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Shavuot begins at sunset Sunday, May 16,2021 and ends on the evening of Tuesday, May 18, 2021. In Israel it is a one-day holiday, ending at nightfall of the 6th of Sivan. After the 49-day counting from Passover we reach the 50th day of Shavuot. The word Shavuot / שָׁבוּעוֹת means "weeks." There is no melachot on Shavuot (meaning no new posts during that time). Just as on Shabbat and other major holidays we do not do activities related to the 39 used to build the Mishkahn (the portable Temple / Tabernacle)... except making a food for that day alone (Ochel Nefesh). Betzah 12: "Since carrying out was permitted on a Festival for the purpose of food preparation, it was also permitted not for that purpose. For if you say the baraita is accordance with the opinion of Beit Hillel, they say: Since carrying out was permitted for the requirements of food preparation, it was also permitted not for these requirements. Here, too, with regard to the prohibited labor of slaughtering, since slaughter was permitted for the requirements of food preparation, it was also permitted not for these requirements. It was permitted for any purpose that benefits people, whether directly or indirectly. "On Shabbat, yes, carrying from one domain to another is indeed prohibited; on a Festival, no, it is not prohibited." This year Shavuot begins Sunday at Sundown and ends Tuesday night. This means an eruv tavshilin is set aside on the day before Shavuot. Normally, it is forbidden to prepare food on holidays that you plan to use the next day. However, when the holiday falls out on Friday you can prepare for Shabbat on on the holiday if you symbolically began the preparations before the holiday. This symbolic preparation is known as an eruv tavshilin. You can read about this practice here. Shavuot is biblically mandated and marks the time the Jewish people as a nation, some 3 million men, women and children, heard G-d speak to them. Not through a prophet, but directly to them. "And Keep the Festival of Shavuot / וְחַג שָׁבֻעֹת / through the first fruits of your wheat harvest. Also keep the Harvest Festival soon after the year changes." Sh'mot / Exodus 34:22. G-d gave us the ten utterances (not commandments)... On the first day of Shavuot we should all hear them read out loud... On the second day Yizkor / "remember" / יזכור is recited for those mourning the loss of a loved one. It is customary for one whose parents are living to leave the synagogue during the Yizkor service. There is also a custom to not say Yizkor within the first year of mourning until the anniversary of the death (yarzeit) has passed. This holiday renews the covenantal relationship G-d first established with Abraham, renewed with Isaac, and renewed again with Jacob. At Sinai He renewed the covenantal relationship with the entire Jewish people. Shavuot is also an agricultural holiday and in the time of the Temple people would bring their "first fruits" to the Temple. Sh'mot / Exodus 23:16, Vayikra / Leviticus 23:15-22 and D'varim / Deuteronomy 16:9-12. There is a custom to stay up all night studying the Torah. Women light candles, and we eat a lot of dairy foods. The Torah is Unique and there will never be another like it. No prophet can change the Torah. If any prophet changes a mitzvah he is a false prophet. The Torah is the direct word of G-d, it is eternal and it cannot be changed through prophecy. Remember that the Jews did not believe Moses simply because Moses told them G-d had spoken to him. They didn’t believe Moses because Moses performed miracles (miracles can be faked). The Jews believed Moses because G-d spoke to THEM. G-d told 3 million Jewish men, women and children the ten utterances (commandments) and was with the Jews daily for over 40 years in the desert. IF Moses had made up even one mitzvah not given by G-d then Moses would have been removed as prophet. We know this clearly because when Moses failed to follow G-d’s instructions completely (striking a rock for water rather than speaking to it as G-d commanded) he was punished. . . Moses spoke to the Jews (Israelites): “Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them: Listen, Israel, to the rules and laws that I am publicly declaring to you today. Learn them and safeguard them, so that you will be able to keep them. G-d your L-rd made a covenant with you at Horeb (Sinai) It was not with your ancestors that G-d made this covenant, but with us - those of us who are still alive here today. On the mountain, G-d spoke to you face to face out of the fire. I stood between you and G-d at that time, to tell you G-d's words, since you were afraid of the fire, and did not go up on the mountain. G-d then] declared [the Ten Utterances]. . . G-d spoke these words in a loud voice to your entire assembly from the mountain, out of the fire, cloud and mist, but He added no more. He wrote [these words] on two stone tablets, and [later] gave them to me.” D’varim / Deuteronomy 5:1-19. Along with national revelation we Jews have maintained the Torah and its mitzvot in every generation. There has never been a break from one generation to the next in its transmission. Yes, some Jews have forgotten, but the nation never has. This all stems from the time of Moses – and the court system has continued from Moses to today. The judges today are called “rabbis” – and there is an unbroken chain of these judges, and of Torah transmission, from Moses until this very day. Here is a link to an article "What Happened at Matan Torah?"
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