A Shavuot Reflection

Happy May Temple Beth Israel,

With Memorial Day parades and barbeques, May is the unofficial start to the summer season. In May, we also often celebrate Shavout, which marks the unofficial end to the major Jewish holiday calendar season, as it is the last of the shalosh regalim; the three pilgrimage festivals (along with Sukkot and Passover) when farmers in ancient Israel brough their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem. On Shavout we also read the Ten Commandments to commemorate the pivotal moment when God gave the Jewish people the Torah on Mount Sinai. This year we will celebrate Shavout on Friday, May 22^nd at Temple Beth Israel.

May is also graduation month (congrats to all those who graduated high school and college).  As I reflect on yet another successful semester at SUNY Plattsburgh, where I teach Intro to Judaism, we learned that throughout history when faced with unimaginable violence, hatred, and oppression, the Jewish people were often given stark options to survive: convert out of Judaism, exile (abandon whatever lands they were living in) or face death. Usually throughout our history when one uttered conversion and Judaism in the same sentence it was in reference to forced conversions to Christianity, Islam, or much later, conversion out of Judaism for one’s career aspirations or marriage prospects. Very few people historically converted to Judaism, comparatively speaking. Well, Shavout touches on many themes, and one of the most poignant and emotionally significant aspects is that on Shavout we honor those in our community and throughout the history of the Jewish people who have chosen to become chosen: the converts/giyorim to Judaism. 

Our sages teach us that when the Torah was given, every single Jew who ever lived and would live in the infinite future were standing at the base of Mt. Sinai. Not just the lucky few ex-slaves who escaped Egypt, but all Jews for all times; their dead and not yet born souls heard the sights and saw the unfathomable sounds of G-d’s commandments. Revelation was such a critical component to the birth of the Jewish nation that all the people witnessed it directly and felt it in their spirit. It is a powerful and special honor to call oneself Jewish, whenever or wherever we lived and however we arrived at our Jewish identity. 

May we spend some time this Shavout thinking about our Jewishness, reaffirming our special connection to Israel, Torah, and God, and falling in love all over again with the Jewish people.

Chodesh tov,

Rabbi David Joslin