Shavuot

The biblical account of the holiday we refer to as Shavuot bears no relationship at all to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The emergence of the association between this harvest festival and the Sinai covenant has therefore occupied both traditional and academic thinkers for centuries. Tzvika Aviv argues for a previously unexplored approach to the question, one which bridges the mystical insights of the Zohar with current scientific knowledge regarding wheat genetics.

Through a nuanced examination of interrelated minhagim, Nachman Levine shows how the custom of eating dairy foods, particularly blintzes, on Shavuot reenacts a collective initiation into Torah Study, allowing us to reexperience Revelation.

Ned Krasnopolsky explores the roles of meaning and obedience in matan Torah.

In honor of Shavuot 5784, Dalia Wolfson presents five new bilingual poems that explore the themes of the third perek of Mishnah Bikkurim and contemplate their possible inversion.

Benjamin Marcus was commissioned to create illustrations for an illuminated manuscript of the Book of Ruth. In this one-of-a-kind article, he shares his challenges, his discoveries, and his art.

  Josh Cahan   Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 12:11R. Lazar said: Like a king who wished to marry a well-born noblewoman, and said, “I will not wed her...

Yaakov Jaffe examines different views on which of Ruth's attributes first sparked Boaz's attention, and explores what that means about how we define a Jewish hero.

In this whimsical story, David Zvi Kalman takes an information theory perspective in tackling what it might have been like for Moses to receive the Law.

Why does the Tosefta accuse the Jews of being deceitful at Sinai? Worse still, why is God portrayed as being complicit in their deception? Ahead of Shavuot, Sara Wolkenfeld explains.

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan examines the significance of the six barleys that Boaz gives Ruth in light of the story of Rachel, Leah, and the duda'im.