Shavuot Dairy Buffet & Ice Cream Party

Wednesday, May 19th, 6 pm at  Saratoga Chabad- 130 Circular St.

Live Reading of Ten Commandments!

Delicious Dairy Buffet Dinner  Scrumptious Ice Cream & Desserts.

The holiday of Shavuot is the day on which we celebrate the great revelation of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, 3320 years ago. You stood at the foot of the mountain. Your grandparents and great-grandparents before them. The souls of all Jews, from all times, came together to hear the Ten Commandments from G‑d Himself. This year, on Wednesday, May 19th, come hear the Ten Commandments and reaffirm the covenant with G‑d and His Torah.

* It is the second of the three major festivals (Passover being the first, and Sukkot the third), occuring exactly fifty days after the second day of Passover.

The word "Shavuot" means "weeks"; it marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. During these seven weeks, the Jewish people cleansed themselves of the scars of Egyptian slavery and became a holy nation, ready to enter into an eternal covenant with G‑d with the giving of the Torah.

On this day, we received a gift from Above which we could not have achieved with our own limited faculties. We received the ability to reach and touch the Divine; not only to be cultivated human beings, but Divine human beings who are capable of rising above and beyond the limitations of nature.

Before the giving of the Torah, we were a family and a community. The experience of Sinai bonded us into a new entity: the Jewish people, the Chosen Nation. This holiday is likened to our wedding day -- beneath the wedding canopy of Mount Sinai, G‑d betrothed us to Him. G‑d swore eternal devotion to us, and we in turn pledged everlasting loyalty to Him.

Every year on the holiday of Shavuot, we reenact this historic moment. G‑d re-gives the Torah, and we lovingly reaccept, and reaffirm our fidelity to Him alone.