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Dear Friends,
I hope you are doing well on your spiritual journey toward a life of Jewish observance. I am always happy to hear from you about any issue at all. I welcome your emails to me (alerner@rabbis.org) and your phone calls (516-661-1072). If you are calling, please keep in mind that I work from Jerusalem where I am 7 hours ahead of US East Coast time.
Starting on the evening of Thursday night, May 21, 2026 through Saturday (Shabbat) May 23, 2026, we will be celebrating the Holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. This is a short, two day holiday. Although most almost everyone, even in the non-Jewish world, has heard of Passover, almost no one has heard of Shavuot. It is one of the three major Festivals (Passover, Shavuot and Succot), during which a good part of the population went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and to spend family time not far from the Temple, eating the barbecued meat that was part of the sacrifice that was brought.
Shavuot is literally the Festival of “Weeks.” It commemorates the end of the counting of seven weeks from the second day of Passover – Sefirat Ha’Omer, the counting of the Omer. From the time of the required grain offering on the second day of Passover, we count 49 days until Shavuot. This is a biblical command and reminds us that the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt was to receive the Torah. Interestingly, freedom is not a goal in and of itself. Rather we want to be free in order to achieve our goal of a life of service to G-d, through the accepting and performance of the of the commandments.
There are several aspects to the celebration of this holiday that I wanted to call to your attention:
I am taking the opportunity to re-send the information I sent last year with, perhaps, a very few emendations.
Thursday night - May 21
We welcome in the first day of Shavuot. In many communities, synagogues host all-night lectures and Torah study that end with morning services which coincide with sunrise. This all-night study is meant to demonstrate our enthusiasm for the giving of the Torah. Even if you can’t stay up all night, try to attend some late-night lectures that usually begin between and 11 and 11:30 pm in most communities. In densely populated Orthodox communities, it’s wonderful to experience streets that are filled late at night with people going to and from synagogues in the neighborhood.
Friday – May 22
There are those who choose to go to the sunrise service that takes place in some synagogues. That service takes place for those who were awake all night studying. After the very early morning service they can return home to a well-deserved rest! But most synagogues are also quite full for the regular morning service. The reading from the Torah on Shavuot includes the Ten Commandments, which are read with a special cantillation for the day. In most synagogues, the congregation stands for this reading. Try to get into the moment, and feel the re-enactment of the revelation at Mount Sinai. Appreciate the fact that the morals and ethics of our world still revolve around these Ten Commandments that were given more than 3300 years ago.
Shabbat – May 23 – The Book of Ruth
Before the reading of the Torah on the second day of Shavuot, the Book of Ruth is read. One of the most significant reasons for the reading of this book is because Ruth, a member of the nation of Moab, accepted the Torah upon herself and became the most famous convert to Judaism. After her mother-in-law, Naomi, tried to convince her three times to return to her people in Moab, Ruth responded with the immortal words:
“Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge, I will lodge, your people are my people and your G-d is my G-d, where you die, I will die and there I will be buried.”
And what could be more inspiring than the last verses of the Book of Ruth as we read the list of descendants of the child of Ruth and Boaz (Oved) and we realize that Ruth, a convert, was the great-grandmother of King David, the ancestor of the Messiah! No Jew has a claim to a “pure” background. The Messiah, himself, has an ancestor who was a convert – and from the forbidden nation of Moab no less! What was the quality of Moab that made them forbidden to marry into the Jewish people? The nation of Moab are the offspring of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. When the Jewish people travelled in the desert, thirsty and hungry, after leaving Egypt, the nation of Moab – our cousins – refused us drink and food (Deuteronomy 23:5). What allowed the Rabbis to “tweak” the Biblical prohibition and teach us that only the men of Moab could not marry into the Jewish people? Answer: It was only the role of the men to bring food and water to those travelling through the treacherous desert. The men exhibited this character of selfishness by not repaying the kindness of Abraham to Lot. They refused their cousins the sustenance they required. The women, not even charged with this responsibility, did not exhibit this quality. The proof? Ruth was and is the model of kindness to one’s fellow man. She was the very “tikkun,” the repair, of the selfishness of her people. And, indeed, her kindness was meant to be imprinted on the Messiah and all his descendants.
Shavuot is the holiday of conversion to Judaism! Many look at the verses regarding Revelation in the book of Exodus and note that what the Jewish people experienced was a mass conversion. In Exodus 19: 5-11, G-d invites the Jewish people to become His nation if they obey His voice - and the nation responds that they will adhere to the commandments (verse 8).
Verses 10 and 11 discuss preparations for the day of Revelation. The Talmud (Yevamot 46b) teaches that these preparations included immersion in the Mikvah - and it is, therefore, from here we learn that a convert has to immerse before he or she becomes part of the Jewish people.
A number of years ago, a small group of us at the RCA had a conversation with some Rabbis who were members of a Beit Din in Israel. They told us that one of their practices was to tell each convert after they immersed: “Now you have experienced what every single member of the Jewish people experienced at Mount Sinai! Welcome!”
THE CUSTOM TO EAT DAIRY ON SHAVUOT
If you are invited out, you will probably find that many have the custom to eat at least one dairy meal on Shavuot. This is only a custom – and yet if you start a conversation with a friend who is hosting a Shavuot meal, you will hear a lot about the preparation of dairy dishes and even more discussion about cheesecake!! Walk into a kosher bakery this week and see what’s on the shelves!!
The reason most often given for the custom of eating dairy on Shavuot, is that the Torah, given on Shavuot, is compared to milk and honey – nourishing and sweet.
SUGGESTED READINGS
It always enhances our Holiday experience to prepare before. Here are some books that can help make Shavuot a more meaningful experience for you. Since Shavuot is a holiday of Torah study, you might want to choose some of these reading for study on Shavuot itself.
1) Kitov, Eliyahu. The Book of Our Heritage. 3vols. Feldheim.
Volume 3 contains four wonderful chapters about Shavuot. These include discussions of the customs of Shavuot as well as explorations of Megillat Ruth, an in depth appreciation of the Ten Commandments and the Written and Oral Law.
Chapter 2 – Sivan and Shavuot
Chapter 3 – Sivan: Ruth and David
Chapter 4 Sivan: Torah and Mesorah
Chapter - Sivan: Bikurim -giving of the first fruit
2) Zlotowitz, Meir. The Book of Ruth: A new translation with a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources. Artscroll.
This is a full rendition in Hebrew and in English of the Book of Ruth. This work includes an information filled introduction about the history and the background of the Book of Ruth and the time period from which it emerges.
Those who enjoy a more scholarly approach to text might like the following three works:
3) Ziegler, Yael. Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy. Maggid Books
4) Miller, Moshe. Rising Moon: Unravelling the Book of Ruth. Renana Publishers.
5) Jachter, Chaim. From Chaos to Kingship: An In-Depth Exploration of Megillat Rut.
Rabbi Jachter has published some important works before this one,s and has worked with conversion candidates in the past. He writes of his book that he “devotes much attention to the Gerut process and how Rut integrates beautifully in to our people.”
A good choice for studying with a partner during the Shavuot holiday.
Your prayer over these two days can really be made more meaningful by using a good prayerbook. Although your standard ArtScroll complete prayerbook (Siddur) has everything that you need, you may find that using the ArtScroll special Shavuot Siddur (Machzor) is very helpful. The Complete ArtScroll Machzor – Shavuot is readily available in almost every Jewish bookstore, or online from Amazon. This special Machzor/Siddur has a beautiful Overview of the holiday of Shavuot and its meaning. With a minimum of page-turning necessary at services, it contains all the necessary Torah readings of the day, as well of the entire Book of Ruth, which is read on the second day of the holiday.
May this Shavuot bring you closer to your spiritual destination.
All my very best,
Abby Lerner
Rabbinical Council of America
National Director of Conversion Services
alerner@rabbis.org
516-661-1072
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