by Rabbi Oliver Joseph

Shavuot is a favourite festival of mine. Perhaps the least well known, Shavuot is the Jewish harvest festival celebrating the collection of the wheat harvest in the ancient Land of Israel. In the Hebrew calendar, Shavuot features as one of three festivals where the Jewish farmers bought offerings to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem: 

'וְלֹא יֵרָאֶה אֶת־פְּנֵי ה” רֵיקָם' 
‘They shall not appear before Y-K-V-K empty-handed’ 

DEUTERONOMY 16:16 

However, today Jewish communities around the world celebrate Shavuot without a Temple, so how do Jews mark Shavuot in the modern day? We celebrate Shavuot as a festival with its own rich, post-Temple heritage, a festival which now primarily focuses on celebrating the Jewish people receiving the Torah, our Holy Book at Mount Sinai. Flowers decorate the synagogue marking the advent of early summer. Cheesecake and dairy food is eaten in great quantity, a custom with myriad explanations. Among these are that- the ancient Israelites upon receiving the Torah did not yet know the laws of Kosher slaughter, so they stuck to dairy food exclusively. Another offered explanation is that the Torah is likened to one’s mother’s milk, the sustaining source of life. 

But aside from pretty decorations and delicious delicacies, what is the offering of Shavuot? Our teaching above explicitly tells us not to show up empty handed! For Sukkot we have the Sukkah (festive hut), for Passover a whole Passover Seder (festive meal) and associated observances and traditions, so what is the wow factor of Shavuot? 

A near universal custom in Jewish communities is staying up all night until the wee hours of Shavuot morning to study Torah. This custom known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot. In a just so-very-Jewish-way, there are diverse customs around what you study on Tikkun Leil Shavuot, more common customs involve reading extracts from all 24 books of the Jewish Canon and extracts from all of the tractates of the Mishnah, one of our first rabbinic codes, but there is perhaps something more compelling about Shavuot than simply another compendium of Jewish texts.  

I am called back to my Jewish learning in Jerusalem; a place I called home for 5 years. A place where, on the night of Shavuot, much of the western side of the city becomes distinctly united, secular and religious, all varieties of ethnicities and customs blend for one night. Doors are flung open across the length and breadth of Jerusalem, with learning seminars humming throughout the night on any manner of topic, from mysticism to music, from philosophy to poetry, a richness of Jewish expression from all the corners of Jewish life.  

On Shavuot we offer a unified vision of the sacred value of the different faces and entry points to our tradition. We recall that there are 70 faces of Torah ‘שבעים פנים בתורה’, Shavuot is the evening to fully appreciate the different access points to our Holy Book. (Standing at the feet of Sinai again, as united and diverse, to receive the revelation of Torah) Tikkun Leil Shavuot is also a time to consider ‘what is this?’, what does this tradition mean to me and how will I be part of the chain of transmission of this tradition? What will I teach? What will I learn?  

This year, as we engage with our various studies, we will heed the call of Rachel Hersh Goldberg-Polin this week, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l, who was murdered in August 2024, and study in the merit of 58 hostages that remain in Gaza and ultimately for a cessation of violence and peace for all. 

Wishing everyone a good and peaceful festival