopher P. Kelley

    The Megillah of Ruth has another significance, which may be for the next article, namely that King David is the great-grandson of the Moabite Gentile, Ruth. “The Nations (goyim)” can enter into the life of the Covenant Nation, Israel.
    But further, traditions said that King David was both born, and 70 years later, died on the Day of Pentecost, making it in a special way “his day.”
    The Maccabees, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem through the ancient City of David, discovered the Royal Necropolis where they planned to build. Evidently they removed the bones of the Kings of Judah and reverently placed them elsewhere. It was probably at that time the bones of King David were placed in a mausoleum on the crest of the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem, and since the Temple Mount was by then identified with Moriah, the name “Zion” was fixed to the SW hill, where it was already established by Josephus’ time.
    Thus, a visit to David’s Tomb, on the Day of Pentecost, was a sort of pious duty for pilgrims to Jerusalem.
    You can imagine them singing Psalms as they did so.
    The location of the Upper Room, which nearly at once became known as “Holy Zion, Mother of Churches”, was at the top of Zion, about where the Dormition Church is today (built ca. 1900). Pilgrims on their way to David’s Tomb would have passed directly in front of “Holy Zion” as the Holy Spirit was making His Presence known!
    In other words, GOD orchestrated that there should be “a crowd” of thousands right there, to hear St Peter preach! And note how many times he refers to King David in the sermon (abbreviatedly reported by St Luke, as he admits)! “And his Tomb is with us to this day!” A sweeping gesture to his left by St Peter would draw all eyes to it, literally just a stone’s throw from them!

  9. Mary Eileen

    I see the story of Ruth being about a Kinsman Redeemer. At Mt. Sinai, YHWH showed us He is our Kinsman Redeemer. At the first Shavuot after Messiah’s resurrection, we are shown that Yeshua is the incarnation of our Kinsman Redeemer.

    1. Julia Blum

      Of course, you are right Mary, the story of Ruth is the story about Kinsman redeemer. However, as you know, every story in the Scripture has a lot of layers – and so does the book of Ruth. I will talk more about it in my next article.

  10. Joseph Gershom Sichilima

    Thanks Julia. This insight is good stuff for my spiritual growth.