The Different Names of Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot is called by different names, and each name tells us something special about this holiday. In the Torah, it is called Shavuot because it comes after [music] counting 7 weeks, 49 days from the holiday of Passover. It is also called [music] the festival of the harvest because it comes at the time of the wheat harvest in the land of Israel. Another name is the festival of first fruits because during the [music] days of the temple, people would bring the first and finest fruits of the harvest to the temple. But, the name most familiar to us is the time of the giving of [music] the Torah. On this day, more than 3,300 years ago, the people of Israel received the Torah from God at Mount Sinai. That was the moment [music] when we were born as a people, not just as a large family that left Egypt, but as a nation with a special mission in the world.