By Rabbi Menachem Wolf

Shavuot is the festival celebrating the giving and receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai 3,300+ years ago.

For background, 3,500+ years ago the children of Jacob (the ancestral origins of the twelve tribes) went down to live I Egypt after the reconnection and reconciliation with their brother Josef. For the next 210 years the descendants of Jacob (the B’nei Yisrael) remained in Egypt, of which the last 82 years were the years of slavery. It was the in the last years of the slavery that Moses arrive don the scene, the ten plagues were meted out and the Jewish people crossed the Reed Sea into the desert in their quest to return to Israel.

Form Egypt they journeyed through the desert until they arrived at Mount Sinai. There they camped and Moses climbed the mountain as per Gods instructions. The Jewish people experienced the revelation of Hashem, as they watched and heard the Ten Commandments being presented.

This event took place on the sixth day of the month of Sivan, which is 49 days after the exodus began. The day this revelation took place is known as Shavuot (which literally means weeks, the culmination of 7 full weeks).

 Learn about the traditions of Shavuot here