North County Jewish community to celebrate Shavuot holiday
Holiday observances include gathering in Synagogue to hear the Ten Commandments, eating dairy foods, all-night Torah learning
– Shavuot, this year beginning at sunset on Thursday, May 25, and concluding at nightfall on Saturday, May 27, will be celebrated by the North County’s Jewish community, who will gather to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments from a handwritten Torah scroll and enjoy dairy foods.
Shavuot marks the anniversary of and celebrates the Jewish people receiving the Ten Commandments and the Torah at Mount Sinai, 3,335 years ago. The central observance of the holiday will be marked in a community-wide gathering, with Chabad of Paso Robles holding a family-friendly reading of the Ten Commandments on the morning of Friday, May 26 at 11 a.m. at Chabad, followed by a dairy buffet lunch.
Chabad of Paso Robles is also welcoming the community for the Yizkor memorial prayer (a special memorial prayer for the departed) on Saturday, May 27.
This year’s Shavuot celebrations have added significance as Jewish communities worldwide celebrate the “Year of Hakhel” or gathering, marked with gatherings focused on Jewish unity, Torah learning, and practice.
“Shavuot is the time when the Jewish People received the Torah together at Mt. Sinai as ‘one human with one heart,’ so it’s fitting that the North County’s Jewish community will gather to commemorate this day,” said Rabbi Meir, who together with his wife Etty direct Chabad of Paso Robles. “During the Year of Hakhel, this show of unity to hear the Torah reading is more meaningful than ever.”
The reading of the Ten Commandments has become a family tradition around the world at the urging of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, an influential modern rabbi, who explained that there is a special significance to bringing children, even infants, to hear the Ten Commandments on Shavuot morning: “By listening to the Ten Commandments on Shavuot morning,” the Rebbe explained, “the words of Torah will be engraved in the hearts and minds of the children. And through them, the Torah will be etched within their parents and grandparents with even greater intensity.”
Shavuot literally means “weeks” and marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot called the Omer. For more about Shavuot visit ChabadPaso.com/Shavuot.
For more information about Chabad of Paso Robles contact, Rabbi Meir Gordon at (805) 635-8684, info@chabadpaso.com, or visit online at www.chabadpaso.com.
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