Jewish Holiday: Shavuot, aka Cheesecake Holiday

Cravings: commandments and cheesecake

Rant: Most Americans (and probably other countries) associate Chanukah as an important Jewish holiday. This ticks me off as it is not even one of the holidays in the Torah (the Pentatuach, or first five books of the bible), let alone the Old Testament! Of course Chanukah is important and has profound historical significance. Maybe "ticking me off" is a bit strong. It's a very easy answer as to why people have this association - it falls around the same time as Christmas. It was a hard decision to make about having a Christmas tree last year. Charlie asked if we could have a "Chanukah bush" and I said absolutely not. But, I allowed a Christmas tree. I know this sounds confusing, but hear me out. For Charlie, Christmas is a tradition that he loves, and he celebrates it in a secular way. I reasoned - I am devoutly Jewish (I am reform but I still incorporate it into my life), and I would rather participate in a secularized tradition from Christianity than Judaism.
(Sorry the picture is dark!)

Moving on...

Lesson: There are actually 3 pilgrim feasts - "shalosh regalim" which is when Jews at the time of the first and second temple in Jerusalem would make a pilgrimage for the holiday. Since the destruction of the 2nd temple, we do not make the pilgrimage anymore, but the importance of the holidays has remained.  The three holidays:
1. Sukkot
2. Pesach (Passover)
3. Shavuot

I very briefly blogged about Sukkot here, but realize that I did not go into detail at all. Wait for the fall and get an explanation and my take! (If you clicked on the above post, you'll see I recommended the book Mudbound - it's so good!)

Shavuot literally means "weeks" in Hebrew, and is celebrated 7 weeks after Pesach (Passover). Shavuot has agricultural, historical, and biblical significance, as do most of the Jewish holidays. The biblical significance is that we were given the Torah (first five books of the bible) at Mount Sinai.
*Note, we say we were given the Torah, not that we received it, because we are constantly receiving it throughout our lives*

You may have noticed that I called this post the Cheesecake holiday. Well, if you grew up in Israel, this is what you know! You could grow up completely secular, but you still know that on Shavuot, you have picnics and eat dairy meals including blintzes, cheese, and light and fluffy Israeli style cheesecake!

Why? You have no idea, but you do it! Wouldn't you?

Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for Israeli Cheesecake right now. I will ask some of my Israeli friends and post one asap, because it's amazing! I found this recipe on "Haaretz" and it looks stellar. If anybody tries it let me know!

So why do we eat dairy meals? In the Torah, specifically in the book of Deuteronomy, we are given all the laws. Judaism believes there are 613 commandments (mitzvot). Included in these laws, are all the dietary and purity laws. It reasons that when the Jews were given the Torah at Sinai, they had not been following the laws of kashrut (noun for kosher) since they did not know them. Because the laws of kashrut are strict about the pots you can use for meat, and they had not slaughtered their animals in the kosher way (considered to be a humane way), they could not cook meat until they got new utensils. Thus, for their journey, they only ate dairy or parve (parve is neutral), and so we follow in their footsteps on this holiday.

We have been doing picnics in the park with our Israeli friends for the past several years on Shavuot. I posted the picture of the food the other day.

Here is my friend Yifat with her son.


I feel like Yifat was just pregnant yesterday!

The only other picture I snapped that day was this one. Once the sun was setting it was actually COOL in Vegas.


I guess I must have been too busy eating yummies to take pictures.

For anybody interested, my mom sent me a really great article that is more in depth and takes Shavuot beyond its basics. I hope you enjoy.

Israel Trip April 2012

One day I'll get the hang of blogging. I feel like I do it like most people go to the gym - i'll go strong for a while and then stop for like 6 months. At least I've been working out regularly!

Lots been happening here. Right now all I can focus on is Maya snoring REALLY loudly.



Went to Israel.

Me and Moran (my best friend that was born one month before me) drinking "shoko beh sakit" aka chocolate milk in a bag. So good.

Sit up straight, Charlie!

Had amazing food:

Had a great engagement party.






Saw some cousins that I have missed!


Took a tour guide in the North. Charlie learned a lot. It was all verbal and I am not an auditory learner so I felt like a child w/autism on overload. I say that and people laugh but I'm dead serious, I can so relate to those kids I used to work with!

We also had a great time in Jerusalem. There's a great story about how I rubbed 9 crosses on the stone Jesus was lain on after his crucification - there's a picture of all the apostles with him, and although I don't believe Jesus is my lord and savior (that would sort of contradict my devout faith in Judaism), I clearly believe that he existed and that he is millions of people's savior, and that was profound. We got the crosses in the market and rubbed them on the stone to infuse them with holiness for devout Christian friends. What do you do with your face when you are Jewish, rubbing crosses on a stone next to people having the most holy moment of their life, and your fiance is taking pictures of you doing 9 in a row for friends to see? Yeah, I'd be embarrassed if it weren't so freaking hilarious.


Oh hello there....Someone's in my way


Do I smile? Wait, this is very holy and profound...


No, don't smile, just act "natural"


But I guess I should look at the camera....

And my all time favorite...Are you ready?


I think by that point I was just like, Charlie, where do I look????

But, I think that for our Christian friends and family, we got them the most profoud gift they could ever receive, and I am so glad we did it.



We had some great times with family as well. Profound for Avigail:

D'var Torah - Parshat Masei (mini Bible sermon of the week)

Tonight we had an education committee meeting at work. In the Jewish Community, before we get to business, many board meetings begin with a D'var Torah.

**For those who don't know** the Torah is the main source of text in Judaism - the first five books of the Bible. D'var Torah translates to "words of Torah" and is the sermon during weekly worship service, but can also refer to a very short, 1 or 2 minute "words of wisdom" where someone takes text from the weekly Torah portion (parsha) and relates it to something relevant in our life.)

The Parsha this week is Parshat Masei. I STRONGLY recommend everybody to go to http://www.g-dcast.com/, hopefully the link through youtube worked above! G-dcast has 5 minute cartoon depictions of every single Torah portion. If you are interested in learning about the first five books of the bible through a Jewish perspective, or want to share these with your kids (5th grade and higher), then please watch these weekly! They are amazing.

I have been starting every education committee with a D'var Torah. This meeting was no different. I didn't write anything down and just spoke, so I will try to make this sound as eloquently as possible.


So here goes!

This week's Parsha is Parshat Masei. In this portion, the tribes are distributed over the land of Israel, and given their land. However, the tribe of Levi (the Levites) are not given property of their own - they are distributed all over and told that they are the example for the rest of the tribes. They are scholars, G-d doesn't want them troubled with working the land.  So they are supposed to be the most important, but they aren't important enough to be given their own space? In a way, it's a great lesson for anybody in education, especially Jewish education. You can be a synagogue or church (or I guess a school if we continue the metaphor) without walls. But you can't be a synagogue (etc) without lifelong learning! Despite any other challenges we may have, our goal, and my personal goal as a Jewish Educator is to make sure that lifelong Jewish learning is desired by our adults, and modeled to our youth.


Okay, now go watch the G-dcast video!