Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)
8th Day of the 3rd Month
Overview
The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is held on the 8th day of the 3rd month and lasts 1 day.
Starting on the day following Firstfruits (the 26th day of the 1st month), we are to count down 7 Sabbaths, with the day following the 7th Sabbath being the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot, on the 8th Day of the 3rd Month).
The Feast of Weeks is a mo’edim (appointed time) that is to be celebrated each year (forever) according to Torah.
Torah Requirements
General commandments:
- It is a Shabbat (day of rest) – no laborious work is to be done
- A proclamation is to be made stating this day is holy to YHVH
- The first fruits of the harvest are to be eaten on this day
- The Feast of Weeks is to be eaten in the place that YHVH puts His Name (Jerusalem)
- In the morning, after the Feast of Weeks, you may return to your home outside of Jerusalem
- 2 silver trumpets are to be blown over the burnt offerings and peace offerings
Required burnt offerings (`olah) for the wave offering (tenufah):
- 1 young male bull without blemish
- 2 rams without blemish
- 7 male lambs, each 1 year old, without blemish
Required food offerings (minchah) for the wave offering (tenufah):
- 2 loaves, each made from 2/10 of an ephah of flour, baked with leaven
Required sin offerings (chatta’ah) for the wave offering (tenufah):
- 1 male goat
Required peace offerings (shelem) for the wave offering (tenufah):
- 2 male lambs, each 1 year old, without blemish
Required burnt offerings (`olah):
- 2 young male bulls without blemish
- 1 ram without blemish
- 7 male lambs, each 1 year old, without blemish
Required food offerings (minchah) for the burnt offerings (`olah):
- Flour mixed with oil (3/10 of an ephah for each of the 2 bulls, 2/10 of an ephah for the ram, 1/10 of an ephah for each of the 7 lambs)
Required sin offerings (chatta’ah):
- 1 male goat
Feast of Weeks in the Torah
Exodus 23:14 Three times in the year you shall make a feast to Me.
Exodus 23:15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the set time of the month of Aviv. For in it you came out from Egypt, and they shall not appear before Me empty.
Exodus 23:16 Also the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. Also the Feast of Ingathering, at the going out of the year, at your gathering your work from the field.
Exodus 23:17 Three times in the year every one of your males shall appear before the Adon YAHWEH.
Exodus 23:18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven. And the fat of My feast shall not pass the night until morning.
Exodus 23:19 The first, the first-fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of YAHWEH your Elohim. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Exodus 34:22 And you shall observe a Feast of Weeks for yourself, the first-fruits of the harvest of wheat; also the Feast of Ingathering after the turn of the year.
Exodus 34:23 Three times in the year every male of yours shall be seen before the face of Adonai YAHWEH, the Elohim of Israel.
Exodus 34:24 For I will expel nations from before your face and will make broad your territory; and no one shall covet your land, as you go up to appear before YAHWEH your Elohim three times in the year.
Exodus 34:25 You shall not slaughter the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover Feast pass the night until morning.
Exodus 34:26 You shall bring the first of the first-fruits of your ground to the house of YAHWEH your Elohim. You shall not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.
Leviticus 23:15 And you shall number to you from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring in the sheaf of the wave offering; they shall be seven complete Sabbaths;
Leviticus 23:16 to the next day after the seventh Sabbath, you shall number fifty days; and you shall bring near a new food offering to YAHWEH;
Leviticus 23:17 you shall bring in bread out of your dwellings for a wave offering, two loaves; they shall be of two tenth ephah of flour; they shall be baked with leaven; first-fruits to YAHWEH
Leviticus 23:18 And besides the bread, you shall offer seven lambs, without blemish, sons of a year, and one bull, a son of the herd, and two rams; they are a burnt offering to YAHWEH, with their food offering and their drink offerings, a fire offering of soothing fragrance to YAHWEH.
Leviticus 23:19 And you shall offer one he-goat for a sin offering, and two lambs, sons of a year, for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
Leviticus 23:20 And the priest shall wave them, besides the bread of the first-fruits, a wave offering before YAHWEH, besides the two lambs; they are holy to YAHWEH for the priest.
Leviticus 23:21 And you shall make a proclamation on this same day; it is a holy gathering to you. You shall do no laborious work of service. It is a never ending statute in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
Leviticus 23:22 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the corner of your field, nor shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor, and for the alien: I am YAHWEH your Elohim.
Numbers 10:1 And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 10:2 Make two trumpets of silver for yourself. You shall make them of hammered work, and they shall be to you for the calling of the congregation, and for causing the camps to pull up stakes.
Numbers 10:3 And when they blow with them, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the tent of meeting.
Numbers 10:4 And if they blow with one, then the rulers, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall assemble to you.
Numbers 10:5 And when you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall then pull up stakes.
Numbers 10:6 And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall pull up stakes; they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.
Numbers 10:7 But when the assembly is gathered, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.
Numbers 10:8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets. And they shall be to you for a never ending statute throughout your generations.
Numbers 10:9 And when you go into battle in your land against the foe distressing you, then you shall blow with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before YAHWEH your Elohim. And you shall be saved from your enemies.
Numbers 10:10 And in the day of your gladness, and in your appointed times, and in your new moons, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. And they shall be to you for a memorial before your Elohim. I am YAHWEH your Elohim.
Numbers 28:26 And in the day of the first-fruits, as you offer a new food offering to YAHWEH in your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no work of service;
Numbers 28:27 and you shall offer a burnt offering for a soothing fragrance to YAHWEH: two bulls, sons of the herd, one ram, seven lambs, sons of a year
Numbers 28:28 and their food offering, flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts to the one bull, two tenth parts to the one ram,
Numbers 28:29 one tenth part to the one lamb, for the seven lambs;
Numbers 28:30 one kid of the goats to atone for you.
Numbers 28:31 You shall offer them besides the continual burnt offering and its food offering and drink offerings; they shall be ones without blemish for you.
Deuteronomy 16:9 You shall number to yourself seven weeks. When the sickle begins to reap in the standing grain, you shall begin to number seven weeks.
Deuteronomy 16:10 And you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to YAHWEH your Elohim according to the measure of the freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give according as YAHWEH your Elohim blesses you.
Deuteronomy 16:11 And you shall rejoice before YAHWEH your Elohim, you and your son, and your daughter, and your male slave, and your slave-girl, and the Levite that is inside your gates, and the alien, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you, in the place which YAHWEH your Elohim shall choose to cause His name to dwell there (Jerusalem).
Deuteronomy 16:12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall take heed to do these statutes.
Feast of Weeks in the Book of Jubilees
Jubilees 15:1 And in the fifth year of the fourth week of this jubilee, [1979 A.M.] in the third month, in the middle of the month, Abram celebrated the feast of the first-fruits of the grain harvest.
Jubilees 15:2 And he offered new offerings on the altar, the first-fruits of the produce, unto the Lord, an heifer and a goat and a sheep on the altar as a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord; their fruit offerings and their drink offerings he offered upon the altar with frankincense.
Feast of Weeks in the Dead Sea Scrolls
I [On the sixteenth of it (of the second month): sabbath.]
On the twenty-third of it: sabbath.
[On] the thir[tie]th [of it: sabbath.
On the seventh of the third month: sabbath.
On the fourteenth of it: sabbath.
On the fifteenth of it: Feast of Weeks.
Jewish Traditions
NOTE: Some of the Jewish traditions associated with the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) are steeped in Kabbalah beliefs. More information on the Kabbalah aspects of the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) can be found here at Chabad.org.
A Different Date for the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)
For Orthodox Jewish people, due to a difference in interpretation of the scripture concerning when to start counting the weeks (the observed day of Firstfruits), the holy day of the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is traditionally celebrated beginning at sundown following the 5th day of the 3rd month and lasting until nightfall of the 7th day of the 3rd month. In Israel it is a single-day event, ending at nightfall of the 6th day of the 3rd month.
As the scriptures read…
- Leviticus 23:15 And you shall number to you from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring in the sheaf of the wave offering; they shall be seven complete Sabbaths;
- Leviticus 23:16 to the next day after the seventh Sabbath, you shall number fifty days; and you shall bring near a new food offering to YAHWEH;
Orthodox Jewish people interpret the “Sabbath” in Leviticus 23:15 to be referring to the 15th day of the 1st month (the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a Shabbat of rest). As a result, Orthodox Jewish people always celebrate the day of Firstfruits on the 16th day of the 1st month of the year. And, since Firstfruits is used to determine when the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) will take place, the Jewish people have standardized the date of Shavuot to be observed each year on the 6th day of the 3rd month, according to the Hillel II calendar.
Tradition of “Counting the Omer” up to Shavuot
The “Counting the Omer” is actually the counting of days leading up to Shavuot. It is in reference to counting the measures of grain for the harvest. This counting of the days is done, starting at Firstfruits, all the way up to Shavuot. It is generally considered a time of mourning as Jewish Rabbi Akiva and 24,000 of his students were murdered by the Romans during this time.
Traditions for Shavuot Include:
- Women and girls light candles to usher in the holy day, on both the 1st and 2nd evenings.
- It is customary to stay up all night studying Torah on the 1st night.
- Everyone goes to the synagogue to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments on the 1st day.
- As on other holy days, special meals are eaten.
- It is customary to eat dairy foods. Menus range from traditional cheese blintzes to quiches, casseroles and more.
- On the 2nd day, the Yizkor memorial service (a special memorial prayer for the departed) is recited.
- Some communities read the Book of Ruth during morning services, as King David, whose death is traditionally believed to have occurred on this day, was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.
- Some have the custom to decorate their homes and synagogues with flowers and sweet-smelling plants in advance of the Feast of Weeks.
More details on the Jewish traditions surrounding the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) can be found here at Chabad.org.