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The holiday begins at Sundown on Saturday night.

Happy Shavuot.

proud-to-be-a-jew:

An IDF soldier just hanging around :) 

ϟ Day Of Distinction

On the first day of Sivan in the year 2448 (Jewish calendar), only seven weeks after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the Wilderness of Sinai. On the desert plain around the mountain, they set up camp and watched as Moses set off toward the mountain to hear God’s will.

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(Source: jewishtreats.org)

ϟ Shavuos: Am Yisroel’s Chassene

bennistar:

The Zohar HaKadosh states:

“Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his students were learning Torah without sleeping on the night of Shavuos. Each one was expounding previously unrevealed ideas. Rabbi Shimon delighted in each new idea, as did the rest of the students.

Rabbi Shimon said to them, “My sons, joyous are you with your portion. Since this night, you are (with your Torah learning), preparing the adornments for the bride, and rejoicing with her. Tomorrow she will go underneath the Chuppah only with you. All of you will be inscribed in the King’s book, and he will bless you with unlimited blessing from above.”

The gemora tells us, how before the giving of the Torah, Hashem held the mountain (Sinai), over our heads, warning us to accept the Torah, or risk being buried alive on the spot. Nevertheless, Chazal (our sages) understood the incident another way. The mountain above our heads was actually a Chuppah, a marriage canopy, and that the acceptance of the Torah was akin to the wedding ceremony. By accepting the Torah, Hashem and the the Jewish People became wedded to each other.

This is the description of the wedding preparation in the Zohar. (Emor 98a)

“It (Shavuos night), is like a King who is marrying his son to a distinguished princess. The night before the wedding, he spent the whole night in his treasure houses, selecting the garments for the groom. He brought out silken robes, a crown studded with seventy precious jewels and all of the other trappings of a King.

Then he went to the home of the Princess. He observed her maidens preparing her exquisite jewelry, the finest garments and her crown. He told them, “I have prepared for the Princess a special chamber of purification. Its source is a place of flowing waters, and the rarest and most sublime spices and fragrance surround it to increase and complete her purification. Come my daughter, the bride of my son. Come you with your maidens to the place of purification that I have prepared for you.” “Tomorrow, when the time arrives you will enter underneath the Chuppah with my son and I will prepare a palace to be your home. In this home will also be a chamber for me so that I can dwell with you for eternity.”

This is how Hashem unites with Am Yisroel on the night of Shavuos.

May we all be worthy to receive the Torah together with Moshiach this upcoming yom tov!

A Toronto native living in Jerusalem literally got away with his life when Arab school students smashed the windows of his car and tried to attack him Monday morning.

The near-deadly rock-throwing attack occurred as Ephraim Silverberg was making his annual pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives Cemetery for the anniversary of the death of his grandfather, who was brought to Israel for burial after he died in Toronto.

New generation thugs and terrorists currently in training.

ϟ The People of the Book…

Jews have been called the people of the book, and for a good reason. From an early age, we are instilled with a love of the written word. All truths can be found in books, and a fair amount of lies as well. Even centuries ago when illiteracy rates were very high, Jewish children were taught to read. Most Jews I know amass a large library of books. I once walked around my house and realized that in almost every room, I have hundreds of books - bedrooms, living room, hallways.

I have a cookbook collection with easily over 100 books; we have religious books, funny books, novels, dictionaries, encyclopedias and more. I’m a sucker for a books and a book sale. So, many months ago, when a friend came up with a brilliant idea for raising money for charity, I agreed to get involved. The concept is so simple, so brilliant.

I live in a country where the main language is Hebrew. For those of us who came here later in life with English as our mother tongue, we struggle to keep ourselves “in the book” - with enough to fill our time. I can’t go to sleep at night without reading for a while. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and the fastest way to go back to sleep is to read for a while.

So - my brilliant friend came up with the brilliant idea that we swap books - for charity. We did the first one in my backyard and raised well over $1,000 in one night and all the money was immediately donated to charity. We did another a few months later and raised about twice that amount; and we did it again last night to the benefit of several local charities.

Here’s how it works. You put out a call to your friends and neighbors - give me your old books, the stacks that have been sitting there, the books you’ve read and don’t want, the extras. Thousands of books came pouring in.

Then, you put out a call in your community telling them about the event. For each book a person donated, they can take another one for some nominal fee (we charged 5 shekels or about $1.30 for each donated book swap and 10 shekels or about $2.60 per book if you didn’t donate one to cover the swap). And, you announce that all the money is going to benefit charity. In this case, we chose several local charities - an organization that gives food and assistance to needy people, an organization that promotes English literacy among children, a youth camp for children from families that needed this extra attention, etc.).

And the results - once again, stagger us…

Far From Home But Close to G-D