I've written a little piece that explains in some small way the observance of the next major Jewish holiday, Shavuoth. Originally a harvest festival celebrating the "first fruits," Shavuoth came to be understood as the commemoration of the moment when Moses came down from the mountain and the people received the Torah. This moment at Mount Sinai marks the beginning of the Jews as a people of the Word, that is, a people whose lives derive meaning from their ongoing struggle to understand and enact the will of the Divine. Just as every Jew who celebrates Passover is to observe it as though he or she had been personally liberated from slavery, so it has become customary to engage Shavuoth as though every person in the Jewish nation is standing at Sinai, now. (Arthur Waskow, Seasons of our Joy. Boston: Beacon 1982.)

Counting Omer to Shavuoth

For seven weeks of seven days

We’re bid to keep to keep the count

So that we can remember

Moses coming down the mount.

Moses fasted while he did his work

The people watched in awe

the lightning flashing at the top

while Yah proclaimed the law.

Although we had just left slavery

we still didn’t know what was going to be,

and when we saw we were really free

it was a time of great anxiety.

The Israelites waited by Har Sinai

For the holy word to come down from on high

so for forty-nine days we partially mourn –

Can’t get married and can’t be shorn,

in trepidation waiting but

On Lag B’omer you can get a haircut!

Shavuoth marks the first fruits of the land

And the day when in front of Sinai we stand

In ancient times it was the harvest of wheat

it’s got some traditions that make it neat –

On Leil Shavuoth you can stay up all night

and study Torah till the morning light.

For just one moment heaven opens wide

and that’s when a prayer can get inside.

The following day we read the Book of Ruth

a story of love between age and youth –

a mother with a daughter-in-law so loyal –

the top of the line of David royal.

Through famine and harvest the two made their way

They say that King David was born on this day,

And Shavuoth is also when he passed away.

So to commemorate David the King

On Shavuoth his psalms we sing.

And because it’s a celebration of learning

Many students their degrees are earning.

We decorate with roses and greens

to replicate ancient harvest scenes.

We sprinkle the floor with flowers and spice

to make the synagogue fragrant and nice.

You can cut up paper to make a design

and for your meals on dairy dine.

There are seven attributes of the divine

and seven times seven is forty nine

So we count the omer for forty-nine days

a time of meditation that leads to praise.

Then the moment that starts with liberation

Culminates in the revelation.

The Torah to all the Jewish people speaks

And we celebrate the Feast of Weeks.