Shavuot gets no respect. Lacking the colorful observances of Passover and Sukkot, and the gravitas of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s probably the least observed of the major Jewish holidays. Nota bene to atheists who think that religion is about ideas and beliefs rather than myth, culture, ritual and community.
In a certain way, though, Shavuot is the most specifically Jewish of holidays, celebrating text, law and Torah — in addition to the “pagan” agricultural festival over which the holiday was superimposed. It is about substance beneath the surface, complexity beneath the simplicity.
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