Happy Shavuot! Happy Pentecost!

   Shavuot (Shah-voo-OHT), the Feast of Weeks, is a wheat harvest celebration occurring seven weeks after Passover.   It begins sunset Thursday, May 28, 2009  (6th of Sivan, 5769). 

   Tradition holds that Moses received the law on Shavuot. In remembrance, some people stay up all night studying Torah, to reenact the Mt. Sinai experience. The book of Ruth, with its harvest theme, is also read. Ruth was a Gentile who chose to follow the God of Israel. She became the great-grandmother of King David. Tradition says that King David was both born and died on Shavuot.

   We decorate with flowers and greenery, and offer a sacrifice of two loaves of bread–representing Jews and Gentiles. Dairy products are eaten, because when we received the law, we were like newborn babes, just beginning to understand God.

   Torah tells us that when the law was given, those who rejected God were put to death, and about three thousand died in one day. (Exodus 32:25-28)

   Christians know Shavuot by its Greek name: Pentecost. The book of Acts tells us that after the ascension of Jesus, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God came upon believers who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast, and they shared the word of God in languages not their own.

   The apostle Peter then used the prophecies of David to speak of the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:25-37). It is interesting to note the New Testament records that on Pentecost, about three thousand received the message of Jesus as Savior, and were added to body of believers in one day. (Acts 2:41)

   The apostle Peter wrote, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word…” (1 Peter 2:2)

Happy Shavuot!

Copyright 2009, Kathryn A. Frazier http://PreciousHolidays.wordpress.com

See also: Shavuot [Pentecost] Compels Us To Unity

Advertisement