In Spring, we travel from Passover to Shavuot in 50 days during which we celebrate our leaving Egypt as slaves and becoming a new people as Jews. You know that our festivals often include clever bits of roll playing and foods to make these holidays more meaningful. For Passover during our seder we share the memories of being slaves in Egypt,and the story of Moses, from the plagues, and leaving in a moments notice, to freedom and the miracle of crossing the Red Sea using the dinner service, foods, wines and songs.
From the second day of Passover we begin to Count the Omer, a 49 day biblical commandment (Leviticus 23:15), which starts (for some traditions) on the second night of Passover. This mitzvah connects Exodus to Shavuot; honoring the ancient temple offering of an “Omer” of barley from the first of the new barley harvest (Gathering at Passover), and counting each day thereafter until we reach the beginning of the wheat harvest which was collected and offered to the Levites in the temple (the gathering of Shavuot).
During this counting, we will also be commemorating the Shoah (Yom Hashoa), Israel Memorial day (Yom Hazikaron), we will be celebrating Israel Independence day (Yom HaAtzma’ut,). and Lag B’Omer (the 33rd day of the Omer).
The day after Day 49 of the Omer is the beginning of the Festival of Shavuot. Also known as the Feast of the Weeks (for the Counting of the Omer) and Chag Habikkurim (for the festival or the holiday of this harvest), it is one of the three festivals that has ancient agricultural origins associated with harvests and bringing the first fruits as an offering to the temple. This harvest being associated with the sweetness of spring or early summer bounty.
It was later in history, when we were no longer closely linked to agriculture, that a shift was added emphasizing the beginning of the Jewish People after slavery and receiving of the Torah.
The Bible states the references which apply to Shavuot twice in Exodus (Exodus 23:19 and Exodus 34:26), regarding the harvest, “You shall bring the first-fruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God…”, and paired with that is the reference to what rabbis interpreted to be the command that is the basis of Kashruit, “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk”. Those set the tone of the food traditions for the celebration of Shavuot.
One of the season’s first fruit crops harvested was wheat and after processing it, the best flour was made into two loaves of bread and then given to the priests at the temple for wave offerings. They were brought to the temple with other bountiful first harvest offerings in colorful baskets of foods decorated in greenery incorporating the seven species (the first fruits of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates).
It is in the tradition of receiving the Torah on Shavuot that we have the significance of eating dairy food. This starts with learning of the mitzvot of separating milk from meat for the first time as a Jewish People at Mount Sinai, here we first learned about keeping kosher.
Breast milk is an important symbol because it is a complete nourishment for our babies. Think of the importance of breast milk for the baby as compared to the importance of study of the Torah for the Jewish people; or you may think of milk as a symbol of the infancy of the Jewish people, and their birth as a nation at Mount Sinai. In Song of Songs in verse 4.11: we learn “knowledge of the torah is like milk and honey under the tongue.”
Starting from Erev Shavuot, during the intense night study session, the Tikkun Leyl Shavuot (or the Shavuot night watch),and throughout the rest of this holiday we focus on our need for the nourishing dairy foods for our body as well as the nourishing study of the Torah for our soul as we celebrate Shavuot.
As a festival of spring/early summer harvest and as a festival of becoming the Jewish People and receiving the Torah at Mt Sinai, enjoy the special traditional foods of Shavuot.
To you, your family, and friends I wish you
Chag Shavuot Sameach , Happy Shavuot,
and enjoy your dairy treats, be it puddings, cheesecakes, blintzes, or something else.
~Janet Stein-Larson
