Shavuot Description
The Festival of Weeks, occurring exactly seven weeks after Passover, celebrating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and the wheat harvest. Synagogues hold services featuring the reading of the Ten Commandments and the Book of Ruth. A distinctive custom is Tikkun Leil Shavuot — all-night Torah study sessions in synagogues, community centers, and private homes across the country. The holiday is characterized by dairy cuisine: cheesecake, blintzes, and cheese-filled pastries dominate menus. Government offices, banks, and most businesses close. In agricultural communities (kibbutzim and moshavim), the Bikkurim (first fruits) ceremony features decorated tractor parades celebrating the harvest, evoking the holiday's biblical agricultural roots.
