Shavuot (Hebrew: שבועות‎‎, lit. “Weeks”), known as the Feast of Weeks in English and as Pentecost (Πεντηκοστή) in Ancient Greek, is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (may fall between 14 May–15 June).

Shavuot has a double significance. It marks the all-important wheat harvest in the Land of Israel (Exodus 34, 22); and it commemorates the anniversary of the day GOD gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text.

The holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer, and its date is directly linked to that of Passover. The Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving GOD. The word Shavuot means weeks, and the festival of Shavuot marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. The yahrzeit of King David is traditionally observed on Shavuot. Hasidic Jews also observe the yahrzeit of the Baal Shem Tov.

Shavuot is one of the less familiar Jewish holidays to secular Jews in the Jewish diaspora, while those in Israel as well as the Orthodox community are more aware of it. According to Jewish law, Shavuot is celebrated in Israel for one day and in the Diaspora (outside of Israel) for two days. Reform Judaism celebrates only one day, even in the Diaspora.

Significance in Holy Scriptures

Agricultural (wheat harvest)

Shavuot is not explicitly named as the day on which the Torah was revealed by GOD to the Israelite nation at Mount Sinai in the Bible, although this is commonly quoted to be its main significance.

What is indeed textually connected in the Bible to the Feast of Shavuot, is the season of the grain harvest, specifically of the wheat, in the Land of Israel. In ancient times, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness (Jer. 5, 24 ; Deut. 16, 9–11 & Isa. 9:2). It began with the harvesting of the barley during Passover and ended with the harvesting of the wheat at Shavuot. Shavuot was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the eighth day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) was the concluding festival of the fruit harvest. During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, an offering of two loaves of bread from the wheat harvest was made on Shavuot.

Scriptural

Names in the Torah

In the Bible, Shavuot is called the Festival of Weeks (Hebrew: חג השבועות‎, Ḥag ha-Shavuot, Exodus 34, 22 ; Deuteronomy 16, 10); Festival of Reaping (Hebrew: חג הקציר‎, Ḥag ha-Katsir, Exodus 23, 16), and Day of the First Fruits (Hebrew יום הבכורים‎, Yom ha-Bikkurim, Numbers 28, 26).

Shavuot, the plural of a word meaning “week” or “seven”, alludes to the fact that this festival happens exactly seven weeks (i.e. “a week of weeks”) after Passover.

In the Talmud

The Talmud refers to Shavuot as Atzeret (Hebrew: עצרת‎‎, literally, “refraining” or “holding back”), referring to the prohibition against work on this holiday and to the conclusion of the holiday and season of Passover. Since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Hellenistic Jews gave it the name “Pentecost” (πεντηκοστή, “fiftieth day”).

Biblical observances

Ceremony of First Fruits, Bikkurim

Shavuot was also the first day on which individuals could bring the Bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple in Jerusalem (Mishnah Bikkurim 1:3). The Bikkurim were brought from the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deut. 8:8).

In the largely agrarian society of ancient Israel, Jewish farmers would tie a reed around the first ripening fruits from each of these species in their fields. At the time of harvest, the fruits identified by the reed would be cut and placed in baskets woven of gold and silver. The baskets would then be loaded on oxen whose horns were gilded and laced with garlands of flowers, and who were led in a grand procession to Jerusalem. As the farmer and his entourage passed through cities and towns, they would be accompanied by music and parades.

Temple in Jerusalem

At the Temple in Jerusalem, each farmer would present his Bikkurim to a Kohen in a ceremony that followed the text of Deut. 26, 1–10.

This text begins by stating: “An Aramean tried to destroy my father,” referring to Laban’s efforts to weaken Jacob and rob him of his progeny (Rashi on Deut. 26:5)—or by an alternate translation, the text states “My father was a wandering Aramean,” referring to the fact that Jacob was a penniless wanderer in the land of Aram for 20 years (ibid., Abraham ibn Ezra).

The text proceeds to retell the history of the Jewish people as they went into exile in Ancient Egypt and were enslaved and oppressed; following which GOD redeemed them and brought them to the land of Israel.

The ceremony of Bikkurim conveys the Jew’s gratitude to GOD both for the first fruits of the field and for His guidance throughout Jewish history (Scherman, p. 1068).

Modern observances

Shavuot is unlike other Jewish holidays in that it has no prescribed mitzvot (Torah commandments) other than traditional festival observances of meals and merriment; and the traditional holiday observances of special prayer services and the required abstention from work. However, it is also characterized by many minhagim (customs).

A mnemonic for these customs is the letters of the Hebrew word acharit (אחרית‎, “last”). Since the Torah is called reishit (ראשית‎, “first”) the customs of Shavuot highlight the importance of custom for the continuation and preservation of Jewish religious observance. These customs, largely observed in Ashkenazic communities, are:

• אקדמות‎ – Akdamut, the reading of a liturgical poem during Shavuot morning synagogue services
• חלב‎ – Chalav (milk), the consumption of dairy products like milk and cheese
• רות‎ – Ruth, the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services (outside Israel: on the second day)
• ירק‎ – Yerek, the decoration of homes and synagogues with greenery
• תורה‎ – Torah, engaging in all-night Torah study.

Book of Ruth

There are five books in Tanakh that are known as Megillot (Hebrew: מגילות‎, “scrolls”) and are publicly read in the synagogues of some Jewish communities on different Jewish holidays. The Book of Ruth (מגילת רות‎, Megillat Ruth) is read on Shavuot because: (1) King David, Ruth’s descendant, was born and died on Shavuot (Jerusalem Talmud Hagigah 2, 3); (2) Shavuot is harvest time [Exodus 23, 16], and the events of Book of Ruth occur at harvest time; (3) The gematria (numerical value) of Ruth is 606, the number of commandments given at Sinai in addition to the 7 Noahide Laws already given, for a total of 613; (4) Because Shavuot is traditionally cited as the day of the giving of the Torah, the entry of the entire Jewish people into the covenant of the Torah is a major theme of the day. Ruth’s conversion to Judaism, and consequent entry into that covenant, is described in the book. This theme accordingly resonates with other themes of the day; (5) Another central theme of the book is hesed (loving-kindness), a major theme of the Torah.

Greenery

According to the Midrash, Mount Sinai suddenly blossomed with flowers in anticipation of the giving of the Torah on its summit. Greenery also figures in the story of the baby Moses being found among the bulrushes in a watertight cradle (Ex. 2:3) when he was three months old (Moses was born on 7 Adar and placed in the Nile River on 6 Sivan, the same day he later brought the Jewish nation to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah).

For these reasons, many Jewish families traditionally decorate their homes and synagogues with plants, flowers and leafy branches in honor of Shavuot.Some synagogues decorate the bimah with a canopy of flowers and plants so that it resembles a chuppah, as Shavuot is mystically referred to as the day the matchmaker (Moses) brought the bride (the nation of Israel) to the chuppah (Mount Sinai) to marry the bridegroom (God); the ketubah (marriage contract) was the Torah. Some Eastern Sephardi communities actually read out a ketubah between God and Israel as part of the service.

All-night Torah study

The practice of staying up all Shavuot night to study Torah – known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot (Hebrew: תקון ליל שבועות‎‎) – has its source in the Midrash, which relates that the night before the Torah was given, the Israelites retired early to be well-rested for the momentous day ahead. They overslept and Moses had to wake them up because God was already waiting on the mountaintop.^[27] To rectify this perceived flaw in the national character, many religious Jews stay up all night to learn Torah.

The custom of all-night Torah study goes back to 1533 when Rabbi Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch, then living in Ottoman Salonika, invited Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz and other Kabbalistic colleagues to hold Shavuot-night study vigils for which they prepared for three days in advance, just as the Israelites had prepared for three days before the giving of the Torah. During one of those study sessions, an angel appeared and taught them Jewish law.

The mass-consumption of coffee in the Ottoman empire is thought to be one factor in the emergence of the practice of all-night Torah study on Shavuot.

Any subject may be studied on Shavuot night, although Talmud, Mishnah, and Torah typically top the list. People may learn alone or with a chavruta (study partner), or attend late-night shiurim (lectures) and study groups.

In Jerusalem, tens of thousands of people finish off the nighttime study session by walking to the Western Wall before dawn and joining the sunrise minyan there. This practice began in 1967. One week before Shavuot of that year, the Israeli army recaptured the Old City in the Six-Day War, and on Shavuot day, the army opened the Western Wall to visitors. Over 200,000 Jews came to see and pray at the site that had been off-limits to them since 1948. The custom of walking to the Western Wall on Shavuot has continued every year since.

Tikkun Leil Shavuot

In keeping with the custom of engaging in all-night Torah study, the Arizal, a leading Kabbalist of the 16th century, arranged a special service for the evening of Shavuot. The Tikkun Leil Shavuot (“Rectification for Shavuot Night”) consists of excerpts from the beginning and end of each of the 24 books of Tanakh (including the reading in full of several key sections such as the account of the days of creation, The Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Shema) and the 63 books of Mishnah. This is followed by the reading of Sefer Yetzirah, the 613 commandments as enumerated by Maimonides, and excerpts from the Zohar, with opening and concluding prayers. The whole reading is divided into thirteen parts, after each of which a Kaddish di-Rabbanan is recited when the Tikkun is studied in a group of at least ten Jewish, Bar Mitzvahed men.

This service is printed in a special book, and is widely used in Eastern Sephardic, some German and Hasidic communities. There are similar books for the vigils before the seventh day of Pesach and Hosha’ana Rabbah.

Counting of the Omer

The Torah states that the Omer offering (i.e., the first day of counting the Omer) is the first day of the barley harvest (Deut. 16:9). It should begin “on the morrow after the Shabbat“, and continue to be counted for seven Sabbaths. (Lev. 23:11).

The Talmudic Sages determined that “Shabbat” here means a day of rest and refers to the first day of Passover. Thus, the counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover and continues for the next 49 days, or seven complete weeks, ending on the day before Shavuot. According to this calculation, Shavuot will fall on the day of the week after that of the first day of Passover (e.g., if Passover starts on a Thursday, Shavuot will begin on a Friday).

Karaites differ in their understanding of “morrow after the Sabbath”. Karaites interpret the Sabbath to be the first weekly Sabbath that falls during Passover. As a result, the Karaite Shavuot is always on a Sunday, although the actual Hebrew date varies (which compliments the fact that a specific date is never given for Shavuot in the Torah, the only holiday for which this is the case). Other non-Rabbinical religious leaders such as Anan ben David (founder of the Ananites); Benjamin al-Nahawandi (founder of the Benjaminites); Ismail al-Ukbari (founder of a 9th-century messianic Jewish movement in Babylon); Musa of Tiflis (founder of a 9th-century Jewish movement in Babylon); and Malik al Ramli (founder of a 9th-century Jewish movement in the Land of Israel) additionally recognized that Shavuot should fall out on a Sunday.

Most secular scholarship, as well as Catholics and the historical Sadducees and Boethusians, dispute the Rabbinic interpretation. They infer the “Shabbat” referenced is the weekly Shabbat. Accordingly, the counting of the Omer always begins on the Sunday of Passover, and continues for 49 days, so that Shavuot would always fall on a Sunday as well.

The Book of Jubilees and the Essenes

This literal interpretation of ‘Shabbat’ as the weekly Shabbat, was shared by the 2nd-century BCE author of the Book of Jubilees who was motivated by the priestly sabbatical solar calendar of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, which was designed to have festivals and Sabbaths fall on the same day of the week every year. On this calendar (best known from the Book of Luminaries in 1 Enoch), Shavuot fell on the 15th of Sivan, a Sunday. The date was reckoned fifty days from the first Sabbath after Passover (i.e. from the 25th of Nisan). Thus, Jub. 1:1 claims that Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Torah “on the sixteenth day of the third month in the first year of the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt”.

In Jub. 6, 15–22 and 44, 1–5, the holiday is traced to the appearance of the first rainbow on the 15th of Sivan, the day on which God made his covenant with Noah.

The Qumran community, commonly associated with the Essenes, held in its library several texts mentioning Shavuot, most notably a Hebrew original of the Book of Jubilees which sought to fix the celebration of this Feast of Weeks on 15 of Sivan, following their interpretation of Exodus 19, 1.

In Christianity

The Christian feast of Pentecost is celebrated on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) from Easter Sunday and is intended to commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2, 1-31).

The term Pentecost comes from the Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) meaning “fiftieth,” and refers to the Jewish festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after the first fruits, also known as the “Feast of Weeks” and the “Feast of 50 Days” in rabbinic tradition.

The Septuagint uses the term Pentēkostē to refer to the “Feast of Pentecost” only twice, in the Book of Tobit and 2 Maccabees, which are deuterocanonical/apocryphal books in the Bible (Tibiah 2, 12 Maccabees 12, 32). The term Pentecost appears in the Septuagint as one of the names for the Feast of Weeks. The Septuagint writers also used the word in two other senses: to denote the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10), an event that occurs every 50th year, and in several passages of chronology as an ordinal number.

The narrative in Acts 2 of Pentecost includes numerous references to earlier biblical narratives such as the Tower of Babel, and the flood and creation accounts from the Book of Genesis. It also includes references to some theophanies, with some emphasis on the incarnate appearance of GOD on biblical Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were presented to Moses.

Some biblical commentators have tried to establish that the οἶκος (house) given as the site of the events of in Acts 2:2 was one of the thirty halls of the Temple (called οίκοι), but the text itself lacks specific details. Richard C. H. Lenski and other scholars argue that the author of Acts could have chosen the word ἱερόν (sanctuary or temple) if this meaning was intended, rather than “house,” however some semantic details suggest that the “house” could be the “upper room” (ὑπερῷον) mentioned in Acts 1:12-26, but there is no literary evidence to confirm with certainty the location and it remains a topic of controversy among scholars.

Uses and customs

In Italy, it was customary to scatter rose petals from the ceiling of churches to commemorate the miracle of burning tongues; thus in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy, the festival is called Pasqua rosatum. The Italian name Pasqua rossa derives from the red colors of the vestments used on Pentecost Sunday.

In France it was customary to blow trumpets during mass, to recall the sound of the mighty wind that accompanied the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In northwest England, parades of churches and chapels called Whit Walks are held on Pentecost (sometimes on the following Friday of Pentecost). Typically, parades contain brass bands and choirs; the girls who participate are dressed in white. Traditionally, Whitsun Fairs (sometimes called Whitsun Ales) were held. Other customs such as morris dancing and cheese rolling are also associated with Pentecost. “Pentecost” has been the name of the day in the Church of England. (The Book of Common Prayer uses the word “Pentecost” for the feast only once. Although some think the name derives from the white garments worn by the newly baptized during the Easter season, it can be seen as derived from “wit,” hence “wisdom,” the reference being to Holy Wisdom (Sancta Sophia, Hagia Sophia), referred to in Proverbs and the Book of Wisdom, with which the Holy Spirit has often been identified.

In Finland there is a saying known to practically everyone that translates as “if one does not have sweetness until Pentecost, one will not have it all summer”.

In Ukraine, the spring festival of Zeleni Sviata was associated with Pentecost. The customs for the feast were performed in the following order: first, the house and hearth would be cleaned; second, food would be prepared for the feast; and finally, houses and churches would be decorated with wildflowers and various types of green herbs and plants. A seven-course meal may have been served as a Pentecost feast that may have included traditional dishes such as cereal with honey (kolyvo), rice or millet cereal with milk, sauerkraut soup (kapusniak), chicken broth with handmade noodles (iushka z zaterkoiu), cheese cakes (pyrizhky syrom), roast pork, buckwheat cakes served with eggs and cheese (blyntsi), and baked kasha.

References

• “Dates for Shavuot”. Hebcal.com by Danny Sadinoff and Michael J. Radwin (CC-BY-3.0). Retrieved August 26, 2018.
• “Is Shavuot the Jewish Pentecost?”. My Jewish Learning. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
• “Shavuot Tidbits: An Overview of the Holiday”. Torah Tidbits. ou.org. 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
• Bromiley, Geoffrey William, ed. (2009). “Pentecost”. The International standard Bible encyclopedia (2 ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans.
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pentecost”. Newadvent.org. 1912-10-01. Retrieved 2010-05-17.