Notes from Cantor Avima

     I remember many years ago my mother visited her sister Sarah who lived in kibbutz Be'erot Yitzchak. It was Shavuoth and the kibbutz, a religious kibbutz,  knew how to celebrate Shavuot! There were parades of children marching with flags and wreaths of flowers. It was a huge pageant that my mother spoke about for weeks. The holiday of Shavuoth as described in the Torah is a festival of the first harvest of early summer. In fact, the Torah never links the giving of the Torah with this holiday. (The linkage of Shavuoth as being the commemoration of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai came a bit later)  Naturally, Kibbutzim both religious and secular connect to this festival.

     My mother was born in pre-state Israel and came to the US as a teenager. Her experience visiting her sister came late in life after she had lived in the US for many decades. Although Shavuoth is a major festival in the Torah, the reality is that in America, outside of the ultra religious communities, it is a barely noticed holiday. Reform and Conservative Judaism tried to bring it to the forefront by scheduling Hebrew School graduations and confirmations on Shavuoth, but as interest in  confirmation has faded away and most Religious Schools end their school year well before Shavuoth, this too has fallen away. The observance of Shavuoth in America is pretty lackluster. Even the Yizkor ritual on the second day fails to draw in people. Yes, we have blintzes and cheesecake, but there is no family home ritual that compares to a seder on Passover or a Sukkah on Sukkot. So, I am sure the exuberance with which Shavuoth was celebrated on that Kibbutz in Israel was a very exciting contrast. 

     I wonder if perhaps the lack of home observances forces us to gather together as a community to fully celebrate Shavuoth. As a community we study together, as a community we come to shul to hear the ten commandments read from the Torah. As a community we read the story of Ruth, and as a community we enjoy cheesecake and other dairy treats. After all, if one of the themes of Shavuoth is in fact the reenactment of the giving of the ten commandments, it behooves us to gather together in shul and celebrate as a community. We will celebrate Shavuoth on Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday morning and I hope we can make some magic happen and feel as excited as my mother was in her 80's when she visited her sister at Kibbutz Be'erot Yitzchak. 

     Here is a little video about how Shavuyoth is celebrated in Israel with waterfights, crowns of flowers and the eating of dairy food. Shavuoth in Israel