Shavuot

Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field.

You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks for the LORD your God, offering your freewill contribution according as the LORD your God has blessed you.

(26) On the day of the first fruits, your Feast of Weeks, when you bring an offering of new grain to the LORD, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

Rabbi Elazar said: All agree with regard to Atzeret, the holiday of Shavuot, that we require that it be also “for you,” meaning that it is a mitzva to eat, drink, and rejoice on that day. What is the reason? It is the day on which the Torah was given, and one must celebrate the fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish people...

It is a convocation (atseret): "I have held you up (atsarti) with Me. It is similar to a king who invited his children to a banquet for a certain number of days. When the time arrived for them to leave, he said, 'Children, I beg of you, stay one day more with me, as your leaving is hard for me!'" [That is] the language of Rashi, and this homily is taught in Vayikra Rabbah. And in the way of truth, [it means] "Since in six days did God make the Heavens and the Earth" (Exodus 20:11), and the seventh is Shabbat; and [since] it has no match, the community of Israel is its match, as it is stated, "and the earth" - and behold, it is the eighth. "It is a convocation," since everything is stored (ne'etsar) there. And He commanded seven days on the Festival of Matsot, with holiness before them and after them, 'since they are all holy and amongst them is the Lord.' And He counted from it forty-nine days - seven weeks - like the days of yore, and He sanctified the eighth, like the eighth [day] of the Festival (Sukkot). And the days that are counted between them are like the intermediate days of the festival (chol ha-moed) between the first and eighth day of the Festival. And it is the day of the giving of the Torah, on which He showed them His great fire. And therefore in every place, our rabbis, may their memory be blessed, called the Festival of Weeks, the convocation - as it is like the eighth day of [Sukkot], that the verse called the same. And this is [the meaning of] their statement (Chagigah 17a), "The eighth [day of Sukkot] is a holiday on its own, with regard to lots, time, festival, sacrifice, song and blessing, [but] it is a time of making up the first [days]," since it is an emanation of the first [days], but it is not like their unity. And therefore in Parshat Kol HaBakhor (Deuteronomy 16:15), it mentions in the three pilgrim festivals, The Festival of Matsot, the Festival of Weeks (Shavouot) and the Festival of Booths (Sukkot), seven days [of Sukkot] and it does not mention the eighth [day] - since there it states, "every one of your males should appear, etc." And behold, this is elucidated.

On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai.