Shavuot - The Cheesecake Holiday

 I LOVE Shavuot, and lovingly call it the Cheesecake Holiday. 

Shavuot combines two major religious observances: 

1. the grain harvest of the early summer. 
2. the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai seven weeks after the exodus from Egypt. 

Shavuot is the Hebrew word for “weeks” and refers to the Jewish festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which occurs seven weeks after Passover. 

Shavuot is the culmination of the 49-day period known as the Omer, a period of semi-mouring as well as spiritual progression from slavery to revelation. Shavuot is also referred to in the prayer liturgy as z’man matan torateinu, the time of the giving of our Torah.

 

Another significant Shavuot custom is the public reading of the Book of Ruth, the story of a Moabite woman who joins the Jewish people after the death of her husband. There are a number of reasons for this custom, but the most frequently cited is that Ruth’s arrival in Israel occurred around the time of the barley harvest, and her acceptance of Judaism was similar to the Jewish acceptance of the Torah. 

We only eat dairy foods because we did not have the laws of Kashrut until later, after we received the Torah. 

Today, it is a celebration of Torah, education, and actively choosing to participate in Jewish life.

I attended a Women's Circle Group to make cherry no-bake cheesecakes. It was fun!