Festival of Shavuot
Keeping Connected June 2025
Dear Friends,
The festival of Shavuot begins at sundown on June 1st. For many progressive or secular Jews, Shavuot fails to garner the type of attention that surrounds other Jewish holidays. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Chanukkah, Pesach, these are more central to the rhythm of our Jewish lives. Shavuot, which is often overlooked, is usually marked in one of two ways: with the culinary and cultural experience of eating dairy and as one of the three Pilgrimage festivals when we remember loved ones during yizkor. Beyond the traditions of food and memory, however, Shavuot has much to spiritually teach us.
In the book of Exodus, Shavuot, is known as Chag HaShavuot, the Festival of Weeks. This name refers to the 7 weeks of counting the Omer (sheafs of grain) between Pesach and Shavuot. Shavuot also represents the culmination of the 7-week journey our ancestors took after their liberation from Egyptian bondage. During Pesach, through story and ritual, we align ourselves with our ancestors, recalling their first steps of freedom. Then 50 days later, we imagine ourselves with them at Sinai, ready to receive the Torah. Redemption and revelation – twin experiences – a duality that has come to represent Judaism. Without freedom, what is Torah, but without Torah, what would we do with the gift of freedom?
In Martin Buber’s “Tales of the Hasidim”, he shares a story of a student wondering why Jewish prayer refers to Shavuot as z’man matan Torateinu, the time of the giving of our Torah and not the time of the receiving of Torah. The student’s rabbi, Mendel of Kotzk responds, “The giving took place on one day, but the receiving takes place at all times.” Just as we learn from the Hagaddah, that every Jew should see themself as going forth from Egypt, so too do we learn from the medieval French rabbi and philosopher, Rabbi Levi ben Gershon, “Every generation must think that the Torah was given directly to them.”
Freedom and Torah – as the festival is upon us, I invite you to think about the meaning of both of these in your life. What does freedom mean for you and does it also entail responsibility? What should we do if our freedom and the freedom of others is curtailed? What presence does Torah have in your life? How does it shape, guide and influence you? The Torah provides an opportunity for purposeful living by offering a historical framework, a guide for practice and hopefully a sense of spiritual inspiration.
Please join us throughout the week as we celebrate Shavuot. On Sunday afternoon at 3:30 pm, Congregation Shalom and PJ Library with be hosting a celebration for our youngest members and their families at Friendship Park in Chelmsford. With ice cream, story and play, we will enjoy the holiday experience. On Tuesday morning, June 3rd, at 9:00 am, Ari Strasser and I will lead a Yizkor service on Zoom. This is an opportunity to have a more introspective experience of the holiday as well as remember loved ones. Finally on June 6th, at the Family Shabbat service, we will read the Ten Commandments from the Torah and Sue Horowitz will lead the community in music that reflects the themes of the festival. To culminate, what more is there to do but eat more ice cream! We will have an ice cream truck at the Oneg shabbat and everyone will be able to pick from the ice creams selections.
Wishing you a meaningful Shavuot. Chag sameach. I will see you at Sinai!
Rabbi Shoshana Perry