Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

  Shavuot appears as a conundrum. Of all the three ‘foot festivals’, it is the only one whose date is not to be found anywhere in the Torah. In fact, according to the introduction to Rabbi Sacks’ Shavuot machzor/prayer book, he explains that: ‘Nowhere does the Torah say that we should celebrate it on such-and-such a day in a specific month. Instead it says: “And you shall count seven complete weeks from the day following the first day of the festival, when you brought the omer as a wave offering….And you shall proclaim on that day – it shall be a sacred assembly for you: you may not perform any laborious work” (Vayikra 23:15-21). The text in Devarim is even less specific: “Count for yourselves seven weeks; when the sickle begins to cut the standing grain” (16:9).’ He continues by informing us that, until our calendar was fixed in the fourth century CE, the chag could fall on three different days, depending on whether in any given year: ‘Nisan and Iyar were both short mont

  If I cite the names W.C.   Sellar and R.J. Yeatman, I could vouch that very few of my contemporaries will be aware of the tome for which they are justifiably famous.   Making its debut in Punch magazine, it was published in book form by Methuen in 1930. You might be better versed and know that I am referring to ‘1066 And All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates’ I must confess that I have never read the book although I was familiar with its title due to seeing it in my parents' library, amongst the numerous books that I'm going to have to sort out very shortly.   This is not a task that I am particularly anticipating. I refer to that particular title because, looking back from the vantage point of mid-May or alternatively, eight months into the Jewish year I think I can say relatively fairly, that this year of 5781, has been nothing short of horrific. Need I mention