Shavuot
What is it?
Pentecost is known in English as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Koinē Greek: Πεντηκοστή). It is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (it may fall between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar). In the Bible, Shavuot marks the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel (Exodus 34:22) and according to the Sages, it also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah by God to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai.
The word Shavuot means "weeks" and it marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Its date is directly linked to that of Passover; the Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.
One of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Shavuot is traditionally celebrated in the Land of Israel for one day and for two days in the Diaspora.
Yeshua Sent The Holy Spirit
Shavuot (Pentecost) is also the time that the Apostles in the book of Acts received the Promise of the Holy Spirit.
"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." Acts 1:1-4
As we draw close to Shavuot, we expect a mighty move of the Holy Spirt!