Shavuot -- Fifth and Sixth Grade

SHAVUOT -- Fifth and Sixth Grade

Scheduling: Shavuot occurs right before or right after the end of the school year. That's a hectic time for teachers trying to finish up while they compete with spring musicals or field trips and athletic events. So make scheduling plans early and keep your talk short.

Materials: A small "model" Torah with cover, maybe a foot high. This can be borrowed from your synagogue. A crown of flowers or branches is placed over the model Torah. Blintzes. Sour cream (optional). WHEN MAKING A COUNT, DON'T FORGET THE TEACHERS AND TEACHERS' AIDES.

Food Preparation: Use frozen blintzes purchased in bulk. Follow the instructions.

START OF PRESENTATION

Hello, I am Tovah's dad. (Please insert your child's name and your relationship to the child, such as "John's mom" or "Rifka's grandpa.")

I'm here today to talk with you about a Jewish holiday that we will celebrate next Monday. (Please insert the actual weekday on which the holiday occurred or will occur, such as "last Thursday" or "two weeks from now.")

Shavuot is a Jewish holiday celebrated ever year, late spring, 49 days after the second night of Passover. In ancient times, this was the time of harvest and a grain offering was made each of those 49 days.

Can we all say Shavuot" together?

SHAVUOT.

Very good.

A HARVEST FESTIVAL

The entire period of 49 days, that is, 7 weeks, was the spring harvest time. The spring harvest time began with Passover and ended with Shavuot, just as the fall harvest was celebrated by the series of holidays from Rosh Hashanah to Simchat Torah.

Just as the fall harvest ends with Simchat Torah, a holiday celebrating the Torah and its yearly reading, the spring harvest ends with Shavuot, a holiday celebrating the Torah and when the Jewish people first received the Law.

THE STORY OF SHAVUOT

Shavuot is the story of Moses and the Jewish people receiving the Ten Commandments, on Mt. Sinai, after having escaped from slavery in Egypt. Shavuot is about as old a holiday as Passover, and celebrates events that took place at least 1000 years before Jesus was born.

In the Jewish calendar, the two holiest holidays are Rosh Hashanah andYom Kippur, the holidays I spoke about in the early fall. The three other most important Feasts or Festivals are Passover and Shavuot in the spring and Sukkot in the fall. Passover tells the story of the Jewish people escaping from slavery in Egypt. Shavuot tells the next part of that story, how they then came to Mt. Sinai in the desert and received the Ten Commandments and the Law. Sukkot celebrates the rest of the story told in the Torah (in the five Books of Moses), the wandering of the Jewish people for 40 years, under G-d's protection, until they reached Israel.

The other Jewish holidays we've talked about thisy ear are newer holidays, celebrating more recent events. These more recent holidays can be lot of fun, but they are not as important.

CELEBRATION

On Shavuot, as a celebration, a crown of flowers and branches is woven and placed over the Torah.

Here is a crown of flowers placed over the model Torah I showed you last fall.

FOODS

Shavuot holiday foods include dairy items such as blintzes or cheesecakes. Bllintzes are a creamy sweet cheese-like filling wrapped in a thin dough. Sometimes they are eaten with sour cram. (Pass out blintzes and sour cream.)

(SHAVUOT and PENTECOST

I've talked about how the celebration of the spring harvest is extended for 7 weeks from Passover to Shavuot. In a similar manner, the Christian celebration of Easter is extended for 50 days to the Christian holiday of Pentecost. Both holidays are similar in that they celebrate G-d revealing himself. But they really deal with different subject matter and different types of refvelation.

Shavuot celebrates G-d giving the Ten Commandments to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai over 3000 years ago -- both by G-d giving the Ten Commandments to Moses in the form of stone tables and by G-d reciting them to the people assembled.

Pentecost has celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit after Jesus' death about 2000 years ago.)

SUMMARY

Shavuot does not have all the festivity of some of the other holidays, but it is one of the most important because it celebrates receiving the Law from G-d.

You have been a good audience. Not just today, but all year. Do you have any questions? (Take questions.)

Thank you for listening so well.