Shavuot: ‘I’ll Have to Give You a Rain Check’

IFCJ Canada  |  June 13, 2024

‘‘I can’t celebrate this harvest holiday if I’m not home on my kibbutz rejoicing with those brutally torn from us on Oct. 7’’ Writes Adele Raemer in The Times of Israel. (Check out her Nourish Your Biblical Roots episode here), Adele shares why this year she’s asking for a rain check on Shavuot, the Jewish Pentecost:

But this year…. this year there IS no Shavuot for me. Because if I cannot celebrate with my family and friends in the fields of Kibbutz Nirim, if I cannot ride the tractors to the celebration site, or dance the silly dance with those willing to go with my flow, then there is no Shavuot for me. If I cannot take pictures of our gargantuan combine harvesters harvesting the wheat through clouds of dusty earth in our golden fields which our farmers work so hard all year to nurture, then there is no Shavuot for me. There is no Shavuot for me if we cannot celebrate with those people who were ruthlessly torn from us on that Black Sabbath back in October.