What is Shavuot?
Shavuot (the "Feast of Weeks") celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. It falls on the sixth of the Hebrew month of Sivan — exactly fifty days after Passover, at the end of the seven-week count called the Omer. Customs include staying up all night learning Torah (Tikkun Leil Shavuot), eating dairy foods, and reading the Book of Ruth. If Passover is the birth of freedom, Shavuot is the moment that freedom found its purpose: receiving the Torah.
What are the main customs of Shavuot?
- All-night learning — the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, studying Torah through the night to "receive" it anew, symbolically correcting the tradition that the Israelites overslept at Sinai.
- Dairy foods — cheesecake and blintzes are customary, with several traditional reasons.
- Reading the Book of Ruth, whose story of loyalty and harvest fits the season.
How does Shavuot connect to Passover?
The two holidays are linked by the Counting of the Omer — the 49 days counted from Passover to Shavuot (what is Counting the Omer?). Passover frees the people; Shavuot gives them the Torah. The count turns the gap between them into a deliberate journey from liberation to purpose.
In short: Shavuot marks receiving the Torah at Sinai, fifty days after Passover — celebrated with all-night learning, dairy foods, and the Book of Ruth.
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