RABBI WEIN ON SHAVUOT

Every holiday is dependent, so to speak, on memory for its observance to be meaningful and uplifting. The specific commandments, customs and rituals that accompany the Jewish holidays of the year are the memory aids that trigger our emotional and spiritual responses. Just sitting in a succah or eating matzo is sufficient to open the floodgates of memory that enhance our observance of that holiday. But the holiday of Shavuot has no specific all-encompassing commandment that accompanies it. It is short in duration – here in Israel it is only one day – and though agricultural in its origin (bringing the first fruit and crop offerings to Jerusalem in Temple times) it has lost much of that tenor in a society that is urbanized and globalized.