Sweet Sassy Molassy!

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“And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”

- Ex. 34:28

Tonight is Shavuot, which almost literally means the "Feast of Weeks"—because we count 7 weeks from the second night of Passover… 49 days until Shavuot, supposedly marking the moment of Revelation at Sinai (i.e., Moses receiving the ten commandments/Torah... or absolutely nothing, depending on who you ask).

Shavuot is often overlooked in the Hebrew School circuit because it occurs in late May, close to the summer, when Hebrew School is already over. Also, it doesn’t have the cachet of the more famous holidays: The piety of Yom Kippur, the commercial appeal of Hanukkah, the ritual of Passover or dancing of Simchat Torah.

But what food do we eat on Shavuot?
Well, you could argue that we should fast, just like Moses did, for 40 days.
But Jews (like most people) prefer eating TOO much, rather than NOT ENOUGH.
So we consume obscene amounts of Dairy! Hooray!
It's symbolic. Like eating bitter herbs on Passover because Pharaoh made the lives of the Israelites bitter.
On Shavuot we eat dairy, especially cheesecake! Because being slaves made the lives of the Israelites... lactose intolerant!
No, actually there is a teaching that God had not yet informed the Israelites which animals were kosher, and which were unkosher, so to play it safe—no meat (albatross? Camel? Y’know what, let’s just eat some goat cheese”)

So Dairy foods and receiving the Torah/Ten Commandments—there is also a tradition to stay up all night!
Woo-hoo!
Doing what?
Studying!!!
Yeah, Jews know how to party! Yay! Gemara and Gas!

Okay—to sum up:
Cheesecake and Ten Commandments.
Both good, plus staying up all night!
All these qualities SHOULD make Shavuot very popular.

And yet, it has fallen through the holiday cracks, even though it fills a seasonal holiday gap—

Fall:
Apples, honey… then no eating.

Winter:
Presents and chocolates and potato pancakes.

Spring:
Matzah and Seder and ten plagues


Today I went grocery shopping, then stopped by a bakery and purchased a cheesecake for the festivities.

I returned home and my beloved wife asked me where the mushrooms and pretzels were.

They were gone!

I sprinted back to the bakery and inquired—
“Sorry, I was here early today, had a bag with food. Will you have seen it?”

“Oh, the bag with pretzels and mushrooms?”
He produced my bag of groceries from behind the counter
I thanked him, “Yes, that is the bag! Thanks to you. If I went back to house with no mushrooms, my wife would take away MY mushrooms?”

“What?”

“Forget it.”


Israel has that type of hospitality and neighborliness—when I go running Friday afternoons, I usually pick up a bouquet of flowers for my wife (I’m not THAT great a guy-- I’m lazy, they sell ‘em right on the corner. Maybe back in Manhattan I’ll pick her up some crack).
Two Fridays ago I picked out some roses, then realized I didn’t have enough money.
“It’s okay,” the young flower dude told me, “you’ll pay me next week. Don’t worry.”
I couldn’t believe it.

Israelis really can be quite sweet—no wonder they call this place the land flowing with Milk and Honey (which sounds awesome… unless you’re a vegan).


“And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.”

- Isaiah 7:22 (one of 22 instances in the Bible where Israel is referred to as the land of “milk and honey”)


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