Shavuot: The Great Marriage

Shavuot, meaning both weeks and making an oath, is the great marriage between the people, Israel and the Infinite One, Adonai. One of the few holidays without any historical or political connection, it represents a fulfillment of time. Seven weeks after Pesach, when we celebrated the barley harvest, we now celebrate the wheat harvest. It is truly an agricultural event and holiday.

Three times in Torah we are given instructions regarding this holiday. First, “You shall hold a festival for the Feast of Harvest of the first fruits” (Exodus). Second, bring two loaves as a wave offering baked with leaven as a gift to G-d … celebrate this sacred occasion” (Leviticus). Third, “Observe the Feats of Weeks and offer a Free Will offering before G-d with your children, your slave, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and/or the widow” (Deuteronomy).

At the Holy Temple in Jerusalem the priest would wave the two loaves while the families shared their “Free Will” contribution of the first fruits of their harvest—the rich carrying their offerings in containers of gold or silver while the poor brought theirs in willow baskets. Either way it was accepted and received. It wasn’t animals or grains that were cut but the result of the partnership with G-d. We go from the matzah representing both the slavery and liberation to loaves of bread that were mixed, leavened, kneaded and baked—the result of human hands. The partnership that began at Sinai—where the people received tablets from G-d, both broken and whole, a small jar of manna, the gift of nutrition in the desert, as well as Torah, both written and oral, all of the holy texts representing G-d’s words and human response—continues to this day with Torah, the ketubah of this unique and special marriage. From the very beginning it was a shared partnership.

From the very beginning it was a shared partnership.

During the Second Temple period shifts began to occur. The written Torah returns from the exile with the people from Babylonia and begins to take its central place among the people. Conflicts erupt between the Sadducees, the priestly class who focused on the sacrificial cult and the new burgeoning group known as the Pharisees, the proto rabbis who focused on the Torah, paving the way for prayer and study to become central when the Destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem occur. During the period of 300 BCE to 200 CE, struggling with the new focus and then the grief, loss, and devastation in 70 CE as the Temple was destroyed, the Torah begins to take center stage and Judaism not only survives but also thrives with its new schools, rituals, customs and re-interpretations of what once was an agricultural celebration turned into a “reconnection” with the most awesome moment in our history—standing at Sinai and accepting a new Covenant.

Shavuot is the 50th day after the 2nd day of Pesach and the counting of the Omer, coming to a place of elevation to embrace Torah and recommit to this covenantal relationship. This relationship is a spiritual marriage between us, the people and G-d and re-establishing the “heavenly couple,” Shechinah and Kadosh Baruch Hu to their exalted place, which began all the way back in the Garden of Eden.

Shavuot is a night of healing and restoration, like the new year of Pesach, which is the first month of the year, and the new year of Rosh Hashana, the birth of Creation itself. This is a new year of new beginnings, re-establishing the relationship between the human and G-d, between each one of us and Torah, the Tree of Life “to those who hold fast to Her,” and between the body, the mind and the spirit, creating a sense of wholeness, shleymut. Like all weddings we sing, we dance, and express sublime joy once again at a time when we most need it.

Eva Robbins is a rabbi, cantor, artist and the author of “Spiritual Surgery: A Journey of Healing Mind, Body and Spirit.”