7 Weeks

Very happy Friday to everyone! It's another Jewish holiday (past couple of days) - Shavuot (Pentecost). I did my part of celebrating it by eating a cheese platter last night, courtesy of a Happy Hour with friends. Shavuot means literally weeks in Hebrew and takes place seven weeks after the first night of Passover. During these seven weeks no Jewish weddings are allowed (except on Lag Ba'Omer which is another holiday that falls within the seven week period).

Shavuot commemorates when the ten commandments were given to Charlton Heston on Mt. Sinai. For those who like to stick with biblical names - I'm speaking of Moses.

Tradition has it that we are required to eat at least one dairy meal during this holiday. Unfortunately, no one knows the exact reason for it and there's a lot of speculation. But I'm not one to complain because I love eating cheese!

This is one of those Jewish holidays where 99.9% of non-Jews have never heard of it and know nothing of it. Funnily enough, a quite high number of JEWS don't know when this holiday occurs and do nothing in preparation for it or in celebration of it. This, in spite of Shavuot being one of three most important holidays in the Jewish religion.

There are three important Jewish holidays where a Jew is required to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem: Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot.

And this concludes my brief Judaism 101 lesson of the week on the holiday called "Weeks."

Todah La'el Hayom Yom Shishi!