Festivals | Shavu'ot

Activities

Analysis

Enter the words listed below in the correct column

Names of        Shavuot "7"     Shavuot Shavuot Bible   Personalities
the             customs         Piyutim Foods   reading connected
Festival                                                with Shavuot
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Fig, Akdamut, Katzir, Shavuot, olive, Megillat Ruth, weeks from
Pesach, Parashat Yitro, vine, milk, Atzeret, Naomi, wheat, barley,
Matan Torah, Shabbat Kallah, date (honey), Boaz, Bikkurim, cheese,
Ruth, pomegranate, brining firstfruits, green plants for Shavuot,
Tikun Leil Shavuot, King David, Orpah, pilgrimage, high cakes,
counting the Omer, Days of Hagbalah, Moshe Rabbenu, fruit and
vegetables, Hallel

The Dispute of the Mountains

The Aggadah of the "Dispute of the Mountains" explains why the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. Read the Aggadah and then carry out the proposed activities.

When the mountains heard that G-d was going to give the Torah to Israel, they moved from their place and ran to the desert. The mountains began to argue among themselves:

Carmel said to Tabor: "Go back to your place, upon me the Torah is to be given!"

Tabor said to Carmel: "Go back to your place, upon me the Torah is to be given!"

And Mount Sinai stood aside. For it said: "Who am I that the Torah should be given upon me?"

G-d heard the quarrel of the mountains and said to them:

"Go back to your places, for upon you I shall not give my Torah, but on Mount Sinai!"

Assignment:

• Mark on the map the mountains in Eretz Israel and the surrounding area on which the Torah could have been given to the Jewish people. Choose particularly high mountains, mountains that have historic or strategic importance, etc.
• Bialik's and Ravnitzki's Sefer Ha-Aggadah cites two Aggadot explaining why the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. One asserts that Mount Sinai was the only mountain upon which idolatry had not been committed; and the other explains that Mount Sinai was torn out of Mount Moriah where the Patriarch Abraham bound his son Isaac, and thus it was appropriate for the children of Israel to receive the Torah on Mount Sinai.

Shalosh Regalim

Compare the three Pilgrim Festivals in the table below

The Festival                    Pesach          Shavuot         Sukkot
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* Other names
* Date of the festival
* No. of days the
  festival lasts
* Season when festival
  falls
* Historic and
  religious meaning of
  the festival
* Agricultural significance
  of the festival
* What Megillah is read
  on the festival?
* Foods eaten on the
  Festival?
* Customs of the
  Festival
* Symbols of the festival
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Matan Torah

Rabbi Abahu said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: `When G-d gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox made a sound, angels did not fly, Seraphim did not say "Kadosh", the sea did not stir, no creature spoke. The world was utterly silent - and a voice was heard: `I am the Lord your God,.
(Shemot Rabbah, 29)

Assignment:
Write a song or short story describing the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.