Jewish Holidays

It was the collision of Israel’s past with its present and future. The offerings may have been meager. The dairy dishes improvised. But the spirit was resolute.

For many Holocaust survivors, May 18, 1945 was the first Shavuot they were able to celebrate after years of war.

Most Atlanta synagogues held a confirmation on the first day of the Shavuot holiday - unusual by then for many American Jewish communities.

By celebrating Shavuot, we celebrate our connection to the land and our ability to make the desert bloom. It is our Garden of Eden.

In light of this agonizing and ongoing reality, a quote from the midrash can be a challenge to embrace, as it forces us to think and look outward at our enemies in a different light.

We all face Red Seas in one form or another. But the good news is that just as God parted the waters for our forefathers when they left Egypt, He can part them for us as well.

Faith isn’t about finding all the answers – it’s about having shoulders wide enough, and spirits deep enough, to carry the weight of the questions. 

The tragedy for the firstborn is that he is left with the anomalous status that puts on him sometimes vast societal and psychological expectations, but has equal legal status with the rest.

The pilgrimage festival of Shavuot at the conclusion of the Omer period was in thanksgiving for God’s blessing and protection of the land and its produce.

If we are a nation that sees itself as a family, let us remember those families that have carried such a heavy burden throughout this war.