Interfaith Holidays and Holy Days, Week of May 21, 2007

Shavuot (Shavuos), May 22-24, 2007:
The Feast of Shavuot is celebrated on the 6th day of the Jewish month of Sivan, and concludes the 40-day Counting of the Omer. Shavuot marks the day on which God appeared to Moses at the summit of Mount Sinai and delivered the Ten Commandments, thus entering into a holy covenant with the people of Israel.

According to Holidays.net, there are a number of traditional ways to celebrate this important holiday, including consuming dairy foods (re: Israel was described as the "Land of Milk and Honey"), keeping an all-night vigil on the eve of the holiday, and decorating homes and synagogues with flowers to mark the fact that Mount Sinai was described as being lush and verdant.

The Ten Commandments are the first of several hundred laws that comprise the Torah, the Holy Law of God and the most sacred scriptures in all of Judaism. The reproduction of each Torah scroll is a painstaking process, as each one is produced by hand, and only by the most well-trained scribes. It is a high honor to be asked to read from the Torah scroll during synagogue services.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

Shavuot on the Net (Holidays.net)

Chabad.org (Shavuos)

Shavuot Customs and Traditions (Mazornet.com)

Contemporary Shavous Cuisine (Jewish World Review.com)

What Are the Ten Commandments? (AskMoses.com)