Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (1040-1105), the perceptive and erudite Bible
and Talmud commentator known as Rashi, said of Shavuot: "One
should rejoice on it by eating and drinking to demonstrate that this
day on which the Torah was given is acceptable to him."[1]
Accordingly, certain culinary customs have evolved to give due honor
to Shavuot.
Dairy
dishes characterize the Shavuot meals served on the first day of the
festival celebrating the revelation on Mount Sinai. Various reasons
have been advanced for this tradition. The Bible itself compares the
Torah to milk and honey. The verse "honey and milk shall be under
your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11) implies that the words of the
Torah shall be as dulcet to your heart and ear as milk and honey are
sweet to your tongue. The psalmist declared that "the precepts
of the Lord are...sweeter than honey and the honeycomb" (Psalms
19.9-11). Hence it is obligatory to partake of honey on Shavuot.[2]
Another rationale for eating these foods on the Feast of the Harvest
derives from the biblical description of the Land of Israel as "a
land flowing with milk and honey."[3]
Rabbi
Moses Isserles (c. 1520-1572) states: "It is a universal custom
to eat dairy food on the first day of Shavuot. The reason appears
to be that just as on the night of Passover two cooked dishes are
taken in remembrance of the paschal sacrifice and the festival offering,
so one should eat a dairy dish and then a meat dish [as a reminder
of the two sacrifices offered on Shavuot...."[4]
Some commentators maintain that, prior to their receiving the Torah,
the children of Israel were permitted to eat nonkosher meat that was
not ritually slaughtered. However, when the Torah was given on Shavuot,
they were thenceforth obligated to adhere to the laws pertaining to
ritual slaughter and to forbidden foods. All their cooking utensils
and eating vessels were forbidden: they could not be purged because
it was on a Sabbath and a festival that the Torah was given. Thus
they had no alternative but to eat dairy foods, which were relatively
easy to prepare.[5]
Another explanation relates to the fact that the law of the first
fruits is placed in juxtaposition to a law concerning milk (Exodus
23:19).[6]
The
custom of indulging in dairy fare on Shavuot is also derived from
this biblical verse: Minhah hadashah la-Adoshem be-Shavuotekhem
(your Feast of Weeks, when you bring an offering of new grain to the
Lord; Numbers 28.26). The initials of the four Hebrew words spell
me-halav (from milk), implying that foods made from milk are
acceptable on Shavuot.

Mystics
see a reason in the fact that the numerical equivalent of halav
(milk) is forty the number of days Moses tarried
on Mount Sinai. Finally, in Psalm 68, which is read on Shavuot, the
mountain on which the Divine Presence rested is called Har Gavnunim,
a word akin to gevinah, the Hebrew for cheese.

Perhaps
the most delectable of Shavuot foods are blintzes, rolled pancakes
filled with cheese. Among other tempting tidbits are cheese knishes,
butter cakes and cheesecakes and cheese kreplakh. The kreplakh are
three-cornered, a shape based on the talmudic statement: "Blessed
be the Merciful One who gave the threefold Law [Torah, Prophets, Writings]
to a people comprising three classes [Kohen, Levi, Israel], through
a thirdborn [Moses, the third child of his parents], in the third
month [Sivan].[7]
In some communities it is also customary to stuff these triangular
pancakes with meat.
Jewish
women in oriental countries took pride in baking for Shavuot a seven-layer
cake called Siete Cielos (Seven Heavens), symbolic of the traditional
seven celestial spheres God traversed to present the Torah to Moses
on Mount Sinai.[8]
Fashioned in seven circular tiers, one smaller than the other with
the smallest on top, it was decorated with various symbols such as
a star of David, the rod of Moses, the two tablets of the Law, manna,
Jacob's ladder, and the ark of the covenant. Others topped the cake
with a seven-rung ladder to recall Moses ascending Mount Sinai. Similar
elaborate pastries called Sinai Cake alluded to the mountain. A large
cake or bread with raisins, generally known as pashtudan or
floden when baked for Shavuot, was also called Sinai. Some
oriental Jewish women baked baklava
a very sweet cake made with nuts, sugar, and honey.
Jews
of Kurdistan prepare large quantities of butter and cheese for the
festival. Their special dish was ground wheat cooked in sour milk
with dumplings of butter and flour. Jewish housewives in Tripoli baked
wafers in various shapes: a ladder, to recall that Moses went up Mount
Sinai; a hand, denoting hands extended to receive the Torah; the two
tablets of the Law; eyeglasses, to see the words of the Torah, and
other symbolic forms.[9]

In
some communities it was customary to serve matzah remaining
from Passover as a reminder that Shavuot is the culmination of the
exodus from Egypt. In North Africa the matzah was shredded
into bowls of milk and honey.
Pious
Jews herald Shavuot with an all-night vigil devoted to study of tikkun
leil Shavuot, and partake of cheesecake and coffee to refresh
themselves. Yemenite Jews read the tikkun in the synagogue
on the second night of Shavuot. Each brings a choice delicacy such
as spiced coffee or candy to share with those spending the night in
study.
Shavuot
recipes from The Book of Jewish
Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York (with
more than 800 Ashkenazi and Sephardi Recipes), by Claudia Roden:
"For
the Ashkenazim, the specialities for Shavuot are cheese blintzes
and strudel, cheese, kreplach, lokshen
pudding with cream cheese, borscht with sour cream, cheesecake,
and paschko. For the Sephardim, they are filas
and sambousak with cheese, milk puddings
like sutlach, and pastries like ataif, stuffed with cheese.
Shavuot is also regarded as a harvest festival of fruit, and
all kinds of fruit puddings and cake are eaten."
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