Sabbath to Shavuot

Ripening wheat by a roadside
in Jerusalem

This evening begins the jewish feast of Shavuot or Pentecost. It also happens to be the Christian Pentecost. This year Catholics and Jews celebrate Pentecost on the same day - nice. Shavuot is an agricultural feast, the harvest feast. Later in Judaism , it came to be associated with the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Israelis tomorrow will be gathering in the parks to picnic and barbecue - the traditional celebration of the harvest. Kids will be making crowns and garlands of flowers and wheat. The Book of Ruth is read - the Moabite who gleaned the wheat fields of Bethlehem.

There's still alot of violence in the country today. Jewish settlers set fire to an arab wheat field - a wicked deed - and when arabs came out to put out the fire, one was shot by a settler.    http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=271536   and   http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-settler-shoots-palestinian-in-west-bank-1.432743  I wonder if God would be pleased by religious jews who set fire to the wheat fields of other people while they themselves celebrate the wheat harvest of Shavuot. Sad. I don't see any reason to rejoice on this "feast". What's missing in this type of Shavuot is the Holy Spirit - the spirit of tolerance, love, forgiveness and peace.