AS we Christians end the great celebration of the Easter season, there is one more significant feast to be marked.
This is the feast of Pentecost, often called the birthday of the Church.
The account of this event in the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-6) reads:
“When the day of Pentecost had come, the apostles were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
“Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability.
“Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”
Apart from all the obvious Christian messages in this passage, we also note two very significant points about Judaism.
Firstly, Pentecost is in fact a Jewish feast and was well known and celebrated by the apostles and the early Church.
And secondly, it was a feast that involved pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which accounted for the large numbers of foreigners in the city at that time.
In order to fully appreciate the rich heritage behind this great feast, we would do well to learn something of the story and celebration of the Jewish feast of Pentecost or Shavuot.
This year the Jewish holiday of Shavuot falls from sunset on June 1 and lasts for two days concluding at sunset on June 3.
Shavuot is also known as “feast of harvest”, “festival of weeks” and the day of “first fruits”.
It was called Pentecost by Greek-speaking Jews because it falls exactly on the 50th day after Passover (or seven weeks after the second day of Passover).
While Passover occurs in early spring (in the northern hemisphere) at the time of the barley harvest, Shavuot coincides with the wheat harvest at the beginning of summer.
It is a time for families to offer their first fruits such as wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.
Shavuot is the second of the three annual pilgrimage holidays of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot and Sukkot (the Festival of Tabernacles), when in the past Jews from all over Israel and beyond converged on Jerusalem to celebrate and bring Temple offerings.
According to a very old tradition, the period between Pesach and Shavuot is a season of mourning when marriages are not performed, hair is not cut and live music is not played or heard.
Instead, these days were set aside for serious reflection and study in preparation for the receiving of the Torah at Sinai.
There is also another tradition whereby some Jews observe the kabbalistic custom of staying up all night before the 50th day and reading the Torah.
This is to make amends for the negligent Israelites who allegedly slept while Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Another tradition associated with Shavuot is reading the biblical book of Ruth. This is partly because the story of Ruth took place between the barley and wheat harvests.
Ruth, as a convert to Judaism, chose to love Israel and Israel’s God and to give her life to them.
In doing so her life was like a first fruit offering of the best she could give.
King David, who was Ruth’s great-grandson, was said to have been born and to have died on Shavuot.
Shavuot is a festive time for both religious and secular Jews. Many decorate their homes with greenery and flowers.
They feast on Milchik (dairy products) in the morning before the big meal.
These dairy foods are sweetened with honey because the words of the Torah are likened to milk and honey. “Honey shall be under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11).
An hour after they have eaten the Milchik they clean up their table, put on it a different cover, use different dishes and rinse out their mouths. Jews do not mix dairy and meat products.
They then feast at a later time.
A special candle called the Yahrzeit/Yizkor candle is lit four times a year in memory of loved ones who have died.
On Shavuot the candle is lit at sundown on the second day.
Since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the nature of Shavuot has changed. Temple offerings have been limited to prayers made in the synagogue’s Shavuot services.
The special prayers include the Ten Commandments chanted to a special melody and the Akdamut and Azharot prayers in Aramaic praising God’s glory.
Jennifer Mitchell is a member of the Catholic Jewish Sub-Committee of the Brisbane archdiocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations.
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