The clergy and choir from Rodef Shalom will join Rabbi Daniel Fellman, Rabbi Keren Gorban, and our Intergenerational Choir for Shavuot Morning Service and Yizkor at Temple Sinai.  

The festival of Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and encourages us to embrace the Torah’s teachings and be inspired by the wisdom Jewish tradition has to offer.

Shavuot is the Hebrew word for “weeks,” and the holiday occurs seven weeks after Passover. Shavuot, like many other Jewish holidays, began as an ancient agricultural festival that marked the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. In ancient times, Shavuot was a pilgrimage festival during which Israelites brought crop offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. Today, it is a celebration of Torah, education, and the choice to participate actively in Jewish life.

After the Temple was destroyed and the Israelites could no longer bring the first fruits of their harvest as offerings, Talmudic rabbis reframed the holiday. The Rabbis ascribed Shavuot to the biblical story which recounts how, after the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites proceeded to Mount Sinai in the desert. Moses ascended the mountain to meet God, who gave him the Ten Commandments, which were written on two tablets to be delivered to the Israelites.

Based on the Torah’s description of when the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 19:1), the Rabbis set the date of the giving of the Torah as 6^th day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, and the holiday that was once purely agricultural became the commemoration of the Israelites receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Today, even as we remember its agricultural roots, the holiday allows us to celebrate the Torah, education, and the wisdom that Jewish teachings have to offer us.

(Source: https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/shavuot/shavuot-history)