good old Israel
The holiday of Shavuot is called the holiday of weeks, because it is seven weeks, that we carefully count after Passover, as we approach this holiday of the giving of the law. It is also called the harvest holiday, and in many ways the law that Moses brought down from Mt Sinai was the harvest of freedom, after leaving slavery in Egypt on Passover. It is interesting to note that we speak of the event as the giving of the law, and not the receiving of it, because it was given, but each person has to decide on his own if he wants to accept it. It's not automatic. Just as freedom is not really automatic after emerging from slavery. How often people have chosen an anarchistic path after escaping slavery, wanting no law and no restrictions as some people trampled the rights of others. But from the bible we learn that freedom is only known when one has limits and values, and a way of life.
Two of the most important values of the Jewish people, is the celebration of the Sabbath, and the dietary laws which are called kashruth, or being kosher. And this is a holiday when most Jews eat dairy dishes. Because the laws were just given, and people were not used yet, to separating meat from milk, and knowing the proper way to kill an animal for the purpose of food. So our ancestors ate dairy on this holiday, when the holy bible was given us. Anyone who has known orthodox Jews, knows how elaborate the rules are for the separation of meat and milk. Yet the rule itself was given as a very short sentence: don't eat a calf in it's mother's milk. This awareness, this state of consciousness, that one should separate between these two functions of nature, the milk which is the function of all mammals to sustain their young, and that other natural function of many animals, ourselves included, to eat other living things as food, is an important part of our sensitivity to nature and to the environment.
One more tidbit about this holiday. It is common for Jews to learn Torah, the law, all night on the eve of Shavuot, and this is because we remember that while some Jews started learning as soon as the torah and the mishnah (the verbal philosophy of Jewish law) were given, many fell asleep and missed this study-in. and how many times have I seen that! That when students started working on a huge project, with a whole lot to learn, they get tired and just go to sleep.
My best wishes to all my friends on this wonderful holiday. Enjoy the cheese cake!
Anyone wishing to respond, is welcome to write me at:
humpict@017.net.il
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