Feast of Weeks
May. 16th, 2002 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidShavuot starts tonight, and I am (as usual) only partly ready. I haven't thought about the holiday itself so much as the logistics. Hopefully during the (2) days of the festival I'll have a chance to think about the nature of the day.
As with the other major holidays, this one has a dual aspect. The part of the departure from Egypt that we are celebrating is the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, and in the agricultural cycle we are celebrating the first fruits (Israel's growing cycle starts a bit earlier than in New England....). There aren't a lot of laws about this holiday (other than the generic ones for holidays): read the book of Ruth. There are 2 prevalent customs, eating dairy (esp. cheesecake, for some reason I don't know), and staying up all night the first night learning Torah.
(Oh, and "Feast of Weeks" refers to how Shavuot is exactly 7 weeks after Passover, and there people count the days between them, by number of days and by weeks and days.)
This year, I'm lucky enough that one of my guests tonight is bringing homemade cheesecake; that means I don't have to buy one. I can't bring myself to make one and actually eat it afterward: it's so unhealthful. But I don't have a problem eating cake I didn't make. Stupid, but that's how it is.
I am not going to be staying up all night: I gave this up a couple of years ago, when I realized how many days it took me to recover from that, and how cranky I was until then (I find it incredibly hard to sleep in the morning). Also, it means I can focus on the davening in the morning, rather than just wanting it to be over so I can finally sleep. Though I do miss the learning; I have been to some incredible classes some years.
At least I am planning to make it to shul to hear the book of Ruth. I particularly enjoy how it's one of the few places in Tanach where the feminine plural forms of verbs are used (if there's even one man in a group, the verb is masculine plural). Also the story itself is interesting.
I'm hosting a meal tonight, and most of the cooking is done. Last night I made artichokes, milchig meatloaf, a dairy noodle kugel (which came out... sort of paler in taste than I'd wanted), a vegetable soup (lots of leeks and parsnips). This morning, I started bread rising, made melon balls, juiced some limes.
This afternoon, I bake the bread, make the salad, finish the soup (I think I'll puree it, then add some dumpling-like things. It needs some seasoning, and I'm not sure what, but pureeing it will let me taste more clearly for this soup.), maybe sautee some eggplant, and dress the melon balls (lime juice and cracked black pepper). Oh, and make some sort of turkey meatloaf or meatballs for Shabbat dinner (the only other meal I'll be home for. I got some invitations out for meals! First time in weeks...))
As with the other major holidays, this one has a dual aspect. The part of the departure from Egypt that we are celebrating is the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, and in the agricultural cycle we are celebrating the first fruits (Israel's growing cycle starts a bit earlier than in New England....). There aren't a lot of laws about this holiday (other than the generic ones for holidays): read the book of Ruth. There are 2 prevalent customs, eating dairy (esp. cheesecake, for some reason I don't know), and staying up all night the first night learning Torah.
(Oh, and "Feast of Weeks" refers to how Shavuot is exactly 7 weeks after Passover, and there people count the days between them, by number of days and by weeks and days.)
This year, I'm lucky enough that one of my guests tonight is bringing homemade cheesecake; that means I don't have to buy one. I can't bring myself to make one and actually eat it afterward: it's so unhealthful. But I don't have a problem eating cake I didn't make. Stupid, but that's how it is.
I am not going to be staying up all night: I gave this up a couple of years ago, when I realized how many days it took me to recover from that, and how cranky I was until then (I find it incredibly hard to sleep in the morning). Also, it means I can focus on the davening in the morning, rather than just wanting it to be over so I can finally sleep. Though I do miss the learning; I have been to some incredible classes some years.
At least I am planning to make it to shul to hear the book of Ruth. I particularly enjoy how it's one of the few places in Tanach where the feminine plural forms of verbs are used (if there's even one man in a group, the verb is masculine plural). Also the story itself is interesting.
I'm hosting a meal tonight, and most of the cooking is done. Last night I made artichokes, milchig meatloaf, a dairy noodle kugel (which came out... sort of paler in taste than I'd wanted), a vegetable soup (lots of leeks and parsnips). This morning, I started bread rising, made melon balls, juiced some limes.
This afternoon, I bake the bread, make the salad, finish the soup (I think I'll puree it, then add some dumpling-like things. It needs some seasoning, and I'm not sure what, but pureeing it will let me taste more clearly for this soup.), maybe sautee some eggplant, and dress the melon balls (lime juice and cracked black pepper). Oh, and make some sort of turkey meatloaf or meatballs for Shabbat dinner (the only other meal I'll be home for. I got some invitations out for meals! First time in weeks...))