I decided to give the d’var torah this month because my Oma Ruth’s birthday would

have been this coming Friday, May 8th, which happens to be her 2nd yahrtzeit this
year. Later this month, we will be celebrating the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Oma’s
holiday. She always loved going to shul with us to listen to the Ten Commandments
being read from the Torah, and she always paid attention to her book, The Book of
Ruth. On Shavuot 2018, a few months after her death, I was given the 4th Aliyah at
services that morning. It wasn’t until I was on the bimah that they announced for
everyone to rise, as this was the Aliyah where the Ten Commandments were to be
read. It took my breath away and I had to wipe tears and keep my composure until I
could escape to the bathroom for a good cry. It rocked me to the core. So much so
that I ended up driving over to our other shul where mom was just so I could tell her
what happened.
We all think of Shavuot as the holiday when G-d gave Moses the Torah on Mt Sinai.
However, what is textually connected in the Bible to the Feast of Shavuot is the
season of the grain harvest, specifically of the wheat, in the Land of Israel. In ancient
times, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness. It began
with the harvesting of the barley during Passover and ended with the harvesting of
the wheat at Shavuot. Shavuot was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest,
just as the eighth day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) was the concluding festival of the fruit
harvest. During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, an offering of two loaves of
bread from the wheat harvest was made on Shavuot.[2]
The Torah states that the Omer offering (i.e., the first day of counting the Omer) is
the first day of the barley harvest (Deut. 16:9). It should begin "on the morrow after
the Shabbat", and continue to be counted for seven Sabbaths until Shavuot.
The Talmudic Sages determined that "Shabbat" here means a day of rest and refers
to the first day of Passover. Thus, the counting of the Omer begins on the second day
of Passover and continues for the next 49 days, or seven complete weeks, ending on
the day before Shavuot. According to this calculation, Shavuot will fall on the day of
the week after that of the first day of Passover (e.g., if Passover starts on a Thursday,
Shavuot will begin on a Friday).
The customs of Shavuot highlight the importance of custom for the continuation and
preservation of Jewish religious observance. These customs, largely observed in
Ashkenazi communities, are:
 ‫ – ירק‬Yereq (greening), the decoration of homes and synagogues with greenery
(well, I guess we’re not doing that this year),
 ‫ – חלב‬ḥalav (milk), the consumption of dairy products like milk and cheese,
 ‫ – תורה‬Torah, engaging in all-night Torah study,
 ‫ – אקדמות‬Aqdamut, the reading of a liturgical poem during Shavuot morning
synagogue services, and
 ‫ – רות‬Rut, the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services (outside Israel: on
the second day),

According to the Midrash, Mount Sinai suddenly blossomed with flowers in

anticipation of the giving of the Torah on its summit. Greenery also figures in the
story of the baby Moses being found among the bulrushes in a watertight
cradle (Ex. 2:3) when he was three months old. For these reasons, many Jewish
families traditionally decorate their homes and synagogues with plants, flowers and
leafy branches in honor of Shavuot.[30]Some synagogues decorate the bimah with a
canopy of flowers and plants so that it resembles a chuppah, as Shavuot is mystically
referred to as the day the matchmaker (Moses) brought the bride (the nation of
Israel) to the chuppah (Mount Sinai) to marry the bridegroom (God);
the ketubah (marriage contract) was the Torah.
Among the explanations given in rabbinic literature for the consumption of dairy
foods on this holiday are:[26][27]

1. Before they received the Torah, the Israelites were not obligated to follow its laws,
which include shechita (ritual slaughter of animals) and kashrut. Since all their
meat pots and dishes now had to be made kosher before use, they opted to eat
dairy foods.
2. The Torah is compared to milk by King Solomon, who wrote: "Like honey and milk,
it lies under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11).
3. The gematria of the Hebrew word ḥalav (‫ )חלב‬is 40, corresponding to the 40 days
and 40 nights that Moses spent on Mount Sinai before bringing down the Torah.
4. According to the Zohar, each day of the year correlates to one of the Torah's 365
negative commandments. Shavuot corresponds to the commandment "Bring the
first fruits of your land to the house of God your Lord; do not cook a kid in its
mother's milk" (Exodus 34:26). Since the first day to bring Bikkurim (the first fruits)
is Shavuot, the second half of the verse refers to the custom to eat two separate
meals – one milk, one meat – on Shavuot.
5. The Psalms call Mount Sinai Har Gavnunim (‫הר גבננים‬, mountain of majestic
peaks, Psalm 68:16–17/15–16 ), which is etymologically similar to gevinah (‫גבינה‬,
 cheese).

The practice of staying up all night on Shavuot to study Torah – known as Tiqun Leyl
Shavuot (Hebrew: ‫ – )תקון ליל שבועות‬has its source in the Midrash, which relates
that the night before the Torah was given, the Israelites retired early to be well-
rested for the momentous day ahead. They overslept and Moses had to wake them
up because God was already waiting on the mountaintop.[32] To rectify this perceived
flaw in the national character, many religious Jews stay up all night to learn Torah. [33]
The Aqdamut (Aramaic: ‫ )אקדמות‬is a liturgical poem extolling the greatness of God,
the Torah, and Israel that is read publicly in the synagogue right before the morning
reading of the Torah on the first day of Shavuot. It was composed by Rabbi Meir
of Worms, whose son was murdered during the First Crusade in 1096. Rabbi Meir was
forced to defend the Torah and his Jewish faith in a debate with local priests and
successfully conveyed his certainty of God's power, His love for the Jewish people,
and the excellence of Torah. Afterwards he wrote the Aqdamut, a 90-line poem
in Aramaic that stresses these themes.
The Book of Ruth (‫מגילת רות‬, Megillat Ruth) is read on Shavuot because:
(1) King David, Ruth's descendant, was born and died on Shavuot (Jerusalem
Talmud Hagigah 2:3);
(2) Shavuot is harvest time [Exodus 23:16], and the events of Book of Ruth occur at
harvest time;
(3) The gematria (numerical value) of Ruth is 606, the number of commandments
given at Sinai in addition to the 7 Noahide Laws already given, for a total of 613;
(4) Because Shavuot is traditionally cited as the day of the giving of the Torah, the
entry of the entire Jewish people into the covenant of the Torah is a major theme of
the day. Ruth's conversion to Judaism, and consequent entry into that covenant, is
described in the book. This theme accordingly resonates with other themes of the
day;
(5) Another central theme of the book is ḥesed (loving-kindness), a major theme of
the Torah.[29]
My Ruth was also filled with chesed. She and my Opa were both active in the Chevra
Kadisha organization where they lived in Baltimore. A chevra kadisha is an
organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased
Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition and are protected from
desecration, willful or not, until burial. My Opa was buried in their Chevra Kadisha
cemetery in Randallstown, Maryland, in 2003. Since Oma had moved up here 5 years
after his death and had many friends and family here, we had her funeral in New
Jersey and then drove down to Randallstown so she could be buried next to my
grandfather, where our Baltimore friends and family met us at the cemetery for
burial. Oma was also a member of Hadassah and had a true love for Israel. Oma
loved animals. Back in Baltimore where she lived on Brookhaven Road, every day she
made sure to feed the birds and the squirrels in her backyard. She once adopted a
black panther that lived at the Baltimore zoo and became best friends with all the
family pets. I don’t think she liked my brother’s lizards or my cousin’s iguana which
were probably too close to snakes—the only animal she didn’t like. My mom even
had two chicks growing up that she called “the girls”. Oma’s kitchen was always
filled with goodies, offering snacks to whoever came to visit, and other specialty
items for us like her beef rouladen, peach pie, and matza ball soup. We always used
to joke about how my Opa liked hot soup so when she served it, it was fine for him
but too hot for the rest of us. Also, not a birthday would go by without her phone
call and a card, usually with 10 dollars in it, and her favorite saying at the end of the
phone conversation: “sleep well into your next year”.
My grandmother left behind 3 children, 12 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren
who all miss her deeply but she will remain a part of all of us forever. Since her
passing there have been more great-grandchildren born, some named after her,
especially our Orly Raya (diminutive of Oma’s Hebrew name Raizel), and the bar
mitzvah of her first great-grandchild this past February before the coronavirus
pandemic broke out. We hope to continue to make her proud in our words and our
deeds and to carry on the traditions that were so important to her. Oh, Oma, I miss
and love you but I know you have been reunited with Opa and are enjoying life in
heaven with him. May all of us have a joyous Shavuot and a life filled with chesed.