I Dieci Comandamenti

.

Happy Shavuot today! 
It's the Jewish festival celebrating the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai (and also the grain harvest). 
Just before my recent trip to Italy I bought this little Holy Land olive wood Tablets of the Covenant, in a Jerusalem church. 
The Ten Commandments -- in Italian!

Chag sameach, happy holiday! 
And to the Christian friends, happy Pentecost! 
Same day.
.
More posts about the Ten Commandments are here:
http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/Ten%20Commandments

More about Shavuot:
http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/Shavuot
.

Walking through the Ten Commandments

.
Today is the happy holiday of Shavuot, also called the Festival of Weeks, Pentecost, the holiday of the First Fruits and of the reaping of grain.
Shavuot also became known as the day on which God gave the Torah on Mt. Sinai.
It is a mitsvah for every Jew to stand and hear the Ten Commandments read in the synagogue today. 

During the recent Heritage Preservation Week, the head man of  Struma Synagogue in Beer Sheva showed our tour group the Torah scrolls in their holy ark.

And with a big smile he explained that when they were building the synagogue the 1950s movie "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston was popular, and he was inspired by it to design the back wall and door as the two tablets!

You are welcome to see my other posts about Ruth and Naomi and about cheese and cheesemakers, which are also part of the Shavuot tradition.
See more about the Struma synagogue at my other post.
.
(Linking to inSPIREd Sunday  and   Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
.

A blessed Shavuot

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain." -- Exodus 19:16-17

This is just the view from one side of my village. But when it looks all dramatic in the sky I like to imagine that the next ridge is Mount Sinai and that God is answering Moses in the thunder and that I am there to witness the moments of fear and trembling!

You see?! Moses did receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments!

.

Today is not only SkyWatch Friday but also the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

The Feast of Weeks is also called the Time of the Giving of the Torah, the Festival of the First Fruits, and the Harvest Festival. Shavuot commemorates the people's pilgrimage to Jerusalem to bring first crops to the Temple. Tomorrow the Ten Commandments will be read in synagogues and also the Book of Ruth, telling the story of Ruth the Moabitess who followed Naomi and became Jewish.

On Shavuot it is the tradition to eat dairy foods, wear white, and study Torah throughout the night. Happy holiday!

.

P.S. To see how I discovered the tablets of the Covenant in a Swiss lake, please click here.
.

Shavuot miracle

.
Today Jews celebrate Shavuot, also know by its Biblical names Chag HaKatsir, the [wheat] Harvest Festival, and Yom HaBikurim, Day of the First Fruits. By tradition today also marks the day of King David's birth and death. In synagogues the scroll of the Book of Ruth is chanted, in loving memory of David and Ruth, his Moabite ancestor, the mother of all converts.

But mainly Shavuot is Zman Matan Toratenu, The Season of the Giving of our Torah. Seven weeks (shavuot) have passed since Passover. It took 49 (+1) days of wandering in the desert for God and Moses to prepare the People for the the biggest day in history.
In  today's morning prayer service Exodus 19-20 is read. All rise in silent reverence to listen to the Ten Commandments, with the feeling that we all are standing at Mount Sinai.

More about the deep meaning of all this and the fascinating customs of celebration await you at the friendly Chabad site.

But what I actually want to tell you today is my Shavuot miracle story from far-away SWITZERLAND.
OK. . . The winds blew cold as I wandered alone along the shore of Lake Neuchatel, missing Israel. So I asked God for a sign of friendship and connection:
 Hey, remember the split rock that our friend Sister H. found and made into something nice? I know such rocks are rare, but please, could You let me have one too?

I searched and searched, but in vain, and was about to head back. Then something told me to try at the little stretch of beach where the ominous sign says (or at least what my poor French thought it said): "Private property. Walking along this beach is permitted but stopping is prohibited."

I walked, and kept walking, and lo and behold--there it was, under the ripples of cold water!


Wrapping the heavy rock in my scarf, I almost danced all the way home.
After it got dry it looked like a loaf of bread,


or maybe the whale about to swallow Jonah.


But no! We knew its real destiny.
With a few strokes of my pencil, trying to do like the finger of God, the Hebrew letters for 1 to 10 were etched in stone and voila--the tablets of the Ten Commandments!

Click a few times to enlarge the photo and see the alef-bet letters:

Chag sameach, happy holiday to all!
.

Moshe

Charlton Heston has died. Cecile B. DeMille's epic movie "The Ten Commandments," with its cast of thousands, came out in 1956. For me, seeing the film as a child then, Heston did not just play the part of Moses. He WAS Moses.
If there really is a Heaven, just think what kind of welcome Charlton Heston must be getting round about now! He and God would have much to talk about.

<><><><><><><><><><<><>

Update: Old Picture of the Day has a wonderful personal encounter story about Heston at

http://old-photos.blogspot.com/2008/04/farewell-to-legend.html.