The festival of Shavuot (Pentecot) which falls seven weeks after Pesach (this year beginning at sunset on May 21), marks the completion of a twofold journey: from liberation out of Egypt to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Nearly every other major Jewish festival is marked by a distinctive ritual symbol: on Passover, the matzah; on Sukkot, the sukkah and the four species; on Rosh Hashanah, the shofar; on Yom Kippur, fasting. Shavuot, by contrast, is strikingly sparse in ritual observance.

That sparseness is not an oversight — it is a statement. The holiday that commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments resists being reduced to objects and ceremonies, because what was given at Sinai was not a rite but a moral demand. Shavuot does not ask us to hold........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)