This coming Tuesday we will be celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot is the holiday that marks the Jewish people receiving the Torah from G-d. It is the story of Moses going up to Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights while he transcribes the laws that were given to him by Hashem.

The story goes as follows. When G-d felt it was time for him to give his laws unto a group of people, he went from tribe to tribe asking them if they were interested in his Laws. He went to one group and asked if they were interested. They asked what some of the laws were, and G-d replied, ‘Thou shall not kill.’ The tribe rejected the offer, and Hashem moved onto another group. He asked the next group the same question and their response followed suit. He told them that one of the laws was that they should not commit adultery, and they too, like the previous group rejected G-d’s proposal. Hashem made his way over to the Israelites

and asked them if they wanted to accept his laws and become the chosen people. They replied, first we shall do and then we shall ask.

From that moment on, Hashem designated the Israelites as the chosen people and gave them his Laws.
It is customary, during Shavuot, to remain awake all night and study torah. It resembles how the Jewish people, while they were waiting to receive the Torah, waited feverishly and with such excitement that they did not sleep as to not miss a moment of such a powerful moment, the receiving of the Torah.

Written by Daniel M.C. Ehrlich

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