Shavuot and Pentecost and Memorial Day

Today is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.  If you are Christian, you might know it as Pentecost, although as far as I can tell they are celebrating two entirely different things.  The only thing they seem to have in common is that they come seven weeks after something.  Shavuot is seven weeks after the second day of Passover;  Pentecost is seven weeks after Easter Sunday.  I'm sure there's some tie-in there somehow.

Shavuot celebrates the day that Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Torah.  It's also one of Mark's favorite holidays.  I like it because we eat lots of dairy foods.  I can think of two reasons why it's traditional to eat dairy foods on this holiday.  One is that the shape of two blintzes on your plate looks like Torah scrolls.  The other is because the Torah says the people will be taken to a "land of milk and honey."  No matter the reason, I loved the cheese blintzes with blueberry topping that Mark made for dinner last night.  He also made a low-carb, crustless, low-fat, sugar free cheesecake that was AWESOME!  We cut it into eight pieces, so it's going to last us four days.  I'm totally OKAY with that!

We went to our synagogue's Tikun Leil Shavuot last night.  At our old shul, services started around 10 p..m., and then we stayed up all night studying Torah until dawn, when we would have an abbreviated morning service then go home, crash, and sleep half the day!  Here no one wants to stay up all night.  We went in the day time for Mincha (afternoon) service followed by two 20 minute study sessions.

Our rabbi started off the study sessions with a fascinating talk about how this Shavuot falls on Memorial Day.  Shavuot is a two day holiday outside of Israel, so tomorrow, Memorial Day, is still Shavuot.  This is the first time in 27 years that the holidays have coincided.  The connection is that Shavuot is one of the four times during the year when Jews say the special memorial prayers of Yizkor.  We have a fixed liturgy and set prayers for remembering our relatives and friends who have died.  He compared this to Memorial Day when there is no set or fixed liturgy.  People remember the soldiers who gave their lives for our country, but there is no ceremony that is the same everywhere.  In fact, to many people Memorial Day has become a day off from work and an excuse to have a picnic.  Because of the 20 minute time limit, the talk was not opened up to discussion.  This was unfortunate because it seemed like a lot of people would have liked to comment on this.

The second talk was about art works over the years depicting the book of Ruth, traditionally read on this holiday.  It's read at this time of year because of the story about Ruth gleaning in the fields. It's a harvest story and Shavuot is also a harvest time.  The man who presented the session had large, color photos of many art works, including one from the Sistine Chapel, which he passed around.  I enjoyed looking at those. Again, it would have been interesting to have discussion and opinions on these paintings, but the time was too short.

Then we all had ice cream!  I was going to skip that part, but all my resolve flew out the window when the sundae bar opened.  At least I chose the low fat coffee fudge, but then I added cherries, M&Ms, whipped cream, and caramel sauce.  I haven't had a bowl of ice cream that looked like that in a long time!  That should have done it for me, but NO!  I went back for the sugar free chocolate and loaded it up with the same toppings.  Yum, but so bad for me.  That should have done it, but NO!  The next thing I know, I'm sucking down a huge, homemade red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  Whoa!  Why?  I don't know.

By this time, it was dark, and we were ready to really usher in Shavuot with the Maariv (evening) service, followed by three more study sessions. Mark lead off these three sessions with his presentation of "Is the Lone Ranger Jewish?", a session he had done once before in Maryland.  Everybody loved it, but the twenty minute time limit really seemed too short.  He was able to get some discussion going, but again it felt very rushed to me.  The rabbi's wife, also a rabbi, did an interesting talk on the Torah portion that described the events of Moses going up and down the mountain and bringing the Torah to the people.  She tried to get us to imagine being there ourselves, which is the traditional Jewish view, and try to make sense of it.  The final session included reading the entire book of Ruth aloud with commentary added by a lady who spent 40+ years as a Jewish educator.  It was also very interesting, but there was no discussion.  I liked all the sessions, but if each one had been allotted about 40 minutes, it would have been so much more interesting.  It would also have gone on until about 1 a.m., which no one in this shul wants to do.

The evening ended at 11 p.m., and we were home by midnight.  We commented that Mishkan Torah was probably heading outside for Frank's midnight readings and then getting geared up for the all night sessions.  Mark misses those.  I used to fall asleep around 3 a.m.and remain fairly incoherent until time to drive home at 7 a.m., so I can't say I really miss it.  I would  have enjoyed staying up until about 1 a.m. and getting home at 2 a.m., but then it would have been hard to get up this morning at 7 to come back for this morning's service.  Mishkan Torah did not have another service the morning after the all-nighter, so it's a trade off.

This morning we are heading back for the morning service.  Tomorrow when we go back for the second day and Yizkor,  we will also be having a picnic with kosher hot dogs.  That should be fun!  The rabbi made a comment about the eating of dairy foods, but one thing we have learned about our young rabbi is that he likes to eat MEAT!  He said there is plenty of opportunity to eat dairy through the two days, but for the picnic he wants meat!  He's funny, and he's also only 29 years old!  

I hope everyone reading this blog has an enjoyable three-day Memorial Day weekend. Many of you are probably attending special Memorial Day services today or tomorrow to remember those who have died for our freedoms.  One of those freedoms allows Mark and me to go to our synagogue to worship as we please and eat kosher hot dogs with our new friends.  That's a very good thing.  Enjoy the holiday weekend, no matter how you celebrate it.

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P.S.  A freak snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada mountains prevented Evey and Eric from attempting their hike up White Mountain today.  I confess that I was relieved to hear that, but I bet they try again some other time.