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Tonight begins the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot the anniversary of when God Gave us the Ten Commandments. Along with Passover and Sukkot, Shavout is one of the three major Jewish festivals. In biblical times, Jews used to leave their homes and travel to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple during the three festivals to make special offerings to God. There is an Old Story about a religious school Gan (kindergarten) teacher talking to her students about Shavuot. "OK Class, who knows why we celebrate Shavout?" "OOOH, OOOH I know," said little Karen, "Shavout is when we light candles and celebrate the...

And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beit Lehem in Judah went to sojourn in the field of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beit Lehem in Judeah. And they came into the field of Moab, and stayed there. And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons....

What support is there for the claim that God spoke to all the Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai?Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Most people reply, "God gave the Torah to Moses." And what were the Jewish people doing while Moses was receiving the Torah? "Worshipping the Golden Calf." Correct answers -- but NOT according to the Bible. The above answers come from Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, "The Ten Commandments." Amazing the impact one movie can have on the Jewish education of generations of Jews. It's a great film, but DeMille should...

What support is there for the claim that God spoke to all the Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai?Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Most people reply, "God gave the Torah to Moses." And what were the Jewish people doing while Moses was receiving the Torah? "Worshipping the Golden Calf." Correct answers -- but NOT according to the Bible. The above answers come from Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, "The Ten Commandments." Amazing the impact one movie can have on the Jewish education of generations of Jews. It's a great film, but DeMille should...

The holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, traditionally commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, seven weeks after the Jews left Egypt. In traditional rabbinic teaching, it brings the Passover season to a climax. The Exodus, celebrated on Passover, marks the liberation of the Jews from bondage into freedom, so the rabbis teach, but Shavuot marks their birth as a nation, bound together under God’s law, the Book of Books. Jews around the world will mark the start of the holiday next Tuesday evening. If history is any guide, though, the proportion of Jews that turns out...

The ceremony has become a tradition ever since the liberation of the Temple Mount during the Six-Day War in 1967 and is seen as an observance of the Jewish obligation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple three times a year, on Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). During the weeklong Pesach and Sukkot holidays, the ceremony is held on the second of the Hol haMoed (intermediate) days. Hundreds of kohanim, Jews who trace their lineage to Aaron, the first High Priest, stood closest to the Western Wall to take part in the special blessings....

When the Torah wishes to inform us of the 'historical' reason for a holiday, it certainly knows how to do so. Take for example the two other pilgrimage holidays - Chag HaMatzot and Succot. Even though these holidays are also presented from their 'agricultural' perspective (see Shmot 23:14-17), the Torah informs us of their historical perspectives as well (see Shmot 12:17, 13:3 etc. and Vayikra 23:42-43). Therefore, it is simply baffling that the Torah presents Shavuot only from its agricultural aspect, without mentioning even a word about its connection to events of Matan Torah! In this week's shiur, we attempt...

The great success of Jewish tradition is the meticulous transmission of the Torah text. But actually how accurate is it?How do we know that the Torah we have today is the same text given on Mount Sinai? The Torah was originally dictated from God to Moses, letter for letter. From there, the Midrash (Devarim Rabba 9:4) tells us: Before his death, Moses wrote 13 Torah Scrolls. Twelve of these were distributed to each of the 12 Tribes. The 13th was placed in the Ark of the Covenant (with the Tablets). If anyone would come and attempt to rewrite or falsify...

Tevi Troy, author of Intellectuals and the American Presidency, is an observant Jew who has held a number of positions in the Bush White House. He began his career in government working as an aide to then-Governor John Ashcroft of Missouri. He told me that when the Shavuot holiday approached, he cringed at the prospect of asking for the day off. Most secularized Jews don't observe it, so how could he expect his non-Jewish boss to give him the time? Sure enough, the initial reaction was puzzlement; the name of the holiday was unfamiliar. Tevi plunged on, explaining that it...

The first day of Shavuot falls on a Monday this year. Had the Tzaddukim [Sadducees] had their way, however, the holiday would always be celebrated on a Sunday. That's because the Tzaddukim, or Sadducees (one of the two major Jewish denominations during the Second Temple period) asserted that it would serve the needs of the people to have two consecutive days of rest and feasting – Shabbat, and Shavuot immediately afterward. (In Israel, Shavuot is observed on a single day; in the Diaspora, we celebrate it for two.) And so the revisionists advocated amending a religious tradition rooted in Sinai....

Tonight Israel begins the Festival of Shavuot and recalls the revelation at Mount Sinai, when G-d took the Jewish people to Himself and gave us the Road Map of life, the Torah: "All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the L-rd swore to your fathers (Deut. 8:1)." This statement of G-d's, naïve and blatantly politically-incorrect, would obviously exclude Him from membership in the Quartet. Every single point in the above statement goes against the "Road Map," the peace plan...