Shavuot lesson pack חַג הַשָּׁבוּעוֹת

Several beautiful traditions. The Torah is compared to milk and honey because both are sweet and nourishing. Eretz Yisrael is called "a land of milk and honey." And tradition tells us that when our family received the Torah at Har Sinai, the laws of kosher meat were brand new — so the very first Shavuot meal was dairy. Slide 5 covers all of this gently for young learners.

Slide 11 tells the Matan Torah story gently — the family at Har Sinai, Hashem's question, and the famous answer Na'aseh v'Nishma ("we will do, we will hear"). No figural depictions of Moshe; we use the Mount Sinai landscape. Most of the pack focuses on the joyful customs, not the dramatic event itself.

Slide 10 covers the custom of standing for the Ten Commandments in shul on Shavuot morning. The pack uses an illuminated parchment image of the Decalogue. Each commandment is named in the parent guide's pronunciation cheat sheet — both in Hebrew and transliterated.

No. Every Hebrew word in the pack is transliterated, every speaker note is in English, and the parent guide includes a pronunciation cheat sheet for every Hebrew word you'll meet — Shavuot, Torah, chalav, perachim, Tikkun Leil, Megillat Rut, Bikkurim, Aseret HaDibrot, na'aseh v'nishma, Sefirat HaOmer.

Megillat Rut is the short, beautiful book of the Tanach we read in shul on Shavuot morning. It tells the story of Rut, who chose to join the Jewish people out of love and loyalty to her mother-in-law Naomi. We read it on Shavuot for three reasons: it takes place at harvest time (Shavuot is the harvest holiday), Rut accepted the Torah just as our whole nation did at Sinai, and her great-grandson was David HaMelech. Slide 8 features an illuminated Megillat Rut from a 13th-century Spanish bible.

Both names refer to the same holiday — שָׁבוּעוֹת in Hebrew. We use "Shavuot" throughout the lesson; you can use whichever pronunciation your family prefers when discussing it.