Torah: Devarim (Deuteronomy) 14:22 — 16:17; Haftarah: Habakkuk 2:20 — 3:19
SHAVUOT
The Shavuot festival was celebrated primarily as a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest – the second First Fruits; it falls seven weeks after the barley harvest – the first First Fruits, when an Omer of the new produce was offered. The Torah refers to Shavuot as Hag haKatsir (the Feast of the Harvest) and Yom haBikkurim (the Day of First Fruits), observed by offerings of the best ripe produce of the fields. Beginning with the second day of Passover, seven weeks, or forty-nine days, were carefully counted, and the fiftieth day was celebrated as the festival of the First Fruits.
“You shall count seven weeks, from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. You shall then keep the Feast of Weeks in honor of the Lord your God, and the measure of your freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing that the Lord your God bestowed on you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God with your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite of your community, as well as the stranger and the fatherless and the widow among you." Deuteronomy 16:9-11.
In the course of time, as a result of the transformation of the agricultural festivals into historical commemorations, the additional significance of Shavuot, as the Festival of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai completely overshadowed its original significance as the harvest festival. The tradition has been that the Torah was given to Moshe on the sixth day of Sivan, at Shavuot, based on the Exodus chapter 19:1 passage.
“In the third month after the children of Yisra'el had gone forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
Shavuot is called Atzereth (Assembly) in the Talmud, in the sense that it serves as a concluding festival to Pesach. In the observances of Shavuot, the traditional as well as the agricultural aspects are reflected. The Decalogue is read in the synagogue on the first day. Plants and flowers, reminiscent of the slopes of Sinai, decorate the bimah and the Aron haKodesh. The book of Ruth, for its description of a summer harvest in Israel, and the famous liturgical poem Akdamut are read before the reading of the Torah on the first day. Milk dishes are the customary foods, symbolizing the Torah which is likened to milk, according to the allegorical interpretation of the book of Song of Songs ("Honey and milk are under your tongue").
Shavuot reminds us of the contribution of the Torah to the world. Torah was the first mind-set to recognize the worth of ordinary people, to champion human rights, public education, environmental responsibility, freedom of information, medical ethics, and social action — the whole concept of progress and hope for the future. No other teaching has had a comparative impact on our way of thinking today. It reminds Israel of her obligation to be a "Kingdom of Priests" and a "Holy Nation."
But for the believers Shavuot is more than that. Shavuot is a picture of a spiritual harvest, a harvest of the first fruits imbued with spiritual power, with the outpouring of the Ruach haKodesh. The first century of the Common Era was God's first harvest of those redeemed in the blood of Yeshua haMoshiach - both Jewish and Gentile.
"And when the day of Shavuot was fulfilled, they were all together with one mind at the same place. And there was suddenly from Shomayim a sound like the rushing of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And tongues appeared to them, being divided as fire, resting on each one of them, and all were filled with the Ruach haKodesh." Acts 2:1-4
On Shavuot two loaves of fine flour baked with leaven were presented as offering of first fruits (Leviticus 23:17). The symbolism of these two loaves is revealed by Ya’akov (James 1:18) as representing the first fruits of believers. The two loaves are Jewish and Gentile believers that God brought together to form a new body, a new creation, the Ekklesia. God redeemed us from the world of sin, from the spiritual Egypt, through the shed blood of His Son. But then why are the two loaves with leaven, the symbol of sin? That is to symbolize that we cannot cleanse ourselves of sin before coming to Him - all our good intentions are but as filthy rags in His eyes. We come to Him with our sins and He is the One who cleanses and makes us holy.
“Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a Holy Temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” Ephesians 2:20-22. God has built something else to take the place of the physical Temple in Yerushalayim destroyed in 70 CE - it is a spiritual Beth haMikdash, it is the Ekklesia. It is a Jewish Holy Temple, where Jews and Gentiles are fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Moshiach Yeshua. This passage tells us that the foundation of the Ekklesia is Jewish, Jewish, Jewish - Jewish apostles, Jewish prophets and Jewish Messiah. Therefore, Shavuot is the fulfillment of Torah-true Judaism, the hope of the Jewish people and the blessing of the Gentiles so that they might come together in faith as one.
It cost Yeshua a lot to bring us together, to form the Ekklesia. He died executed on a Roman cross shedding His blood and suffering agonizingly in order for us to be united as one Holy Temple in the Spirit. Because of that we owe it to Him to be holy and to love one another as He loved us.
Chag Shavuot Sameach!
Shabbat joy, peace, and blessings! Shabbat Shalom!
