What The Rabbis Of The Talmud Learned From Naomi And Ruth
May 21, 2014 By Judith Hauptman | Short Video | Shavuot
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Who Are You? A Question For All Of Us
May 21, 2014 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Short Video | Shavuot
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A Deer In The Sheepfold: A Conversion Tale
May 21, 2014 By Anne Lapidus Lerner | Short Video | Shavuot
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Birth and the Giving of the Torah
Jun 7, 2003 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Shavuot
As I write these words, I am waiting for the imminent birth of a child which my husband and I hope to adopt.
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How Do You Measure a Year?
May 8, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bemidbar | Shavuot
We are doing an awful lot of counting this week: we count the final days of the Omer, and, as our parashah begins, take the census of the Israelite community. What does all of this counting have to do with the ways in which we measure what really matters?
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Shavu鈥檕t鈥擧ide and Seek with Torah
May 14, 2013 By Samuel Barth | Commentary | Shavuot
In the kiddush we recite this evening, and in all the traditional services of Shavu鈥檕t, we speak of 鈥�chag haShavuot hazeh, z鈥檓an mattan Torateinu鈥� (This Festival of Shavu鈥檕t, season of the giving of our Torah. [Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals, 42]). There is a subtle yet subversive element to this description of the day: the parallels for Pesah and Sukkot speak of the 鈥渟eason of our liberation鈥� and 鈥渟eason of our rejoicing,鈥� each of which can reasonably be derived from biblical sources; however, there is no biblical source that associates Shavu鈥檕t with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Shavu鈥檕t is called chag haKatsir in association with the harvest (Exod. 23:16), and the name 厂丑补惫耻鈥檕迟&苍产蝉辫;derives from the 49 days of counting the Omer after Pesah; the Talmud (BT Pesachim 68b) even uses the term Atzeret (conclusion), seeing the day as 鈥渃oncluding鈥� Pesah much as Shemini Atzeret serves as conclusion to Sukkot.
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From Duty to Community and Back
May 29, 2015 By Nigel Savage | Commentary | Naso | Shavuot
Two weeks ago I was amongst a group discussing the nature of obligation in Jewish tradition and contemporary life. I played some role in convening the group because this is鈥攆or me鈥攁 central and often unaddressed paradox in the world we live in today. One can argue about the bounds of halakhah and about the nature and pace of its evolution. But it is hard to argue that we are not a people with a halakhic tradition. Halakhah is too engrained in Jewish tradition and in Jewish history to argue otherwise.
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