Shavuot

There is an ancient tradition among Jews to mark events of the past with reminders that align us closely to that time. Each holy day is and opportunity to recall experiences from our long past. We relive them through song, movement, food, ceremonies and hopeful prayers.

Thus on Hanukkah we kindle tiny lights as a memorial to a festival of light. And on Purim we revel in song and costume. So too with Shavout, often referred to as Pentecost. The prefix penta, 50, refers to a cataclysmic event which affected only a small tribe of people but whose power continues to reverberate through the epochs.

Some seven weeks of seven days after witnessing the terror at the Sea of Reeds, the faithful found themselves at the foot of a towering mountain. Sinai.

Convulsing as if in labor, the earth trembled beneath the feet of the Sons of Israel. The mountain shook as the skies belched fire and cracked the heavens. Terrified, the people watched as their leader ascended the mountain to receive the Word.

Shavuot comes on the 50^th day after the Exodus as an eternal reminder of God’s gift to humanity. That one event so many millennia ago has irrevocably changed the path of mankind. That revelation of the will of God set a new standard of morality for all people.

Beginning with the 10 Ordinances and culminating in Five Books of Law, new yardstick of acceptable moral behavior was in place. Humanity was no longer free to kill with impunity or create its own levels and standards of good behavior but had to rely instead on and independent code.

The evening of Shavuot marks the anniversary of that event.  Shavuot begins with the appearance of three stars visible in the night sky.  Until late in the evening, Jews gather in homes and that Synagogues to recall the day with Moses climbed Mount Sinai amidst the deafening roar above and below.