Flowing with Milk and Honey: Shavuot at TCEE

by Priscilla Restagno, TCEE’s Judaics & Curriculum Specialist

Starting Sunday, June 1st, through Tuesday, June 3rd, we celebrated the holiday of Shavuot! Although it is a harvest festival, it is also the time during which we celebrate the giving of the Ten Commandments and Torah at Mt. Sinai. We enjoy dairy foods like milk and cheese, and we decorate with flowers and greens. It is also customary to read the story of Ruth during this time as it also occurred during the harvest time, and Ruth, the first convert to Judaism, embraced the teachings of the Torah and Ten Commandments.

Here at TCEE, some children are particularly interested in how milk turns into cheese or how we get milk from cows. Other classrooms are curious about how rules, mitzvahs, and covenants allow us to help others or to be kind. Some of the younger classrooms may try different cheeses, and some of the older classrooms may examine the Torah, its letters, and the importance of stories. Shavuot is also an opportunity to explore what it means to be Jewish, how our diversity and multiculturalism add to our TCEE community tapestry as well as our family’s.

During Passover, Beth Kander-Dauphin and Rabbi Jeremy Simons of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish life on myjewishlearning.com said, “May we remember that our goal is to escape narrow places, and not to create them for others.” Like Passover, Shavuot is a joyful time to celebrate Jewish values as human values. So, this Shavuot, celebrate the beauty of nature, re-commit to finding the B’tzelem Elohim, or divine image, in others, and remember that, no matter if you are Jewish-by-choice, born Jewish, or part of an interfaith family, we are part of a greater community.