Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks

"From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD," Leviticus 23:15-16.

"Count off..." - this goes from the Feast of the First Fruits, the day after the Shabbat, during the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Then,the counting of the fifty days begun, which is called the counting of Omer and according the Jewish calendar ends on 6^th Siwan, on Shavuot, which is the end of Pessach.

The year 2009 was the rare case in which, as to the Jewish calendar and our Gregorian one, some important biblical feasts fell on the same date; and so we celebrated Shavuot and Pentecost together, as it should always be actually, for both feasts are exactly the same feast! Jesus, Yeshua, resurrected on the first day of the counting of Omer (see first scripture above), the Feast of the First Fruits (with Yeshua, representing the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep", 1. Corinthians 15:20). So likewise, we celebrated Pesach and Easter together this year. Our Pesach-article tells you in short how this calendar seperation came about.

"Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing corn. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name- you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees", Deutoronomy 16:9-12.

How good are God's decress! We are to celebrate CHEERFULLY, with our family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, even with our employees, the poor and foreigners!

Synagogues, churches and houses are being festively decorated with flowers, green branches and fruits. Children dressed in white and with flower wreaths parade through the streets that are also decorated!

People were bringing a thank offering to the Temple from the first grain harvested: two loaves of bread made of yeast were given to the Lord as a wave offering of firstfruits (Leviticus 23:17).

Those two loaves are a picture for the body of Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua, which was born on that Shavuot, when the Holy Spirit was poured out...:

...the first Pentecost!
Another reason for celebrating cheerfully!

This word Shavuot is the plural form of Shuva (= week) and means "Sevens" (pl.), seven weeks. The word Pentecost derives from the greek pentekosté ("fiftieth day") - it is the same time frame, no matter if you count in weeks or days, in Hebrew or Koiné-Greek (in verse 15 of Levitikus 23, God speaks of "seven weeks" and in the next verse, He speaks of "50 days"). Both countings show the same godly expectation attitude.

Like this, the feast found its Messianic fulfillment: "And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws," Ezekiel 36:27. And Yeshua Himself instructed His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they would receive the Holy Spirit who would baptize and empower them (Acts 1:5.8). since then, he not only teaches us, but He also empowers us in our relationship toward God and among each other.

Yeshua Himself told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they would receive the Holy Spirit, who would baptize and enable them (Acts 1,5.8).

Second Pilgrimage Festival
Next to Pessach, Shavuot is the second major pilgrimage Festival of the Bible. Even nowadays, Jews from all over the world are flocking to Jerusalem on the three major feasts, Pessach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Noticeably, more and more Christians are joing them (as can be seen particularly on Sukkot).

Because of the pilgrimage feast "there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5). The city was literally bursting at the seams! Really, God knows exactly what He is doing: before the very eyes of thousands from everywhere, he poured out the Holy Spirit over the believers!

Up to that point, there had never been such a big demonstration of Himself! And what effects did this cause! A roar as of a big storm could be heard and also felt. Fire that didn't burn anything, came down and was could be seen on the heads of the believers. The disciples began speaking in languages they didn't know, but the foreign Jews understood them, as those languages were their own and they couldn't grasp anything that was going on. There were various manifestations of the Holy Spirit so that people thought that the disciples were drunk.

Peter, who up to that point was a robust, coarse person, who also put his foot in his mouth at times, became a great preacher from that moment on. He held his first great talk here in this chaos with the result that only on this very day, on Shavuot, 3000 people came to faith in Yeshua (Acts 2:14-41)! The church grew fast, even outside of Jerusalem and in the whole world that was known at that time.

Unfortunately, not only the number of believers grew, but also the number of those denying Yeshua, and tried to shut them up. Up to this day, there were many big persecutions of Christians and even nowadays, they are growing again...

Revelation Celebration:

followed her example in the following centuries.

"... man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (Deutoronomy 8:3). So Shavuot being the Feast of the First Fruits is also a Feast of the Word of God. So on this day, Jews also celebrate the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19) through which God revealed Himself to them.
According to Jewish tradition, a whole night is spent studying scriptures during this feast. Alongside others, the book of Ruth is read, being a story that took place at a harvest time. The conscious dedication of the Moabitan Ruth to the God of Israel fits perfectly well the Feast of the Torah and is a "first fruit" among many Gentiles that

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dairy dishes
Every Jewish feast has its traditional dishes. Shavuot would be unthinkable without its great varieties of cheese cakes and other dishes (scroll down a bit to the recipes) of milk products! This custom is being explained in different ways. Thus, school kids learn that in the beginning, the Israelites consumed only daiy products in order to be on the safe side, because the Torah still was very new and the individual laws had not been known yet. So it wasn't clear as to how the nowaday's most meticulously observed seperation of meat and milk should be considered in detail.

Others look at the dairy dishes as a symbol for the seperation of all "fleshly", which was to be executed in connection with the golden calf (Exodus 32). If transferring Solomon's Song of Songs to one's relationship with God, one could take dairy dishes thinking of the verse "milk and honey are under your tongue" (Solomon's Song of Songs 4:11). Still others point to the fact that the numeric value of the Hebrew word "chalav" (milk) is 40: Moses spent fourty days on Mount Sinai.