Moritz_Daniel_Oppenheim artist about 1880
Shavuot for Hebrew Year 5785 begins in the Diaspora at sundown on Sunday, 1 June 2025 and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, 3 June 2025. In Israel it ends Monday night June 2. Shavuot, is a Jewish holiday, one of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan; in the 21st century, it may fall anywhere between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar. Shavuot marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel in the Hebrew Bible according to Exodus 34:22. In addition, rabbinic tradition teaches that the date also marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, which, according to the tradition of Orthodox Judaism, occurred at this date in 1312 BCE. The word Shavuot means "weeks" in Hebrew, and marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Its date is directly linked to that of Passover; the Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God. In the Bible, Shavuot is called the "Festival of Weeks" (Hebrew: חג השבועות, romanized: Ḥāġ hašŠāvuʻoṯ, Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10); "Festival of Reaping" (Hebrew: חג הקציר, romanized: Ḥāġ HaqQāṣir Exodus 23:16),[9] and "Day of the First Fruits" (Hebrew: יום הבכורים, romanized: Yom habBikkurim, Numbers 28:26).[10] Shavuot, the plural of a word meaning "week" or "seven", alludes to the fact that this festival happens exactly seven weeks (i.e. "a week of weeks") after Passover.[11] The Talmud refers to Shavuot as ʻAṣeret (Hebrew: עצרת, romanized: ʻəṣereṯ, lit. 'refraining, holding back') according to Pesachim 68b, referring to the prohibition against work on this holiday[12] and also to the conclusion of the Passover holiday season.[13] The other reason given is that just as Shmini ʿAṣeret brings Sukkot to a close, ʿAṣeret brings Passover to a close.
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