Shavuot Learning

It is customary to study Torah and eat dairy products on the night of Shavuot, and Kavana is going to do both!

Date:  Tues. May 18, 2010
Time:  8-11pm

Location:  Rabbi Rachel's living room.  (Please contact us for address.)

We're going to enjoy local, organic ice cream from Parfait (it doesn't get any more local, organic, or delicious!) and learn about Shavuot-related topics.

(We're still finalizing the details of what we'll be learning - please stay tuned for more info.)
 

Here is some general Information about Shavuot, courtesy of wikipedia:

Shavuot (which is the Hebrew word for "weeks") is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mt. 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 three Biblical pilgrimage festivals.  It marks the conclusion of the counting of the Omer.   

The date of Shavuot is directly linked to that of Passover.  The Torah mandates the seven-week counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover and 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 Jewish people were freed from their enslavement to the Egypt, Shavuot they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.

In the Bible, Shavuot is called the Festival of Weeks, Festival of Reaping, and Day of the First Fruits.  Since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Hellenistic Greeks gave it the name Pentecost (the "fiftieth day".)