Cheesecake quickly found a place in Jewish observance. On Shavuot, when tradition mandates a dairy meal, cheesecake (as the most scrumptious method of consumption) became the dominant dish. It was not the first time the holiday had absorbed a new culinary tradition. Indeed, Shavuot's cuisine has changed over time, reflecting – and in one case, precipitating – the holiday's historical evolution from a biblical harvest festival to the dairy-heavy all-nighter celebrated by Jews throughout the world today.

This year, the holiday begins after Shabbat on June 4 and lasts through the evening of June 6.

Shavuot is observed primarily as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. The Ten Commandments are read aloud in synagogue, and observant Jews stay up all night on the eve of the festival to study. But the Torah itself does not connect the holiday with the event at Sinai. One of the three pilgrimage festivals, Shavuot celebrated the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, when a "new offering" and two loaves of bread were brought into the Temple. Unlike Passover and Sukkot, Shavuot is only one day (two outside Israel); also unlike those holidays, its significance was purely agricultural – no special rituals or dietary restrictions required.

It was only after the destruction of the First Temple that Shavuot began to take on a secondary significance. "Already in Second Temple times, some Jews (as recorded in the book of Jubilees) found a connection – first with the covenant in the story of Noah, and through that with the revelation at Sinai," says Rabbi Norman Solomon, a retired Fellow in modern Jewish thought at Oxford University and author of "Torah from Heaven."

"The rabbis eventually focused on the Sinai revelation, an interpretation which gained in strength as Jews lost connection with the land," he said.

While the Torah does not specify any particular foods to be eaten on Shavuot, some Jews preserve the holiday's biblical significance by eating grain dishes and fruits. Shavuot was also a time when the first fruits were presented in the Temple. And since the holiday offering was accompanied by two loaves, large braided bread appears on many Shavuot tables.

But dairy foods are by far the most popular and pervasive of Shavuot's culinary traditions, prevalent in both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities alike. Joel Haber, a food researcher who explores the history of Jewish cuisine on his blog, "Taste of Jewish Culture," speculates that the practice of eating dairy emerged along with the holiday's new identity as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah: "Following so closely on the heels of our most food-focused holiday, Passover, it seems like we wanted to find meaningful foods to eat on this holiday as well."

The many reasons offered for the custom of eating dairy range from metaphoric ("The Song of Songs" compares the Torah to "milk and honey under the tongue" [4:11]) to legal to folksy (two cheese blintzes side by side resemble the two tablets). Yet almost all connect the practice with the giving of the Torah. "On the one hand, the very fact that there are so many different 'explanations' for why we eat dairy foods on Shavuot suggests that none are the genuine source for the custom," says Haber. "On the other hand – and perhaps even more significantly – the specific meanings assigned to dairy foods show us the messages that the Jewish people hold dear."

Torta Turchesca, a rice pudding made by Venetian Jews, includes rose water in tribute to the practice of decorating the synagogue with rose petals to honor the Torah; Romanian Jews eat mamaliga, white cornmeal cooked with milk and topped with yogurt, its color said to symbolize the purity required to receive Divine wisdom.

'Symbolize such a central event in religious culture'

While the tradition of eating dairy inspired much culinary and rabbinic ingenuity, food – or rather, beverage – played an active role in the development and spread of one Shavuot custom.

The practice of staying up all night on the eve of Shavuot emerged among the Kabbalists of Safed in the early 16th century. While there is no mention of stimulants being used, these vigils were sometimes quite mystical and dramatic. During an early one, Joseph Karo, author of the "Code of Jewish Law," fell into a trance and began speaking in the "voice of the Mishnah."

Karo may not have needed a boost to get through the evening, but the Jews of Europe certainly did. The late historian Elliott Horowitz points out that, though they knew of the practice earlier, European Jews began staying up on Shavuot only in the middle of the 18th century, precisely the time when coffee arrived from the Ottoman Empire. In fact, religious societies in Germany that encouraged their members to remain awake on Shavuot eve would provide the beverage free of charge.

Shavuot's complicated culinary history only enriches its observance, says Haber: "We can look to these foods to connect with Jewish values on the holiday that has come to symbolize such a central event in our religious culture."

Perhaps no dish encapsulates Shavuot's history as well as the Sephardic pan de siete cielos, the bread of the seven heavens. An elaborate dome of coiled dough representing Mount Sinai is surrounded by seven rings and decorated with edible symbols of blessing and good luck. The bread remains untouched on the table throughout the meal.

Only later, when the family returns home late at night from studying, is it cut and enjoyed –together with a cup of coffee.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Cheesecake, dairy, coffee and the evolution of a holiday appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In 1944, when she was 13 years old, Livia Bitton-Jackson was deported from her home in Šamorin, Czechoslovakia, to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where her father and most of her extended family perished.

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Last week, Bitton-Jackson, 91, began a very different journey, one of her own choosing: She walked across a room – each step counted and logged towards a goal of 6 million. "I am walking for my family who were lost in the Shoah – my uncles, aunts and cousins," she said in a video posted on Instagram. "And for all the million Jewish children who were murdered."

Bitton-Jackson is one of thousands of people participating in the second annual #6MillionSteps campaign, which aims to increase Holocaust awareness and draw attention to rising antisemitism in America.

A project of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), the campaign coincides with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 27-28, and will conclude in early May.

"Americans don't know enough about the Holocaust," said IAC's director of activism, Karen Bar-Or. "There's a younger generation that is completely unaware of what happened. We're trying to find a positive way to bring people out and engage with a subject that is so painful."

Twelve large-scale walk-runs are scheduled around the country, but the campaign is open to all. Many community groups, including several public schools, have joined, said Bar-Or: "We have adults, young adults, children coming out with their parents. Whether they're Jewish or not Jewish, they are saying, 'We're allies.' It's really heartwarming."

Participants can connect their Fitbit, Garmin or other types of fitness trackers to the campaign website or manually count steps while walking or running, and then log them later.

Online education courses for school-age kids

Bar-Or said the campaign initially began as an attempt to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in a way that was safe during the coronavirus pandemic. "We were trying to think of meaningful ways that people could engage and do something wherever they are," she explained. "Once we saw the success last year, we realized that we wanted to continue."

Last year's goal of 6 million steps was quickly surpassed; this year, the organization is encouraging individual communities to reach it alone and hopes to log a total of 60 million.

This past Sunday, participants walked through Atlanta's Chastain Park, the Babi Yar Memorial Park in Denver, and from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the city's Holocaust Memorial Plaza, among others. On May 1, a walk-run will take place on Boston's Freedom Trail, from the statehouse to the New England Holocaust Memorial.

To address the threat of ongoing antisemitism, #6MillionSteps will offer a class on removing antisemitic content and Holocaust denial from the Internet. The IAC is also providing online courses for students and educators, including "The Shoah Diaries," a creative writing class for elementary and middle-school students, as well as a critical study of word choice and responsibility for high-schoolers called "Voices from the Holocaust II."

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The courses are part of a new partnership with the Holocaust Museum LA, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Ghetto Fighters House in Israel's Western Galilee to make Holocaust learning and teacher training more accessible.

The campaign has been embraced by a wide range of social-media influencers. Gidon Lev, an 87-year-old survivor who boasts more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, uses the platform to take on Holocaust deniers and debunk myths about Israel. Recently, he posted a video of himself heading out the door to make his contribution to the 6 million steps.

"There's a direct link between not remembering the past and the current uptick in antisemitism," said Bar-Or. "We can't fight what's happening now without talking about what happened then."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post All across America, people are walking for the Six Million appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.