Shavuot (Pentecost)

IFCJ: Celebrating Shavuot in the Holy Land
Dear Friend of Israel,

At sundown on Tuesday, May 18, Jews will celebrate the festival of Shavuot, a holiday with dual significance. The Bible states, "From the day after the Sabbath … count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16). Thus, on Shavuot Jews commemorate the time in ancient days when the “first fruits” were harvested and brought to the holy Temple in Jerusalem as an offering to God.

The second event commemorated on Shavuot is the giving of the Torah (the first five books of what Christians call the Old Testament) to Moses on Mount Sinai. God's law, as expressed in the Torah, is the source of the unique character, faith, and destiny of the Jewish people. It also forms the moral foundation of Western civilization and its institutions, which makes it of critical importance not just for Jews, but for Christians, and indeed the entire world.

As I discussed last week, Israel has just marked the 43rd anniversary of the liberation of the city of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. Shavuot that year fell just six days after the Holy City was reclaimed, and on that holiday thousands of grateful Jewish pilgrims were able to see the holy sites to which they had so long been denied access. One Israeli magazine described the extraordinary scene on Shavuot, 1967:

"For the first time since the Dispersion in the year 70 C.E. a pilgrimage numbering two hundred thousand persons moved under the Flag of Israel through the streets of King David's City to the last surviving relic of the Second Temple. Every section of the population was represented, kibbutz members and soldiers in tallitot (prayer shawls) rubbing shoulders with ultra-orthodox rabbis. Mothers came with children in prams, and old men trudged steeply up Mount Zion, supported by youngsters on either side, to see the Wall of the Temple before the end of their days… Some wept, but most faces were wreathed in smiles."

Every year now on Shavuot people from all over Jerusalem stream to the Western Wall in early morning to pray at a sunrise service. It is a fitting way to observe this significant Jewish festival, to honor their biblical commitment, and to give thanks to God.

Today, I ask you to please say a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray that the Jewish people will always be able to celebrate the festival of Shavuot in Jerusalem, the holiest city of all Judaism, and the capital of the sovereign Jewish State. And let us all - Jews and Christians alike - give thanks to God for the precious gift of His word.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Yechiel Eckstein
President