Shavuot is commemorates the day God gave the Torah to the Israelites in the desert of Mount Sinai. It is also the day that the Holy Spirit descended, as tongues of fire, on all nations, who were gathered as spiritual Israel, signifying how real obedience to the ways of God are only made possible by His Spirit alive and at work in every believers life.

Meaning and Timing

• Name: Shavuot means "weeks" in Hebrew.

• Calculation: It happens exactly 50 days (seven weeks plus one day) after the second day of Passover, following the 49-day Counting of the Omer.

• Duration: It lasts for one day in Israel and two days in the Diaspora.

Origins and Significance

• Spiritual Event: It marks the revelation at Mount Sinai, when the Israelites received the Ten Commandments and the foundational laws of God.

• Agricultural Roots: In ancient times, it was also the "Festival of Reaping" and the "Day of the First Fruits," celebrating the end of the grain harvest in Israel.

Stay tuned to how we will be celebrating this year!

a 49 day count … a jounral entry:

Counting of the Omer.

It is April 29th, 2026, of day 20 of the countin gof the omer, but the splendor of today is that it is day 12 of the month of Ziv, meaning “blossom,” “grow,” “radiance,” in the Hebrew calendar and it exposes so much of what is growing in my heart. Isn’t this what we count for 49 days - what is growing, wheat and tares, until harvest? Until Pentecost?

After several days of being out and social, my inward heart has been calling out to me for connection.

I have been present with friends, kids, James - and even though that is all well and good, it feels like it is just skimming the surface of what my heart longs for - connection.

What sort of connection. Connection to my body, mind, and spirit - where one doesn’t have to give way to the other, but where they live in synergy to the Word of God, in the life He has given to me.

But holding space and being with people can sometimes feel abrasive to my conscious - the integrity of who I am, in my whole nature - because of the space they can hold, their emotions, thoughts, and strongholds that can not hold the things I know to be true.

I long to bridge the gap between the two worlds - my inner need to connect and the outer one, but I find myself waiting in the pain of the balance sometimes, in a liminal space.

I don’t know how to surrender to God in this place when the assumptions of those I am around is that my good pleasure means approval towards their fixations, my smile - their pride, my peace seen as complicity.

Here, my body holds tension, as if in some sort of fight or flight - need to find - space, for release, and my soul wrestles, vacillating from anger, pride, and apathy.

I am angry that they can speak freely and not receive the word of rebuke I would if I did, pride that I am the only one who "gets it" - and the isolation I feel must mean that I am superior in some way bc of the knowledge I hold that holds depths to the puddles we all swim in, apathy for the futility of this same cycle of existence I experience time and again in this world without a give or care from God to fix this for me.

I like boats too, skiing, lake and beach houses, surfing, extreme sports, exercise recovery, but I hate Zionism - the system of theocracy, that seems to bubble up from the pride of our lives, that facilitate the traditions of man - in all their varied forms. Rwinforced by social constructs..

Facebook.

"I am proud of you."

"I like your content."

Here, reminiscence helps me to know who and whose I am, and remember that the only leaven I need is Yeshua Messiah, because the leaven of pride of life, lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh stinks and leaves everyone wanting.

The Pharisees think they be gettin it right, but their pride of life kills off the joy of knowing they are God’s, no matter what. Herod can’t say no to the lust of his eyes, thinking it is not enough, not realizing he has so much already. The Sad-u-sees are crying in their puddles bc their pride to not give into the lust of their flesh, can’t give them the happiness they long in the lives they are not living. All of these tares choke out life and peace. 

The leaven of anger of God’s chastisement, using even fallen man for our rebuke, feeds that sort of broken lifestyle of pride. Here, I remember that the apathy I justify as proof against His Passover and First first Harvest of Aviv just becomes God’s grace in my life, “thank God for His resurrection power that is offered up for me to live a better life, in Him,” and I am content here, because I can never get enough of that - His grace flows from the hands in His scars and teaches me how to walk in forgiveness, so yes even 70 x 7 is profitable for all.

Boundaries of my inner and outer world help me to discern my leaven, not meaning to separate itself out from each other, and restores me back to submission, that cool of the garden with my Lord, the most Precious, Darling of Heaven, and take note, as things take root, what happens when bread rises in the oven, so that my counting doesn't reflect that of my offenses, but rather the days of His grace.

I am not sure if it is day 27, day 25, day 21, or if the accuracy of which day versus the instruction “to count” and measure the omer - the sheaf - representing the seed that was planted for harvest, that is growing!