Time for the Feast of Weeks

Young Chang

It’s been seven weeks since Passover and temple members know what this

means: time for another celebration.

Passover celebrated the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and is one of

Judaism’s two greatest themes. The second is what happens this weekend --

the Feast of Weeks, a.k.a. Shavuot, which celebrates Moses’ receiving the

Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. Shavuot begins at sundown on Sunday and

ends on Tuesday.

The seven-week successor to Passover symbolizes a spiritual

liberation, as the Ten Commandments formed a new spiritual relationship

with God, while Passover was the physical liberation from Pharaoh.

“We left Egypt in order to come to Mount Sinai in order to be

liberated through God’s law,” said Rabbi Mark Miller of Temple Bat Yahm

in Newport Beach. “Shavuot, then, for Jewish people is the greatest day

in the history of the world. So we’ve been celebrating this for a long

time.”

Bat Yahm’s young congregants will help mark this time with a service

of confirmation. Tenth-grade students will carry baskets of flowers and

fruits and present their goods on the altar as they confirm themselves

Sunday in the faith of Judaism.

The sanctuary will be decorated with abundant greenery and flowers

“because it says that when the Torah was given, the desert bloomed,”

Miller said. “And the Jewish people voluntarily accepted the Torah, and

what we’re saying is that our children are voluntarily, of their own free

will, accepting the Torah in their day and in their lives.”

Newport Beach’s Temple Isaiah will celebrate the Feast of Weeks their

own way -- with a memorial service Tuesday for loved ones who have passed

away. On Friday, the temple held a service where congregants read from

the book of Ruth.

“Ruth was converted,” said Flory Van Beek, a volunteer administrator

at the temple as well as the music director. “She was a Jew by choice,

and it is said that she was the great grandmother of King David.”

Miller explained another piece of history behind Shavuot -- the

agricultural element that ties into why the temple’s 10th-graders will

carry baskets of fruits and flowers. In biblical times, farmers presented

themselves at the temple on the heights of Jerusalem on Shavuot with the

first fruits of their harvest. This explains why the the Feast of Weeks

is also known as the Day of the First Fruits.

The farmer “was to acknowledge that God was the source of his bounty

and fruitfulness,” Miller said. “So before he could take advantage of all

that he had gathered, he had to give thanks to God.”

There’s a psychology to this humility -- that at the end of his toil,

the farmer didn’t pat himself on the back, but instead attributed success

to the rain and sun cycles provided by God, Miller said. Such humility is

a theme in the Bible, even when God chose to give Moses the commandments

at Mount Sinai.

“It’s one of the smaller mountains in the entire region,” Miller

added. “And this symbolizes humility and lowliness. The Torah only flows

down to the humble, not up to the arrogant.”