The two loaves
Torah text: Stated in the Five Books of Moses.Two loaves of leavened wheat bread from the new harvest were waved before God. Almost every other grain offering was unleavened; these were ordinary bread.
שבועות
Shavuot in the House
6 Sivan, seven weeks after PesachThe second pilgrimage festival marks the wheat harvest. Its central offering is two loaves of leavened bread.
Where it happened
The same model, lit for Shavuot. Highlighted areas carry the festival's rites.
The rites of Shavuot
First fruits
Mishnah / Talmud: Recorded in the Mishnah or Talmud, the rabbinic texts that preserve Temple practice and law.From Shavuot, towns sent processions with baskets of the seven species. The pilgrims slept in the open square and set out at dawn to the call 'Let us arise and go up to Zion'. At the Temple each farmer recited a short history of the people, beginning 'A wandering Aramean was my father'.
Shavuot and Sinai
Classical interpretation: A traditional commentator's reading. Others may read the text differently.The Torah presents Shavuot as a harvest festival. Rabbinic tradition also identifies it with the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and that became its dominant meaning after the Temple. Both are true to Jewish practice; the Temple rites belong to the first.
מִמּוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם תָּבִיאּוּ לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם שְׁנֵי עֶשְׂרֹנִים סֹלֶת תִּהְיֶינָה חָמֵץ תֵּאָפֶינָה בִּכּוּרִים לַיהוָה׃
Ye shall bring out of your dwellings two wave-loaves of two tenth parts of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven, for first-fruits unto the LORD.
Shavuot today
Shavuot is kept with Torah study through the night, the Book of Ruth and dairy meals. The first-fruits declaration survives in the Pesach Haggadah.