By Dov Hartuv
KIBBUTZ NAHAL OZ, Israel — When the young enthusiastic idealistic Jews left Eastern Europe during the first half of the twentieth century, they not only left behind their parents and families but also turned their backs on everything that represented their past as Jews of the diaspora. The majority of world Jewry at that time was concentrated in the countries of Eastern Europe. Most of them had lived for centuries in villages or “shtetls” where the closed communities were deeply pious and steeped in the laws of the Bible.
These pioneers came to Palestine to start a new life in stark contrast to the one they had left behind. They were going to create “the new Jew” – a free individual bound to the soil and a direct descendant of the People of Israel who had lived there until their exile in Roman Times.
Along with all the other trappings of their previous lives, they also discarded their religious observances. In its place they reinvented the customs of the Second Temple without the religious beliefs.
From this background a new way was forged to celebrate Biblical festivals such as Shavuot.
For the religious man Shavuot signified the time of the “giving of the Torah” to the children of Israel but the young pioneers disregarded this meaning and turned to the agricultural past where the farmers of those times brought their first fruits as offering to the temple. Over the years this symbolic gesture was elaborated on and a new mythological tradition was founded in the young kibbutzim and even in the cities.
I recently saw a film of Shavuot in Tel Aviv during the 1930’s where hundreds of school children dressed in “togas” with wreathes of flowers on their heads danced and sang their celebration of Shavuot in a spectacle reminiscent of those of Cecil B. de Mille.
On the kibbutzim this non- religious tradition has carried on to this day and has taken on a set form.
Here on Kibbutz Nahal Oz we still celebrate the holiday in the “traditional “ way as we remain a community whose livelihood is based on agriculture. On the evening of the holdiay we all gather with friends and extended families from outside the kibbutz for a dairy meal which has also become part of the tradition. Every home in Israel eats milk products for this festival and huge quantities of recipes based on cheeses and cream are consumed at every table throughout the country.
On the following afternoon everyone troops out to a wheat field in the centre of which a stage has been erected decorated with the seven crops linked to the holiday.
Our granddaughter Agam came over yesterday to see if we had a suitable basket for her to fill with token fruits as she and her kindergarden friends would be dancing wearing white dresses, flowers in their hair and holding a basket of fruits on one shoulder.
In the area around the stage there will be an agricultural exhibition and the visitors will drink milk straight from the teats of a realistic plastic cow or eat corn on the cob or popcorn
For us as grandparents the peak point of the festivities will be when we go on the stage with our newly born grandson Nitai to present him to the Congregation just as the newborn children were brought to the temple to be presented to the Cohanim.
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Hartuv is San Diego Jewish World’s correspondent in Sha’ar Hanegev, the partnership region in Israel of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. He may be contacted at dov.hartuv@sdjewishworld.com