Field Study
Why the holiday of Shavuot is all but ignored across America
Children marching in the streets of Jerusalem on Shavuot, 1942.
Photo by Sonia Geedal (Epstein), published in Photography in Palestine in the 1930s–1940s, edited by Rona Selah (Herzliya Museum of Art and Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2000.)
When it comes to theological significance, the late-spring festival of Shavuot is no slouch: The event it commemorates—God giving the Torah to the Jews at Mount Sinai—is arguably the most pivotal in the narrative of the Jewish people. But from the treatment it receives next to its more popular siblings—at least within non-Orthodox American communities—you wouldn’t know it. Passover gets celebrated at the White House and inspires novels, Yom Kippur turned Sandy Koufax into an American Jewish hero, and Hanukkah is so visible that conservative talk radio hosts think it threatens Christmas. Shavuot, meanwhile, can’t even satisfy Tom Lehrer, who “spent Shavuos, in East St. Louis/A charming spot but clearly not the spot for me.”
“When you ask people what’s their favorite holiday, I’ve heard people say Passover, Hanukkah, Sukkot, Purim,” says Jonathan Sarna, who teaches American Jewish history at Brandeis University. “I think it’s harder for people to find an emotional attachment to Shavuot than to almost any other Jewish holiday.” According to Sarna and other historians, Shavuot’s trouble catching on is nothing new—it goes back, they say, to the fall of the Second Temple in the year 70 C.E.
In its earliest incarnation, Shavuot marked a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the sacrifice of the harvest’s first fruits and is one of a historical trio of harvest celebrations, along with Sukkot and Passover, known as the shalosh regalim. According to Paul Steinberg, a rabbi at the Conservative synagogue Valley Beth Shalom in Los Angeles and the author of a series of books on the Jewish holidays, rabbis in the Talmudic period needed to reinvent Shavuot after the Jews left Israel for the Diaspora and no longer traveled to Jerusalem with harvest offerings. So, through what Steinberg calls the use of “complicated mathematical formulas” that were debated for centuries, the sages associated Shavuot with the giving of the Torah. But that interpretive shift, says Steinberg, has not “captured the imagination of Jews in America or anywhere else.” (According to Reform rabbi Andy Bachman, who leads Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim, some early Zionist settlers went so far as to explicitly reject the rabbinic interpretation of the holiday in favor of the agricultural one and celebrated Shavuot by dancing in the fields and riding on tractors.)
More Context
Shavuot FAQ
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In the United States, Shavuot has met with particularly bad fortune. “They used to say that Jewish holidays needed mazel,” or luck, Sarna says. Hanukkah and Passover—located next to major Christian holidays that Jews want an alternative to—have mazel. Shavuot, marooned in the long stretch between Passover and the High Holidays, has the opposite. “Passover is the last Jewish gesture of the year before you disappear into summer camp, Memorial Day, et cetera,” Bachman says.
Until recently, Shavuot’s overlap with the end of the school year actually did confer some mazel at many Reform and Conservative synagogues, because Confirmation ceremonies—celebrations for high school students who have continued their Jewish education in addition to or instead of bar and bat mitzvahs—have traditionally been held on the holiday. But many congregations, including Bachman’s and Steinberg’s, have recently dropped Confirmation, which is increasingly seen an accommodation to Protestantism without authentic Jewish roots—another inadvertent blow to Shavuot.
Beyond the bad mazel, though, some conjecture that Shavuot may simply be too abstract to become popular among all but the most engaged or observant Jews. “The holidays that have done really well here are either firmly grounded in the home or allow for a kind of interplay between the synagogue and the home,” says Jenna Weissman Joselit, who teaches American Jewish history at George Washington University. Home-based holidays have strong elements of material and ritual—seders for Passover, sukkahs for Sukkot, menorahs for Hanukkah. But on Shavuot, “there’s no stuff and nothing to do, if you don’t go to shul,” Joselit says. “It’s a very serious holiday about law and responsibility and duty.” (All of this might be said as well for the High Holidays, which of course don’t lack for attendance. But the High Holidays make these themes personal, while Shavuot applies them to the Jews as a people—which, Joselit argues, makes them feel more remote.)
Shavuot is the consummate rabbis’ holiday: Its difficult themes of revelation, law, and collective responsibility make it a favorite among scholars—who struggle with how to share their enthusiasm with the laity. Elliot Dorff, a rabbi and professor of theology at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, calls it “my holiday”—precisely for the reasons their congregants may not. And Sarna says, “Shavuot is the holiday of books—it’s a harder sell, but we’re the People of the Book. Maybe it is our most authentic and distinctive holiday in that way.”
This idea might be starting to catch on: In the past few years, some synagogues have begun holding a tikkun leil Shavuot, or all-night study session, to celebrate the holiday. In its original form, the tikkun, first practiced in the 16th century by kabbalists who were themselves trying to revitalize Shavuot, involved prayer and Torah study from dusk until dawn; non-Orthodox congregations that hold the celebration now usually substitute lectures and roundtable discussions on a variety of subjects. Dorff said that Temple Beth Am, the Conservative synagogue he attends, can pull in 500 people for its tikkun (this year themed around “ethical, spiritual, halakhic implications of our food choices”), with 100 still remaining when the sun rises.
But some question whether the tikkun will ever catch on at most synagogues in a way that even approximates the success of lighter, more family-oriented holiday celebrations. “God bless Elliot Dorff, but Beth Am has a lot of academics and rabbis,” Steinberg said when asked whether he thought all-night study could save Shavuot. “That’s not the case for most synagogues. Most synagogues you get people till 10:00, then it dwindles.” (Indeed, some Jewish communities—in New York, California, and elsewhere—are trying to make the tikkun a more popular destination with performances, film screenings, and Israeli dancing.)
Steinberg’s own congregation is trying a different approach this year: bringing in a cow. Children at the synagogue will have an opportunity to watch a milking demonstration and churn their own butter in conjunction with the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot. “We’ll see how it goes,” Steinberg says wryly. “It’s an intervention, if you will.”
But on Shavuot, “there’s no stuff and nothing to do, if you don’t go to shul”
Water games for kids & festive diary meals for the family.
“some early Zionist settlers went so far as to explicitly reject the rabbinic interpretation of the holiday in favor of the agricultural one and celebrated Shavuot by dancing in the fields and riding on tractors.”
Actually, this is done to this very day at many Kibbutzim & moshavim.
I think synagogues should encourage congregants to eat dairy meals. Tying holidays to food is very powerful. It also would be a good time to try a program like “one book, one congregation” where the book chosen is one that is appropriate to the holiday and is discussed at the tikkun.
When contemplating the notion that all the Jews received Torah @ Mt Sinai at once and that it is an ongoing activity, It sounded like Twitter to me. Short phrases, instantaneously projected to the members of the tribes.
“Tablet” seems out of touch with Judaism in America. Whether Shavuot is an agricultural festival, or a commemoration of the wonderful gift of Torah, you seem to think no one celebrates it either way. You would be wrong if you peeked in at my synagogue.
Contrary to what your article says, there is “stuff” to do, but it is a different holiday, more a holy day than holiday. Studying Torah into and through the night is one thing for adults to do, children can do many interesting and fun things, it’s up to their parents to teach these things to their children. And that can, and should be done at home. Little ones can color in books, be read stories and put to bed at a reasonable hour. Older ones can study with their parents. You don’t have to go to shul to enjoy and study about the holiday. Going there can enhance your understanding by learning from Rabbi, guest speakers, and others with deeper understanding of the holy day than yourself.
Yoni makes good suggestions and I sort of like the idea about bringing in a cow, or perhaps taking your children to a local dairy farm. Maybe easier then bringing a cow in…
“Tablet” seems to ignore the mainstream Jews in America. I can’t understand why. I am not impressed with the slanted views of everything I read on this web site. I can’t figure out which slant it is.
In Louis Jacobs’ “The Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies: A Unique and Inspiring Collection of Accounts by People Who Have Encountered God, from Biblical Times to the Present” one can find the agenda of the gathering for Shavuot by the community around Josef Caro / the Ari, Elkabetz, et al. The Metivta (Los Angeles) community is using it as guide for our Tikun.
Chag Sameach!
Great piece — all the expert quotes were fascinating.
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To make the holiday appealing for kids, my shul (a progressive congregation in the Conservative tradition) does a little explanation of the holiday, a recitation of the 10 Commandments, and a big ol’ ice cream social. My kids look forward to it all year. I know the 92nd street Y in Tribeca is doing a cheesecake tasting (with alcoholic pairings) moderated by its chef — that idea could be easily adapted by other communities. I could see doing a cheesecake bake-off — congregants could vote on the tastiest/most innovative/best low-cal dairy dessert made by someone in the community and pair that with a Torah study session.
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Finally, as an aside: “I am not impressed with the slanted views of everything I read on this web site — I can’t figure out which slant it is” is one of the most entertaining comments I’ve read on the site.
Ignored? I guess living in the San Francisco Bay Area really IS
quite a bit different from the rest of the country. Plenty of JCCs
and individual congregations and congregations banding together in towns
host plenty of Shavuot celebrations and observances. Everything from
the all night study sessions with ala carte presentations to a trip up
Mount Tam for the hearty/hardy who want to reach out to nature and do
their study there. And a nice slice of cheesecake is always a good idea.
Almost all American Jews celebrate and commemorate Passover in some form or another but only the Orthodox by and large celebrate Shavuot.
Another strange American Jewish phenomenon is that while most observe Shabbat by making Kiddush, very few observe Havdala, the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat.
Why are these two Mitzvoth, Shavuot and Havdala, neglected by most
American Jews, and is there any connection between the two?
I believe there is a connection.
Passover celebrates freedom from slavery and exodus from Egypt.
Shavuot celebrates the giving and receiving of the Torah and the Jews commitment to serving HaShem and His Torah.
Friday night Kiddush represents the Sanctity and Holiness of Shabbat.
Havdala repesents the leaving of the sanctity and holiness of Shabbat and the return of the mundane week.
By only celebrating Passover and not Shavuot, the American Jew is celebrating Freedom, but neglecting to commit to serving serving HaShem and His Torah.
By observing Kiddush but neglecting Havdala the American Jew is stating that everything is Kodesh-HOLY- without any distinction between that which is truly holy and that which is actually mundane.
How typically American to try to have your cake and eat it at the same time!
Hmmmmm..My Most Powerful Shavuos ..that sticks in my Mind is being 6 years old and being included in all all night learning Sesion with the Rabbi in his study with 3 others. Pouring over ancient texts with the Adults and Today I do the same even More Excitement..and yes of course women in my town do the same …. Wish you all could be with me Tomorrow night !!;) Chag Sameach !!
Each year I have felt more and more of a connection to Shavuot, and I’m a middle-of-the road Conservative Jew. Counting the Omer brings the anticipation (and is still a challenge; it’s easy to forget that you did it each night).
And this year I’m teaching at a crummy HS in NYC, so the 2 days I am taking off for the holiday will be very welcome.
And I’m giving one of the learning lectures at my shul tomorrow, lest you think I’m just hoodwinking the NYC DOE.
Holy Cow! Now even a non-dairy person like myself can celebrate with dairy! But what about the Golden Calf????
The Yom Tov of Shavuos is the celebration of our receiving the Torah. The Talmud compares it to the day of a wedding. G-d wed the Jewish people and the Torah was the “ring”. The celebration therefore requires some commitment to the Torah and its values. It is so strange that the author does not see that the traditional form of celebrating the Yom Tov is what has lasted. Bringing cows to shul aint gonna do it!
Nobody has mentioned the themes of the Book of Ruth – commitment to the Jewish people, loving-kindness (chesed) and the courage of women. See this article on these ideas: http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2010/5/17/main-feature/1/book-of-ruth
yay