Shavuot is celebrated on the date of the Jewish calendar when the Jewish people were given the Torah by G-d on Mount Sinai more than 3300 years ago. The idea is that every year on the holiday of Shavuot, we renew our acceptance of G-d’s gift, and G-d “re-gives” the Torah.
The word Shavuot means “weeks.” It marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. The giving of the Torah was a far-reaching spiritual event- one that touched the essence of the Jewish soul for all times. Our sages have compared it to a wedding between G-d and the Jewish people. It is a holiday with all of the holiness and power of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
This year on Sunday, June 12, 2016 Jewish communities around the world will be reading the 10 commandments and the story of the giving of the torah in synagogue. Find a synagogue near you to participate!!
Inspiration from this holiday from the Lubavitcher Rebbe OBM:
It is said, the whole sun is reflected in a drop of water. And so the whole of our nation is reflected in each individual, and what is true of the nation as a whole is true of the individual.
The core of Jewish vitality and indestructibility is in its pure faith in G-d: not in some kind of an abstract Deity, hidden somewhere in the heavenly spheres, who regards this world from a distance; but absolute faith in a very personal G-d, who is the very life and existence of everybody; who permeates where one is, or what one does. Where there is such faith, there is no room for fear or anxiety, as the Psalmist says, “I fear no evil, for Thou art with me,” with me.
