8th Sunday

Now it is the 50th day after starting the counting of the Omer if the 18th of Nisan is used as a starting point. So today is the Festival of Shavuot or Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The Greek word Pente means 50. There is the belief that the giving of the Torah (the first five books in the Hebrew Bible) to Moses at Mount Sinai at this time. The Book of Ruth is also traditionally read on Shavuot morning because of its link to the harvest season (when the story takes place) and because of Ruth’s acceptance of the Jewish faith and God. When the Moabite Ruth and her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, returned to Bethlehem, it was at the very beginning of the barley harvest (Ruth 1:22).


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