The Feast of Weeks is celebrated on the fiftieth day [121] of the Omer
(Lev. xxiii. 16); i.e., the 6th of Sivan. It is, in the first place,
“the feast of harvest,” חג הקציר (Exod. xxiii. 16), especially of the
wheat, and “the day of the first-fruit offering,” יום הבכורים (Num.
xxviii. 26). The first sacrifice of the new corn was offered: “the
bread of the first-fruit,” which was to serve as an expression of
gratitude for the blessing of the harvest. In the absence of sacrifices
in our days, the custom widely prevails of adorning the Synagogue and
the home with plants and flowers, in order that the sight of these
beautiful objects might awaken and strengthen feelings of gratitude
toward the Almighty for His loving-kindness. Each one of the plants and
flowers reveals a special form of the Creator’s wisdom, power, and
goodness.—The feast is called Feast of Weeks, חג השבעות (Deut. xvi.
10), on account of the completion of the seven weeks counted from the
day of the Omer.
The Feast of Weeks, the 6th and the 7th of Sivan, commemorates also an
historical event: the Law-giving on Mount Sinai. It is therefore called
“the season of the giving of our Law,” זמן מתן תורתנו.
As Passover has been poetically called the day of Israel’s betrothal to
God, the Feast of Weeks would correspond to the wedding-day, and the
counting of the Omer does thus not only connect two harvest-feasts, but
represents the longing of the bride for the day of her complete
happiness; i.e., the longing of the Israelites for the Divine
Revelation, which was to complete the work of their deliverance from
Egypt.
The celebration of the Feast of Weeks thus involves the second
principle of our faith: תורה מן השמים “The belief in the Divine
origin of the Law,” or “Divine Revelation.”
On the first day we read Exod. xix.–xx., the account of the Law-giving
on Mount Sinai, and Ez. i., the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel, in
which the glory of God is revealed to him. On the second day Deut. xv.
19 (on Sabbath, xiv. 22) to xvi. 17; and Hab. iii., “the prayer of
Habakkuk,” in reference to God’s Revelation as the Ruler of the
universe.—There is also the custom to read the Book of Ruth, which
contains the account of Ruth’s embracing the true faith, and a
description of the harvest and the treatment of the poor in the
harvest-season.
There is a custom among some of our brethren to employ the first night
of the Feast in preparing themselves for the coming celebration of the
giving of the Law. The greater part of the night is spent in reading
passages from the Scriptures and from the Talmudical books. [122] The
custom has its basis in the preparation commanded by God to be made
during “the three days of bordering” (שלשת ימי הגבלה) which preceded
the Law-giving (Exod. xix. 10–12).