Rabbis have often likened Shavuot to a wedding between G-d* and the Jewish people, a happy time that is marked with celebration as well as sombre recognition of the responsibilities it implies. Shavuot marks the acceptance of the Torah by the people of Israel through Moses at the top of Mount Sinai.
Jewish Dairy Dishes for Shavuot
Interestingly, each Jewish culture around the world celebrates this holy day with distinct foods. In North America, Britain and other parts of the world where Ashkenazi communities thrive, blintzes, dairy borscht, kreplach, yogurt, ice cream, cheesecake and other Western-style dairy products become the culinary center of this holiday. Services at a local shul will often be followed by ice cream or another milk-based confection.
This may be in part based on the Shulhan Arukh, Judaism’s authoritative text on religious traditions, reminds Jews "to eat one dairy dish and then one meat dish" during the holiday (R. Moses Isserles, 1520-1572, Shulhan Arukh).
Yet around the world, the traditional foods that mark this holiday can differ significantly, sometimes from household to household.
Author Sybil Kaplan, in her online article in the publication Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, mentions a number of traditional dairy dishes that have been served in many Ashkenazi households. These European delicacies, which include the Mount Sinai cake and Russian and Ukrainian turnovers filled with cheese, have been replaced to some degree by the ever-popular cheesecake, which is sometimes served during Shavuot Torah Study.
Sephardic Milk Pudding Dishes
In the Middle East, milk pudding is a standard emblem of this holiday although interestingly, the ingredients differ from community to community. The Be’Chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) website offers recipes for versions that come from Turkey, Iraq, India, Iran, the Balkan States and Syria. Orange or rose blossom water, pistachios and spices are a few of the fragrant ingredients that are used in the different recipes.
It is no surprise that the challah has become a decorative symbol of the holiday as well. The centerpiece to most time-bound Jewish holidays, it plays an important historic part in Shavuot.
The Challah During the Festival of Weeks
According to the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, two loaves of freshly baked bread was offered at Shavuot during the period of the Second Temple. This suggests that the custom of celebrating the holiday with traditional Jewish bread goes back many years.
“This offering of bread, representing a human-Divine partnership in giving food to the world (became) important in the rabbis’ radical re-interpretation of Shavuot,” says the school. The Second Temple period, and the years that followed have been credited with many of the traditions we follow today.
Sephardic families often bake the challah known as los siete cielos, or the seven heavens, which is based on an ancient belief that there are seven heavens, each with their own attribution and name. The bread is made in a layer of seven spheres, which Kaplan notes “refer to the seven holy living spaces through which the soul ascends to heaven.”
The number seven also figures predominantly in Shavuot traditions, reflecting the seven weeks, of seven days that separate Passover and Shavuot.
Greek Jewish communities use the challah to portray the importance of this holiday, sometimes baking it in a shape to resemble Mount Sinai.
The Iraqi Jewish communities serve a bread called kahi (or kahee), covered in butter and coated with sugar – another example of offering bread to symbolize the importance and joyful nature of this holiday.
Shavuot - All Night Torah Study
In many communities across the globe, Jews welcome in Shavuot with an all-night Torah study the night on which the holiday is celebrated (the night of the 5th of Sivan). The tradition is thought to have originated at the time of Rabbi Joseph Caro (author of the Shulchan Aruch) in the 16th century. The diligent study of Torah and other sacred texts is the Jewish people’s preparation before the festive day of union with G-d. Orthodox, Conservative and Reform congregations across the world observe this tradition leading up to Shavuot.
“If we think of the time from Pesah to Shavuot as the bride and groom first meeting and then getting to know and courting one another, Shavuot is the day of the great wedding celebration,” explains Abraham Joshua Heschel School.
The Torah, outlining the responsibilities of both parties, functions as the ketubah for this ceremonious partnership between G-d and the people of Israel. The specially made challah, pastries and delicacies that we eat but once a year signify the importance of the event, just like the reception banquet that follows a couple’s happy wedding.
*The use of "G-d" with the "o" removed is intentional. This is performed in order to prevent any intentional or unintentional deletion/destruction of His name, as is customary in traditional Jewish writings.
Sources:
- Rebbetzin Tap Simcha Club, The Shavuot Song: Stay Up All Night!, YouTube by Rebbetzin Tap, June 2011
- Kaplan, Sybil, Shavuot Foods Span Myriad of Cultures, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, online.
- Jewish Heritage Online Magazine, Blintzes and Sour Cream, Wherefore?
- Abraham Joshua Heschel School, Holiday Resouces, Shavuot
- Jacobs, Rabbi Louis, The Ketubah, or Marriage Contract, MyJewishLearning.com
- Tarbut Sepharad Associacion Cultural: Cocina Judia, Pan de los Siete Cielos (with reference made to adaption from La Cocina Sephardita by Rabbi R. Sternberg.)
Jan Lee - Jan Lee has been writing for online and print publications for more than 20 years and have been published in five countries.
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