This is an archive of prayers written for שָׁבוּעוֹת Shavuōt (a/k/a Pentecost), the festival upon which twin loaves of processed grain loaves were elevated/waved as offerings in the Temple, expressing gratitude for the first produce of the barley/wheat harvest of the spring season in the Land of Israel. The theme of circumscribing predatory behavior and manifesting a just society through virtuous actions is expressed in the verse (Leviticus 23:22) concerning gleaning that immediately follows the agricultural rituals connected with observing the season and the Pesaḥ and Shavuot festivals. The first work to make the connection between the festival and the granting of the Torah is in the parabilblical work from the Second Temple Period, Sefer ha-Yovelim (the Book of Jubilees), chapter 6:15-22 —
"And [Hashem] gave a sign to Noaḥ and his children that there should not again be a flood upon the earth. [Hashem] set his [rain]bow in the clouds for a sign of the covenant which is forever, that the water of the Flood should therefore not be upon the earth to destroy it all of the days of the earth. Therefore, it is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets that [the children of Yisrael] should observe the feast of Shevuot in this month, once per year, in order to renew the covenant in all (respects), year by year. And all of this feast was celebrated in heaven from the day of creation until the days of Noaḥ, twenty-six jubilees and five weeks of years. And Noaḥ and his children kept it for seven jubilees and one week of years until the day of the death of Noaḥ. And from the day of the death of Noaḥ, his sons corrupted it until the days of Avraham, and they ate blood. But Avraham alone kept it. And Yitsḥaq and Yaaqov and his sons kept it until your days, but in your days the children of Yisrael forgot it until you renewed it for them on this mountain. And you, command the children of Israel so that they might keep this feast in all of their generations as a commandment to them. One day per year in this month they shall celebrate the feast, for it is the feast of Shevuot [oaths] and it is the feast of the first fruits. This feast is twofold and of two natures. Just as it is written and engraved concerning it, observe it. This is because I have written it in the book of the first law, which I wrote for you, so that you might observe it in each of its appointed times, one day per year. And I have told you its sacrificial offering so that the children of Israel might remember them and observe them in their generations in this month one day each year." (translation after the surviving Ge'ez text by O.S. Wintermute, from J. Charlesworth’s O.T. Pseudepigrapha) Click here to contribute a reading you have prepared for Shavuot. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range The haftarah reading for the first day of Shavuot, in English translation, transtropilated. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The haftarah reading for the second day of Shavuot, in English translation, transtropilated. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A Torah reading of Parashat R’éh in English translation, transtropilated. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the text of the Ladino translation of the Shavuot Day Two readings from Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17 (and the Maftir: Numbers 28:26-31) as transcribed by Moshe Lazar in his Ladino Pentateuch: (Constantinople, 1547) (1988), and retranscribed as digital text by Shmuel Gonzales (2026). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The text of parashat Yitro, distinguished according to the stratigraphic layers of its composition according to the Supplementary Hypothesis. Categories: Tags: 31st century A.M., 8th century B.C.E., annual Torah reading cycle, Har Sinai, mythopoesis, פרשת השבוע Parashat haShavua, פרשות parashot, redaction criticism, שבת shabbat, פרשת יתרו Parashat Yitro, supplementary hypothesis, theophany, ימי השובבים Yemei haShovavim Contributor(s): This is the text of the Ladino translation of the Shavuot Day One readings from Exodus 19:1-20:23 as transcribed in romanized Ladino by Moshe Lazar in his Ladino Pentateuch: (Constantinople, 1547) (1988), and retranscribed as digital text by Shmuel Gonzales (2026). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A Torah reading of Parashat Yitro in English translation, transtropilated. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): For the reading of Megillat Ruth on Shavuot, I have presented here the Masoretic text of Ruth according to the R’ Seth (Avi) Kaddish’s experimental Miqra ‘al pi haMesorah side-by-side with Yehoyesh (Yehoash) Blumgarten’s masterful translation in Yiddish. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A new original translation of the Book of Ruth, using gender-neutral terminology for God and with relevant names calqued in footnotes. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A Megillah reading of Rūt (Ruth) with English translation, transtropilated. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The story of Toviah (Tobit) in Hebrew translation, in an abridged version arranged for public reading on the second day of Shavuot. Categories: Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., apotropaic rituals of protection, Ashmodai, derivative work, entering magical territory, Hebrew translation, mysterious fish, שדים sheydim, tithing, Tobit Contributor(s): A reading from Jubilees (Sefer haYovelim) 6:15-22, including the text of the Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus (the Ge’ez translation of Jubilees) and original cantillated Hebrew and gender-neutral English translations, for Shavuot. Jubilees is considered to be the earliest source connecting Shavuot with the Sinaitic covenant, and emphasizes the latter as a fulfillment of the Noaḥide covenant (in the narrative of Noaḥ) that had only been maintained through the lineage of Abraham. Categories: Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., deuterocanonical works, early Judaism, Ethiopian Jewry, Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus, mytho-historical chronicles, Noaḥide covenant, parabiblical aggadah, polyglot, pre-rabbinic judaism, Second Temple Period, יובל Yovel Jubilee Contributor(s): We are grateful to Dr. James VanderKam for preparing this critical text of the Book of Jubilees (Sefer Yubalim) in its Ge’ez translation in Ethiopic script. The book of Jubilees is an early Jewish deutero-canonical text originally written in Hebrew and composed during the Second Temple period sometime before the Maccabean struggle (164 BCE). Categories: Tags: 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., anti-predatory, deuterocanonical works, early Judaism, Ethiopian Jewry, Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus, mytho-historical chronicles, parabiblical aggadah, pre-rabbinic judaism, יובל Yovel Jubilee Contributor(s): There are various traditions as to the numbering of the commandments, as well as the enumeration of verses of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandment. In this transcription of the Ladino text we are following the numeration of verses according to the Constantinople Codex of 1547 C.E., as edited by the great scholar Professor Moshe Lazar (z”l) of the University of Southern California in 1988. This newly typeset text is an original transcription by Reb Shmuel Gonzales, of the Boyle Heights Chavurah – of the grassroots Jewish community of East Los Angeles, California; transcriber and editor of Sephardic texts for the Open Siddur Project; in celebration of Shavuot of 5783, and published in May of 2023. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The haftarah for the second day of Shavuot, Ḥabakkuk 2:20-3:19, interspersed with a cantillated text of the Targum Yonatan ben Uzziel. Since Targum Yonatan is a bit more drash-heavy than Targum Onkelos, it is translated separately as well. The haftarah reading includes the piyyut Yetsiv Pitgam, with an acrostic rhyming translation of the poem, with the second-to-last verse restored to its rightful place, as well as a concluding paragraph for the meturgeman to recite, as found in the Maḥzor Vitry. Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Aramaic, הפטרות haftarot, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, תרגום targum, transtropilation, יציב פתגם Yetsiv Pitgam Contributor(s): This is a transcription of the Megillat Aqdamut (also known by other names) in its first printing in Yiddish, in Fürth 1694. The transcription is based on an earlier transcription of the Fürth 1694 printing published by Isaac Rivkind in “די היסטאָרישע אַלעגאָריע פון ר׳ מאיר שַ״ץ” (“The Historical Allegory of Rabbi Meir, shatz [Shaliaḥ Tsibur]”) the first chapter in Filologishe shriftn vol. 3 (1929), pp. 1-42. (The transcription of the Aqdamut appears on pages/numbered columns 12-33.) The legendary retelling serves as a frame tale for the recitation of the Aramaqic targumic piyyut, Aqdamut Milin, by Rabbi Meir ben Yitsḥaq Nehorai of Orléans (d. ca. 1095). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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