Shavuot
and Eating Dairy
Shavuot
is the third of the three major pilgrimage festivals. The others are
Passover and Sukkot. Shavuot is also known by different names: the Feast
of Weeks, the Festival of First Fruits and the Harvest Festival. Each of
these names reflects the agricultural nature of the holiday, which is
celebrated in the late spring time in May or early June.
Shavuot
falls on the sixth of Sivan in the Jewish calendar, seven weeks and one
day after the second day of Passover. This year Shavuot falls on Thursday
evening, June 8th. The Bible describes Shavuot as a one‑day holiday.
Because of the certainlty of the calendar communities outside of Israel
traditionally observe the holiday for one extra day. Orthodox and
Conservative Jews celebrate two days of the holiday while most Reform
follow the Israeli practice.
Eating
Diary
Shavuot,
known as a time of milk and honey, celebrates the day that Moses was given
the Ten Commandments by G-d on Mount Sinai. It is a tradition to eat only
dairy foods during this celebration.
Before receiving the Torah on Shavuot, the Jewish people were not bound by
the Kosher dietary laws; they ate pork and other non kosher meats. On
Shavuot they first seamed of these restrictions, which rendered all of
their utensils non kosher and unfit for use. Without kosher meat and
utensils, the children of Israel had no choice but to eat dairy foods.
Today, in commemoration of this, Jews eat blintzes, cheesecake, and other
dairy dishes.
