HappY Shavuot!
Shavuot, which means “weeks”, is one of three Pilgrim Festivals..along with Passover and Sukkot… in the Jewish calendar.
It celebrates the giving of the Bible (and Ten Commandments), the foundation of Jewish law.
Originally, Shavuot was a time of bringing the first fruits of harvest to Jerusalem.
This was meant as a show of gratitude and thanks.
Special customs include the reading of the Book of Ruth, which serves to remind us that we too can find a continual source of blessing in our tradition.
A lil reminder never hurt, did it sweet friends? 
Another tradition includes staying up all night long to study the Bible, which indicates that we are always ready and awake to receive the teachings of the Bible.
That’s right…allllllllllllll night…no nyquil..no NO Doz..Heh. 
There exists a stunning custom of decorating the synagogue with flowers and greens, because of the vegetation on Mt. Sinai, where the Bible was given.
Traditionally, dairy dishes are served…cheese cake, cheese blintzes,(crepes)..mmmmmmmm…… to symbolize the sweetness of the Bible, as well as Israel: the “land of milk and honey”.
Dang, Jews sure know how to eat…can u say yummmmmmmmmmmm?
Some mystics believe that at midnight the heavens open and favorably receive the study, and prayers of those who remain awake all night on the anniversary of the Revelation.
Legend has it that wishes are fulfilled at that moment.
Moroccan Jews actually believed that staying up all night guaranteed you life for the next year.
Sooo..Happy Shavuot to those celebrating!………and prayers for redemption and peace for all of us.
If your day began in chaos, then finish it with tranquility and peace. Stop, pray and …….hey…….enjoy your day.
I will make my rounds to see y’all soon as I get a few seconds to squeeze together. 
Sending with a pound of cheesecake to my friends at Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, third world county, Wake Up America, stikNstein… has no mercy, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, Nuke’s news and views, Planck’s Constant, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
My daughter standing next to me says: Ummmm, those are yummy Mama. Not for you, all for me! This was one of my favorite Jewish holidays but I didn’t know this much about it. Just the food and decorating part. And don’t the children go on a parade?
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Brings me awesome memories of my dear, departed grandmother’s blueberry blintzes. Mmmmmm………
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Thanks for sharing the tradition with us. The food looks great. My mouth was watering. Here we are trying to cook sweets without, sugar, milk, butter, or eggs! Not much happening in the kitchen due to the shortages.
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:49 pm
[...] Read more at Angel [...]
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Did someone say cheesecake??? What about ice cream??!
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 pm
May we be strengthened in these days…
May our hearts be open to receive the Word our Father in heaven has given us, for gladness and joy!
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
This is not fair, I come here and look what I see. I’m supposed to be on a diet. ………stevereenie
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Reading your posts is like eating a cheese blintz with blueberry jam on it.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:29 pm
look’s like my 6th graders will be reading Ruth in the a.m. Thanks for the info. We teach the Old T in 6th
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:37 pm
I’m the rarest of all Jews, the Texas Jew. We just have tacos and 6-pack of Coors for Shavout. I might add a pecan pie this year to make it extra special.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 pm
a peaceful and happy shavuot to you, woman!
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Since I became intolerant of lactose, among other things, I put good NY style cheese cake up there with, well…, use your imagination!
Blessings on Shavuot!
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Amen to that Angel!
Can’t eat dairy either, so… I’ll settle for soy.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Cheese Blintzes! YUMMY! Thanks for this educational post.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 am
Wishing you ‘handfuls on purpose’…
or plates full of cheesecake, as you desire.
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:17 am
Chag sameach.
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:12 am
“Another tradition includes staying up all night long to study the Bible, which indicates that we are always ready and awake to receive the teachings of the Bible.”
I love it!
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 am
Very Informative, Thank’s Angel
And yes the Jewish know how to eat, darn it I feel like googleing a Jewish recipie now, I’m hungry!!
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Celebrate life!
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:38 am
Such a beautiful post, Angel. There is such a tremendous difference between the Muslims and the Jews, isn’t there? It’s perfectly exemplifies the struggle between good and evil, and it certainly is easy for someone who isn’t simple minded to tell which is which!
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
I’m up for a blintz!
Thanks for all your comments at my blog Angel. I really appreciate them.
God Bless.
Now time for some Jewish Penicillin (Chicken Soup)
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:16 am
Basic information on Shavuot.
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
Happy Shavuot, Angel - sorry I’m late, it is crazy here. Thanks for explaining your holiday to us. The food looks great and the Book of Ruth is one of my favorites!
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Happy Shavout!
Dang, if I were Jewish I’d weigh about half a metric ton by now!
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hey thanks for the culture lesson. I never heard of the holiday, but I am always willing to celebrate. You might find that I will probably slip away from the all night bible session to perform other nocturnal activities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
My diet couldn’t afford to eat all those great foods, unless they were sugar-free. They sure do look good.
Many folks are not as committed to their faith as they were in earlier years. For some it’s the opposite. They get more faithful as they grow older.
We should all take a good hard look at our lives, and see what changes need to be made.
Great post Angel.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Happy Shavuot, Angel
Wow that looks like some good tasting food. One of my favorits is Pickled Herring and Gefilte fish. I hope I spelled it right.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Oh my! A holiday that involves cheesecake? Count me in! (I really feel bad for the lactose intolerant here
)
Happy Shavuot to you too Angel
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I love it when you put food in your posts. Just looking at those pictures has made my sweet tooth ache.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Bless you Angel for all you do and this wonderful post!
May 24th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Shalom aleichem!
May 24th, 2007 at 1:11 am
May the Jewish folks be able to celebrate it for centuries to come! My Christian pryers that it be so, a wonderful holiday to celebrate!As the guy in the big white hat said”Shalom Aleichem”!
May 24th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Ahh I got a question..
You say, ‘There exists a stunning custom of decorating the synagogue with flowers and greens, because of the vegetation on Mt. Sinai, where the Bible was given.’
The Bible in it’s entirety? Or is that the Torah ? I think it was only the 10 commandmenrs that were given on Mount Sinai.
Sorry to be technical but…
answers.com- The noun Shavuot has one meaning:
Meaning #1: (Judaism) Jewish holy day celebrated on the sixth of Sivan to celebrate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments
NOT the Bible.
The Jewish ‘Bible’ is not called a Bible, it’s the Torah.
Daniel
May 24th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Now, I’m hungry.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:12 am
How can any religion that celebrates dairy foods be bad?
Happy Shavuot to you too Angel
May 24th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Happy Shavuot! And thanks for the lesson.
btw - I’m on something of a gender-bender at the moment, so please don’t scream if you visit me.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:45 am
A pound of cheesecake.
Yummy…
May 24th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Hi,
Just surfing around your site.
Your old blogspot has a link pointing to your new site.
Insert this just above the title in your old template
The old site will be automatically redirected to the new site.
The 5 represents the seconds. Change the number to what ever you want.
Make it 0 and it’ll bypass your old blog on the fly.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Sorry it didn’t work.
Try again. Remove the periods inside the carets
May 24th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Poppin in to say hiya!
May 24th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I know about some Jewish traditions but this was all new. Thanks for sharing it.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Happy Shavout Angel……have a great, safe weekend chica!
May 24th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
The Jewish ‘Bible’ is not called a Bible, it’s the Torah.
Actually it is a little more complicated than that. Here is a short excerpt that should help explain things a bit
The word “Torah” is a tricky one, because it can mean different things in different contexts. In its most limited sense, “Torah” refers to the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word “torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.
Written Torah
To Jews, there is no “Old Testament.” The books that Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture. The so-called Old Testament is known to us as Written Torah or the Tanakh.
This is a list of the books of Written Torah, in the order in which they appear in Jewish translations, with the Hebrew name of the book, a translation of the Hebrew name (where it is not the same as the English name), and English names of the books (where it is not the same as the Hebrew name). The Hebrew names of the first five books are derived from the first few words of the book. The text of each book is more or less the same in Jewish translations as what you see in Christian bibles, although there are some occasional, slight differences in the numbering of verses and there are some significant differences in the translations.
TORAH (The Law):
* Bereishith (In the beginning…) (Genesis)
* Shemoth (The names…) (Exodus)
* Vayiqra (And He called…) (Leviticus)
* Bamidbar (In the wilderness…) (Numbers)
* Devarim (The words…) (Deuteronomy)
NEVI’IM (The Prophets):
* Yehoshua (Joshua)
* Shoftim (Judges)
* Shmuel (I &II Samuel)
* Melakhim (I & II Kings)
* Yeshayah (Isaiah)
* Yirmyah (Jeremiah)
* Yechezqel (Ezekiel)
* The Twelve (treated as one book)
o Hoshea (Hosea)
o Yoel (Joel)
o Amos
o Ovadyah (Obadiah)
o Yonah (Jonah)
o Mikhah (Micah)
o Nachum
o Chavaqquq (Habbakkuk)
o Tzefanyah (Zephaniah)
o Chaggai
o Zekharyah (Zechariah)
o Malakhi
KETHUVIM (The Writings):
* Tehillim (Psalms)
* Mishlei (Proverbs)
* Iyov (Job)
* Shir Ha-Shirim (Song of Songs)
* Ruth
* Eikhah (Lamentations)
* Qoheleth (the author’s name) (Ecclesiastes)
* Esther
* Daniel
* Ezra & Nechemyah (Nehemiah) (treated as one book)
* Divrei Ha-Yamim (The words of the days) (Chronicles)
Written Torah is often referred to as the Tanakh, which is an acrostic of Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim.
You can find more here.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Thanks for all the info about this chag. You r a well spring of knowledge.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
WOW..THANKS SO MUCH ALL OF YAZ FOR THE SWEET WONDERFUL COMMENTS AND WISHES!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Happy Shavuot! Yet another Jewish holiday that my evil brother in law failed to mention to us.
May 24th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Angel, have a wonderful weekend. We’re having company, so posting and visiting friends may be slow this weekend and next week.
I hope you got all your painting finished.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Thanks…
enjoy the cheesecake. my wife made a cheese&sour cream noodle kugel. good stuff…
May 28th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Angel,
I gained five pounds just thinking about those blintzes!