Celebrate Shavuot at WCH

May 19, 2023

This week, the Jewish community celebrates Shavuot, a two-day holiday commemorating the day G-d* gave the Torah to Jewish people on Mount Sinai, more than 3,300 years ago. This year, Shavuot is celebrated from sundown on Thursday, May 25 – May 27.

The word Shavuot has a few meanings; one meaning is “weeks”, celebrating the completion of the seven-week Omer, a counting period of the weeks between Passover and Shavuot leading up to the giving of the Torah. Another meaning is “oaths”, signifying that G-d swore eternal devotion to the people and the people pledged loyalty to G-d.

Shavuot also marks the wheat harvest in Israel, and in ancient times, Jews would celebrate the holiday by offering two wheat loaves in the Holy Temple.

Shavuot is celebrated by abstaining from work, staying up all night to study Torah, reading of the Ten Commandments in synagogue and eating dairy foods, among other festivities. One of the staple dairy foods of Shavuot are blintzes, a sweetened cheese dessert in wrapped in thin crepe-like pancakes and often topped with berry sauce.

To celebrate Shavuot, WCH will be hosting a pre-Shavuot booth in the Peter Gilgan Atrium on Thursday, May 25 from 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., with traditional Klezmer music – traditional Ashkenazi Jewish music – from the Toronto Klezmer Society and kosher blintzes from Milk ‘N Honey.

We can’t wait to see you there!

*Many Jewish people observe the custom of not writing the full name of G-d as a way to show respect and to adhere to an interpretation of a commandment in Deuteronomy that says you should not erase or destroy G-d’s name, and therefore abstain from writing the name in full. Source: ReformJudaism.org