May
30
/ 2020
Buried beneath the themes of first fruits and wheat offerings lie deeper connections between Shavuot and Akhenaten. These are suggestive and persuasive and go far beyond delicious foods and agricultural traditions. They involve Shavuot’s other central feature: the giving of the Hebrew law by Moses. After the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem by the Roman armies in 70 AD, the focus of Shavuot shifted away from agriculture towards the Torah, or Jewish law. Specifically, the giving of the Torah by God to Moses on Mount Sinai became the holiday’s chief focus, thereby ensuring its longevity. It is in these traditions of tablets, tenets, and truth that we find a mother lode of evidence connecting Shavuot back to Akhenaten
