Shavuot is not explicitly named in the Bible as the day on which the Torah was revealed by God to the Israelite nation at Mount Sinai, although this is commonly considered to be its main significance. Unlike other major holidays, the Torah does not specify the date of Shavuot, but only that it falls 50 days after Passover, placing it at the 6th of Sivan according to the current fixed calendar (in earlier times when months were fixed by lunar observation, the date could vary by a day or two). The Torah states that the Israelites reached Sinai on the first day of the third month following the Exodus, i.e. Sivan. Then several events occurred, taking a total of at least three days, before the Torah was given. Thus, it is plausible that the giving of the Torah occurred on or about Shavuot, but no exact date is mentioned. Besides the timing, scholars have pointed to thematic connections between Shavuot and the giving of the Torah, which are indicated by the Bible itself: - Several aspects of the Shavuot Temple sacrifice (shtei halechem) suggest a connection to the Exodus and the giving of the Torah. The shtei halechem is the only holiday sacrifice which includes a communal shelamim ("peace") offering, recalling the communal shelamim offering which was offered after the acceptance of the Torah (Exodus 24:5–11). Also, the shtei halechem is one of the few sacrifices to include chametz, suggesting that Shavuot is a counterpoint to Passover and its historical events.
- From an early period, Shavuot was regarded as an appropriate time to make covenants between God and humanity. Asa chose to make his covenant (2 Chronicles 15:8–15) on or about Shavuot.[21] (Similarly, according to Book of Jubilees, Noah made his covenant with God on Shavuot.[22]) The association between Shavuot and covenants suggests a connection to the giving of the Torah, which itself was a covenant between God and Israel.[23][24] In addition, the description of Asa's covenant repeatedly alludes both to the giving of the Torah[25] and to the Shavuot holiday,[26] suggesting a link between the two.[24]
Most of the Talmudic sages agreed that the Torah was given on the 6 Sivan (the date of Shavuot), but Jose ben Halafta holds that it was given on 7 Sivan.[27] According to the classical timeline, the Israelites arrived at the wilderness of Sinai on the new moon (Exodus 19:1) and the Ten Commandments were given on the following Shabbat (i.e., Saturday). The question of whether the new moon fell on Sunday or Monday is undecided.[27] In practice, Shavuot is observed on 6 Sivan in Israel[28] and a second day is added in the Jewish diaspora (in keeping with a separate rabbinical ruling that applies to all biblical holidays, called Yom tov sheni shel galuyot, Second-Day Yom Tov in the diaspora).[29] Thus, according to Jose ben Halafta, only outside Israel does Shavuot fall out on the day the Torah was given. Agricultural 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 (Jer. 5:24, Deut. 16:9–11, Isa. 9:2). It began with harvesting the barley during Passover and ended with harvesting the wheat at Shavuot. Shavuot was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the eighth day of Sukkot 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 according to the commandment in Lev. 23:17.[5] The penultimate Dead Sea text to be published has been discovered to contain two festival dates observed by the sect at Qumran as part of their formally perfect 364-day calendar. It was dedicated to New Wine and New Oil, which are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible but were known from another Qumran manuscript, the Temple Scroll. These festivals "constituted an extension of the festival of Shavuot ... which celebrates the New Wheat." All three festivals are calculated starting from the first Sabbath following Passover by repeatedly adding exactly fifty days each time: first came New Wheat (Shavuot), then New Wine, and then New Oil. Shavuot was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Jews would visit the Temple in Jerusalem.
bikkurim (first-fruits) Shavuot was also the first day on which individuals could bring the bikkurim or "first fruits" to the Temple in Jerusalem.[32] Bikkurim were so crucial to Shavuot that the Torah twice describes the holiday as a day of bikkurim;[33] wheat was ready for harvest, summer fruits were beginning to ripen, and bikkurim were brought. Shtei Halechem The Torah prescribes a unique sacrifice for Shavuot: the shtei halechem or Two Loaves, which (atypically for sacrifices) must be chametz, and which are described as bikkurim of the wheat harvest. | 
