Shavuotשָׁבוּעוֹת

The festival of Shavuot (or Shavuos, in Ashkenazi usage; Hebrew: שבועות, lit. “Weeks”) is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (mid-May to mid-June); outside Israel it is traditionally kept for two days, the sixth and seventh of Sivan, while Reform and some other communities keep one. Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day G-d gave the Torah to the entire Israelite nation assembled at Mount Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text. The holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Shavuot carries a dual identity that gives the day its depth. In the Torah itself it appears as an agricultural festival, Chag HaKatzir (the Festival of the Harvest) and Yom HaBikkurim (the Day of First Fruits), celebrating the wheat harvest and the bringing of first fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple in Jerusalem. The rabbinic tradition layered onto this the theme of Matan Torah, calling the day Zman Matan Torateinu, "the season of the giving of our Torah," and framing it as the culmination of the Exodus: the people who left Egypt at Pesach reach their purpose seven weeks later by accepting the covenant at Sinai. As one of the Shalosh Regalim (the three pilgrimage festivals, with Pesach and Sukkot), Shavuot historically drew Jews to the Temple. Its themes of revelation, covenant, conversion and belonging (echoed in the Book of Ruth), and the spiritual harvest that follows the agricultural one make it a meditation on what it means to receive and live by the Torah.

Shavuot falls on 6 Sivan, between mid-May and mid-June. Unlike the other festivals, the Torah does not assign it a fixed calendar date but defines it as the fiftieth day counted from the start of the Omer (the second day of Pesach), which is why it is also known by the Greek-derived name "Pentecost" (fiftieth). In the Land of Israel it is observed for one day (6 Sivan); in the Diaspora it is observed for two days (6-7 Sivan) under the rule of Yom Tov Sheni shel Galuyot, and many Reform and other one-day Diaspora communities observe a single day.

On the first day, the Torah reading is Exodus 19:1-20:23, the theophany at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments (Aseret HaDibrot), with the maftir from Numbers 28:26-31 (the festival offerings); the Haftarah is Ezekiel 1:1-28 and 3:12, the Merkavah (Divine Chariot) vision, chosen as a counterpart to the revelation at Sinai. In the Diaspora, the second day reads Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17 (the laws of the three pilgrimage festivals) with the same maftir, and a Haftarah from Habakkuk (commonly given as 2:20-3:19 or 3:1-19, depending on the rite and machzor). A distinctive feature of Shavuot is the public chanting of the Ten Commandments using the "Ta'am Elyon" (the upper accents/upper cantillation), which divides the passage so that each commandment forms its own verse-unit, rather than the ordinary "Ta'am Tachton" (lower accents) used for private study; the underlying trope motifs are largely the standard Torah tunes, with the difference lying chiefly in verse division and accent placement. The Book of Ruth (Megillat Rut, 1:1-4:22) is also read, chanted in the festival Megillah trope shared with Song of Songs (Pesach) and Ecclesiastes (Sukkot).

Beloved Shavuot customs include Tikkun Leil Shavuot, staying up the entire first night to study Torah, a Kabbalistic practice said to "repair" the tradition that the Israelites overslept on the morning of revelation. Many eat dairy foods such as cheesecake, blintzes, and cheese kreplach, explained variously by the Torah being likened to "milk and honey" and by the new laws of kashrut. Homes and synagogues are decorated with greenery, flowers, and leafy branches, recalling the foliage of Sinai and the holiday's harvest roots. In Ashkenazi synagogues the Aramaic liturgical poem Akdamut is recited before the first-day Torah reading. The Book of Ruth is read for its harvest setting and its themes of conversion and covenant, and because King David, Ruth's descendant, is traditionally associated with Shavuot. In Ashkenazi communities Yizkor, the memorial service, is recited (in the Diaspora on the second day, in Israel on the single day). Communities differ on how and when Ruth is read: on the first day or the second, from a scroll or a printed text, with or without a blessing, and in the service or as part of the night's study.