by Chaplain Joel Grossman
“Shavout, the Jewish ‘Festival of Weeks,’ starts the evening of June 8. The ‘weeks’ refer to the seven weeks, and one day, equaling 50 days, from the second seder of Passover to Shavout. The ritual of the omer, the offering of a sheaf of barley, the earliest of the new cereal crops, marked the harvest season. The grain ripened 50 days later, thus the beginning of the harvest was marked on Shavuot with the offering of first fruits.” (From the website, My Jewish Learning)
“After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, offerings could no longer be brought to the Temple, and the focus of the festival shifted from agriculture to the receiving of the Ten Commandants at Mt. Sinai. It is customary to gather at synagogue and read the Book of Ruth and Exodus Chapters 19 and 20. The term ‘Pentecost’ is one of names for the Festival of Weeks.” (from Wikipedia)
A Kabbalistic custom is to count each day of this period, called the “Counting of the Omer”, by combining the lower seven “sefirot” (energy centers) on the “Tree of Life”. The Tree of Life is a symbol of Divinely inspired energies that we can work to incorporate into our lives. Each of the seven weeks focuses on a different energy and each day addresses another. For example, day two is a combination of “Chesed”, loving kindness, the first of the lower seven and the sefirot of week one and “Gevurah”, judgment or structure, second of the lower seven and sefirot of day two. The goal is to reflect on what this combination means to you.
The greeting for Shavout is the same as used for all Jewish holidays: “chag someach”, “Happy Holiday.”
R
ev. Joel Grossman is one of the founders of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME), and was the Director of ChIME’s Massachusetts campus. He has been a hospice chaplain for over fifteen years. Joel has been a president of his local synagogue, Ahavas Achim, in Newburyport, MA, and has led Kabbalah and Jewish meditation sessions there. He is the leader of the “Spiritual Breakfast Club.”
Image of barley by kangbch
