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Overview
Back by popular demand, the classic JPS holiday anthologies remain essential and relevant in our digital age. Unequaled in-depth compilations of classic and contemporary writings, they have long guided rabbis, cantors, educators, and other readers seeking the origins, meanings, and varied celebrations of the Jewish festivals.
The Shavuot Anthology elucidates Shavuot’s teachings, customs, stories, and lore for a modern generation. In this in-depth compendium, writings by Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, Talmud and midrash, medieval literature by Moses Maimonides, poetry by Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Ezra, prose by Abraham Joshua Heschel and Ahad Ha’am, and stories by Martin Buber and Sholom Aleichem appear alongside art and dramatizations, arts and crafts, culinary arts and humor, children’s stories and games, and programs and projects.
Philip Goodman (1911–2006) was a rabbi and served as director of the Jewish education and Jewish center division for the Jewish Welfare Board, executive secretary of the Jewish Book Council, and executive secretary of the American Jewish Historical Society. Goodman is the author or editor of many books, including seven volumes in the JPS Holiday Anthologies series.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827613218 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2018 |
| Series: | The JPS Holiday Anthologies |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 408 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Philip Goodman (1911–2006) was a rabbi and served as director of the Jewish education and Jewish center division for the Jewish Welfare Board, executive secretary of the Jewish Book Council, and executive secretary of the American Jewish Historical Society. Goodman is the author or editor of many books, including seven volumes in the JPS Holiday Anthologies series.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
SHAVUOT IN THE BIBLE
The Bible denotes Shavuot as the Feast of the Harvest (Exodus 23.16), the Feast Of Weeks (ibid. 34.22), and the Day of the Firstfruits (Numbers 28.26). These names characterize this festival of the wheat harvest, which, according to tradition, was observed seven weeks after the second day of Passover by bringing the firstfruits of the land as an offering to the Temple in Jerusalem. It is one of the three agricultural or pilgrimage feasts prescribed in the Torah.
After the destruction of the Second Temple, Shavuot was identified with the theophany at Mount Sinai, as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah to the Israelites. While there is no reference in the Bible to Shavuot as the "Season of the Giving of Our Law," this appellation is found in the liturgy. Hence, on the first day of the festival the biblical account of the Sinaitic revelation covenanting Israel with God is read from the Torah (Exodus 19-20) during the synagogue services. The Ten Commandments — the spiritual, moral, and ethical blueprint that undergirds the civilized world and constitutes the cornerstones of the major religions — are read as the congregation rises. The version of the Decalogue as given in Exodus is cited below; the Ten Commandments are repeated in Deuteronomy 5.6-18 with some word variations.
The idyllic Book of Ruth, one of the five biblical scrolls, is also read on Shavuot. Various reasons are advanced to explain this practice. Since the Scroll of Ruth vividly limns charming pastoral scenes of the harvest season in ancient Judea, it is considered appropriate for reading on the Feast of the Harvest. Furthermore, Shavuot marks the Israelites' acceptance of God's Law, even as the heathen Moabite Ruth embraced the religion of the Jewish people. It is also maintained that the Book of Ruth was written to trace the ancestry of King David, a direct descendant of the heroine Ruth. It concludes with an account of his lineage, and since David was born and died on Shavuot, according to tradition, the Scroll of Ruth is read in his honor.
The Feast of the Harvest
Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread — eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you — at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; and the Feast of the Harvest, of the firstfruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the LORD. ...
The choice firstfruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
Exodus 23.14-17, 19
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
When you enter the land which I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for acceptance in your behalf; the priest shall wave it on the day after the sabbath. On the day that you wave the sheaf, you shall offer as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb of the first year without blemish. The meal offering with it shall be two-tenths of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord; and the libation with it shall be of wine, a quarter of a hin. Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears [of the new crop]; it is a law for all time throughout the ages in all your settlements.
And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of wave offering — the day after the sabbath — you must count [off] seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week — fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as a wave offering; each shall be made of two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as firstfruits to the Lord. With the bread you shall present, as burnt offerings to the Lord, seven yearling lambs without blemish, one bull of the herd, and two rams, with their meal offerings and libations, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord. You shall also offer one he-goat as a sin offering and two yearling lambs as a sacrifice of well-being. The priest shall wave these — the two lambs — together with the bread of firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord; they shall be holy to the Lord, for the priest. On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a law for all time in all your settlements, throughout the ages.
And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.
Leviticus 23.9-22
On the day of the firstfruits, your Feast of Weeks, when you bring an offering of new grain to the Lord, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.
Numbers 28.26
You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God, offering your freewill contribution according as the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite in your communities, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your midst, at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish His name. Bear in mind that you were slaves in Egypt, and take care to obey these laws.
Deuteronomy 16.9-12
When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you occupy it and settle in it, you shall take some of every firstfruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish His name. You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, "I acknowledge this day before the Lord your God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us."
The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.
You shall then recite as follows before the Lord your God: "My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us: they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. The Lord freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the firstfruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me."
You shall leave it [the basket] before the Lord your God and bow low before the Lord your God. And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you and your household.
Deuteronomy 26.1-11
The Giving of Our Torah
On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai. Having journeyed from Rephidim, they entered the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the wilderness. Israel encamped there in front of the mountain, and Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel: 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Me. Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel."
Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and put before them all the words that the Lord had commanded him. All the people answered as one, saying, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do!" And Moses brought back the people's words to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, "I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after." Then Moses reported the people's words to the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes. Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai. You shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, 'Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death: no hand shall touch him, but he shall be either stoned or shot; beast or man, he shall not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain."
Moses came down from the mountain to the people and warned the people to stay pure, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day: do not go near a woman."
On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the Lord had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. The Lord said to Moses, "Go down, warn the people not to break through to the Lord to gaze, lest many of them perish. The priests also, who come near the Lord, must purify themselves, lest the Lord break out against them." But Moses said to the Lord, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us saying, 'Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it.'" So the Lord said to him, "Go down, and come back together with Aaron; but let not the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them." And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
God spoke all these words, saying, I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other gods beside Me.
You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God; for the Lord will not clear one who swears falsely by His name.
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house: you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.
All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance. "You speak to us," they said to Moses, "and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die." Moses answered the people, "Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray."
Exodus 19. i — 20.17
The Lord spoke those words — those and no more — to your whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which He gave to me. When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came up to me, all your tribal heads and elders, and said, "The Lord our God has just shown us His majestic Presence and we have heard His voice out of the fire; we have seen this day that man may live though God has spoken to him. Let us not die, then, for this fearsome fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we shall die. For what mortal ever heard the voice of the living God speak out of the fire, as we did, and lived? You go closer and hear all that the Lord our God says, and then you tell us everything that the Lord our God tells you, and we will willingly do it." Shavuot in the Bible
The Lord heard the plea that you made to me, and the Lord said to me, "I have heard the plea that this people made to you; they did well to speak thus. May they always be of such mind, to revere Me and follow all My commandments, that it may go well with them and with their children forever! Go, say to them, 'Return to your tents.' But you remain here with Me, and I will give you the whole Instruction — the laws and the rules — which you shall impart to them, for them to observe in the land that I am giving them to possess."
Be careful, then, to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left: follow only the path that the Lord your God has enjoined upon you, so that you may thrive and that it may go well with you, and that you may long endure in the land you are to occupy.
Deuteronomy 5.19-30
I had ascended the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant that the Lord had made with you, and I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God, with the exact words that the Lord had addressed to you out of the fire on the day of the Assembly.
At the end of those forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant. And the Lord said to me, "Hurry, go down from here at once, for the people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted wickedly; they have been quick to stray from the path that I enjoined upon them; they have made themselves a molten image." The Lord further said to me, "I see that this is a stiffnecked people. Let Me alone and I will destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you a nation far more numerous than they."
I started down the mountain, a mountain ablaze with fire, the two Tablets of the Covenant in my two hands. I saw how you had sinned against the Lord your God: you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had been quick to stray from the path that the Lord had enjoined upon you. Thereupon I gripped the two tablets and flung them away with both my hands, smashing them before your eyes. I threw myself down before the Lord — eating no bread and drinking no water forty days and forty nights, as before — because of the great wrong you had committed, doing what displeased the Lord and vexing Him. For I was in dread of the Lord's fierce anger against you, which moved Him to wipe you out. And that time, too, the Lord gave heed to me. ...
Thereupon the Lord said to me, "Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make an ark of wood. I will inscribe on the tablets the commandments that were on the first tablets which you smashed, and you shall deposit them in the ark."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Shavuot Anthology"
by .
Copyright © 1991 The Jewish Publication Society.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations A Note from the Publisher Preface Introduction Acknowledgments
- SHAVUOT IN THE BIBLE
- SHAVUOT IN POSTBIBLICAL WRITINGS
- SHAVUOT IN TALMUD AND MIDRASH
- SHAVUOT IN MEDIEVAL JEWISH LITERATURE
- LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF SHAVUOT
- THE LITURGY OF SHAVUOT
- SHAVUOT IN MODERN PROSE
- SHAVUOT IN ART
- SHAVUOT IN MANY LANDS
- SHAVUOT IN POETRY
- SHAVUOT IN THE SHORT STORY
- A SHAVUOT SHEAF
- SHAVUOT WIT AND HUMOR
- THE CULINARY ART OF SHAVUOT
- CHILDREN’S STORIES FOR SHAVUOT
- CHILDREN’S POEMS FOR SHAVUOT
- PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS
- MUSIC FOR SHAVUOT