The Israel Bible

Cheesecake and the Hebrew Bible

by Chaim Barzel | f 21, 2023 | Shavuot (Pentecost)

What do the Hebrew Bible and cheesecake have in common? If you guessed the Hebrew month of Sivan, then you’re correct! Sivan (סִיוָן) is the current name of the third month of the Hebrew calendar, adopted during the Babylonian exile. The name first appears in the Book...

From Moab to Mount Sinai

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2023 | Ruth, Shavuot (Pentecost)

By Rabbi Tuly Weisz Every year, the Jewish people read the Book of Ruth on the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost), which falls out towards the end of May or early June. Shavuot is one of the three central pilgrimage festivals, and is the day when the Jewish people...

Baking Bread Temple Style

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Emor, Counting the Omer, Shavuot (Pentecost)

Shavuot is an annual Jewish holiday, one of the three Biblically mandated pilgrimage festivals when, in Temple times, Jews ascended to Jerusalem. It is observed after the Jews complete a seven-week count beginning on the second day of Passover: You must count until...

Shavuot and Jerusalem: Revelation Then and Now

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 2, 2022 | Shavuot (Pentecost), Revelation and Prophecy

On June 15, 1967, Rabbi Norman Lamm delivered a lecture at The Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was the second day of the festival of Shavuot and five days after the Six-Day war had ended. In his passionate speech, the rabbi compared the Israeli...

Shavuot: Receiving the Torah and Saving the World

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 1, 2022 | Purim, Shavuot (Pentecost)

In the story of Creation, God ends every day by noting the day and saying it was good. The formula established on the first day reads, “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day” (Genesis 1:5). One notable divergence is when God comments, “And there was...

The Counting of the Omer

by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 19, 2022 | Emor, Passover, Counting the Omer, Shavuot (Pentecost), Temple

On the night after the Passover Seder, the second night of Passover (the 16th of Nisan), Jews begin to perform the commandment of counting the seven complete weeks of the Omer which culminates in the pilgrimage festival of Shavuot on the 50th day. This commandment is...