Shavuot for Dummies...or the uninformed which I am at times.

I haven't posted in a while. Things in life are moving    along. Work is good, a bit whacky at times, and busy. I thought I'd give a quick update before I give some basic "Shavuot for Dummies" facts. I figure many of my readers are not Jewish or aren't fully learned, like myself, therefore a quickie on this holiday is in order.

The school year ends for us on June 30th so the kids are ansy, the teachers too. In addition to my whacky year round schedule, we only have one weekend between school years this year. That pretty much stinks! It looks like I'll be teaching all 9th grade this coming year since we are starting the new Small Learning Communitites. In addition to that, there's a good chance I will either be heading up my small learning community or co-leading it. This will be interesting to say the least.

On Shavuot (info gleaned from wikipedia):

• At Passover, the Jewish people were freed from being slaves to Pharaoh; at Shavuot they accepted the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.
• In the Land of Israel and among Reform and Karaite Jews, Shavuot is celebrated for one day. In the Jewish diaspora outside Israel, the holiday is celebrated for two days, on the sixth and seventh days of Sivan.
• Besides its significance as the day on which the Torah was given by God to the Jewish nation at Mount Sinai, Shavuot is also connected to the season of the grain harvest in Israel. In ancient times, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness.
• Shavuot is unlike other Jewish holidays in that it has no prescribed mitzvot (Torah commandments) other than the traditional festival observances of abstention from work, special prayer services and holiday meals. However, it is characterized by many minhagim (customs) that have taken on the force of law in traditional Jewish circles.
• These customs, largely observed in Ashkenazic communities, are:
• אקדמות – Akdamut, the reading of a liturgical poem during Shavuot morning synagogue services
• חלב – Chalav (milk), the consumption of dairy products like milk and cheese
• רות – Ruth, the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services
• ירק – Yerek, the decoration of homes and synagogues with greenery
• תורה – Torah, engaging in all-night Torah study.