Shalom friends,

This Sunday we will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. Many of us don’t pay much attention to this holiday, a paradox because it encapsulates the elements of our Nationhood: Torah, Temple, and Israel.

Shavuot marks the day that the Jewish people were given the Torah at Mount Sinai and made into a nation through this gift. Shavuot honors the bringing of the first fruits to the Temple, destroyed in 70 CE but never forgotten by the Nation of Israel. Although we no longer have the Temple, we have once again, the harvest of Israel - an eternal reminder of our connection to this land and with the heart, Jerusalem, and in her center, the Temple Mount on which stood the Temple.

The Torah changed the world, not only for the Nation of Israel but for all other nations that accepted the 10 Commandments as the basis of a moral and decent society. Ours is a heritage to be proud of!

Even if we do not live in Israel, we can still feel connected, to each other as one nation, one family. We can live in the country of our birth and still connect to the land of our ancestors, the home of the Jewish heart. To facilitate this, we have gathered special Shavuot content focusing, not only on the meaning of the holiday but also on how we can unite and find ways to connect, become unified while not being uniform. We are stronger, together.

	The Shavuot Paradox By Dr. Jonathan Mirvis If we succeed in raising the importance on Shavuot and focus creatively on larger populations, Shavuot will become a major celebration of not only our Jewish past but our Jewish future as well. Read More
	One Shavuot in Jerusalem By David Solkowitz David Solkowitz describes Shavuot in Jerusalem as an unforgettable experience of Jewish unity. Read More
	Jewish Identity Divided: Our Labels Make Us Weak By Izzy Sakhaie Why do we identify with our specific labels more than we identify with our larger and more fundamental label - being a Jew? Why does everyone from the outside treat us as the same (an Antisemite doesn’t discriminate between different types of Jews) but we so starkly discriminate within ourselves? Read More
	Symbols of Jewish Unity Mixed Media Collage By Stefanie Heideman This Israel Forever activity was designed to shine light on the Jewish symbols that unite us. Read More
	Israel and the 70 Faces of the Bible By Debbie Rosenzweig This is our first in the 70 Faces of Israel series. According to rabbinic tradition, when the Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai, every soul received a divinely personalized message. Therefore, our sages teach that the Bible has “70 faces,” meaning that it belongs to each and everyone one of us, and can be interpreted in many different ways. Read More

If you like our Shavuot recipes, sign up for our monthly Cooking Israel newsletter, chock full of great tastes of Israel for you to enjoy with your family and friends!