Good one-day-from-a-three-day-weekend morning. (AKA Thursday).
I have written before about my brand of Jewishness, which is to say that I very much culturally identify as a Jew, but don’t actively practice Judaism. I feel bad about that a lot of the time.
I did marry out of the faith, which complicates things considerably. I also didn’t have children of my own, which is often what drives people in their adult life back to actively practicing – at least until the kids turn 13 and get Bar or Bat Mitzvahed.
I also haven’t really found an Albany-area shul that feels as much like home as my childhood shul did. But, truthfully, these are really just excuses, though. After all, now live within walking distance of a synagogue. No excuses for not at least attending Shabbat services every once in a while.
Even when I was in the most observant part of my life – the years leading up to my own Bat Mitzvah – I don’t recall anything about Shavuot, even though it’s one of the Shelosh Regalim (the three Pilgrimage Festivals), which means it’s technically equal in importance to Passover and Sukkot – two holidays I most definitely celebrated with my family and extended community annually.
Shavuot marks the 50th day after the start of the counting of the Omer. This 49-day period marks the time frame between the second night of Passover and Shavuot.
In ancient times, it marked the beginning of the barley harvest, when Jews would bring the first sheaves to the Temple as a means of thanking G-d. (The word “omer” translates into “sheaf”).
Passover, as you’re probably aware, tells the story of the Jews escaping slavery in Egypt. So Shavuot is also seen as the full transition from slavery to freedom.
How does one celebrate Shavuot? Well, first know that the holiday starts at sundown tonight and lasts through sundown Saturday. If you’re really devout, you might spend the entire day and night studying Torah, and then (if you’re in Israel, where Shavuot is observed for just one day), walk to the Western Wall at the break of dawn to recite the morning service.
If that seems a little intense – or if you’re somewhere other than the Holy Land – you can simply attend synagogue, abstain from work, and read the Book of Ruth. (Go down the rabbit hole on that last one here).
It’s also customary to decorate your home and/or synagogue with greenery – plants and flowers – in keeping with he agricultural nature of the holiday. AND, best of all, its traditional to eat dairy – anything from cheesecake to blintzes to bourekas (pastries stuffed with cheese and/or mashed potatoes and a variety of savory fillings).
I am a big fan of all things that feature cheese, so maybe I should think seriously about my previous failure to observe Shavuot?
The weather has taken an odd – albeit temporary – chilly turn, with temperatures dropping into the mid-60s. Brrr. It will be mostly sunny, however, which is nice, and then things will warm right back up again – just in time for the unofficial kick-off of summer, Memorial Day weekend.
More on that tomorrow.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden, marking one year since the Uvalde school shooting, called on Republicans in Congress to act to end the “epidemic” of gun violence in the United States.
Before delivering somber remarks, Biden and first lady Jill Biden honored the lives lost with a display of 21 candles assembled at the base of the White House grand staircase.
“We still need to ban AR-15 firearms — assault weapons — once again,” Biden said at the White House. “We can’t end this epidemic until Congress has some common-sense gun safety laws that keep weapons of war off our streets.”
After the Supreme Court ruled last year that people could carry guns outside their homes, legal challenges and legislative debates have been playing out across the country.
Biden will announce today that he is tapping Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., a history-making fighter pilot with deep knowledge of China, to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
If confirmed, Brown would become the first Black Joint Chiefs chair in 30 years, since the late Colin Powell held the position in the George H.W. Bush administration.
Brown’s confirmation would mean that, for the first time, both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian positions would be held by African Americans.
House Democratic anxieties are flaring over Biden’s negotiations with Republicans to avert default.
House Republicans passed a resolution that would overturn Biden’s student loan cancellation plan, but the White House has vowed to veto it and the plan remains on hold as the Supreme Court considers its fate.
House lawmakers failed to garner enough support to override Biden’s veto of a measure that would have rescinded his two-year moratorium on tariffs for imports of solar equipment from four Southeast Asian countries.
A pair of new national polls shows majorities of Americans disapproving of both Biden and congressional Republicans in the fight over raising the debt ceiling.
A Monmouth University survey released yesterday finds just 34% of Americans approving of Biden’s handling of the debt-ceiling issue, versus 55% who disapprove.
Biden and the Democratic Party have put together a 50-state joint fundraising strategy in a bid to give him an overwhelming financial edge over his potential Republican challenger.
Ron DeSantis filed paperwork to run for president ahead of tonight’s official announcement on Twitter with controversial owner Elon Musk.
With a crowd of more than 250,000 people ready to listen to the conversation, the event crashed multiple times as the audience kept growing to some 500,000.
Instead of a live announcement scheduled to start at 6 p.m. EST, users could only hear audio cutting in and out for about 20 minutes.
When, after more than 25 minutes, DeSantis finally spoke, he declared, “I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.”
Biden took a jab at DeSantis after the governor’s presidential campaign launch was overshadowed by technical difficulties.
New York state health officials signaled a requirement that health care workers receive the COVID-19 vaccination will end as pandemic-era rules more broadly are expiring.
Proposals that would recognize Lunar New Year and Diwali as formal holidays in New York is taking a step closer to passage.
A proposal to ban the discharging of radioactive material into the Hudson River has cleared key legislative committees in the state Senate and Assembly as lawmakers eye a final vote in the coming days.
The state is one step closer to launching a long-awaited panel designed to root out prosecutorial misconduct across New York.
A recent change in state election law is creating a new opportunity for New Yorkers to register to vote and cast their ballots on the same day – June 17, AKA the Golden Day.
Gov. Kathy Hochul made light of her budget tardiness, her obsession with the Buffalo Bills and her penchant for listening to farflung advisers Tuesday night at the 121st annual Legislative Correspondents Association show.
Hochul made a rare gubernatorial appearance at an MTA board meeting yesterday — the first gathering of the agency’s leadership since state lawmakers fully funded the MTA in their April budget.
Hochul refused to confirm whether the state is backing Mayor Eric Adams’ push to rescind New York City’s “right to shelter” rule, as she also dodged questions about SUNY campuses and went back on her previous work papers stance.
A decision as to where expanded housing for migrants who have come to New York will ultimately be is expected “very soon,” Hochul said.
Adams weathered a torrent of criticism for his administration’s legal push to diminish the city’s right-to-shelter law, with detractors calling the move misguided and demanding the mayor reconsider.
Jessica Katz, the architect of Adams’s housing plan is resigning, the mayor’s office confirmed, a key departure that underscores the administration’s struggles in dealing with the city’s intensifying affordability and homelessness crisis.
Katz said she did not yet know where she’ll go next, but plans to take the summer off.
New York City’s next budget is due before July 1, but a four hour long City Council grilling session with the city’s top budget officials suggested there could be a long road ahead to negotiating a final deal.
The City Council is set to pass a legislative package this week that would make it easier for low-income New Yorkers to get rent subsidy vouchers — even though Adams has publicly opposed the measure and privately urged Council members to vote against it.
The NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer has been disciplined for voiding an arrest of a retired cop accused of threatening a group of teens with a gun.
A New York City police officer patrolling the West Village repeatedly punched an emotionally disturbed man in the face, breaking his nose, according to prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office who are seeking to hold him criminally accountable.
The woman shoved against the side of a moving train by a stranger was left “instantly paralyzed” by the unprovoked attack, prosecutors said, as her husband issued a desperate plea for the city to prioritize safety on the subways.
The NYPD has been struggling to halt the post-pandemic wave of violence — with overall major crime staying steady over last year, but still up more than 34% when compared to 2018, new police data shows.
A rally for subway chokehold suspect Daniel Penny turned rowdy and resulted in several arrests yesterday when dozens of counter-protestors clashed with supporters of the former Marine.
Fetty Wap, a New Jersey rapper who shot to fame with his hit “Trap Queen,” an ode to a romance entangled in the drug trade, was sentenced to six years in federal prison for trafficking narcotics across the country.
Resident doctors ended a three-day strike at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens after reaching a tentative deal yesterday that they say brings them closer to earning as much as their counterparts in Manhattan.
A longtime staffer at KIPP Albany Community Charter School has been charged with allegedly strangling a 6-year-old — and in the process cutting him in the neck with her fingernails — at the school earlier this month.
An Albany woman is suing ShopRite for $35,000 over an allegedly mislabeled cherry pie.
The woman, who is a mother of five, claims she was left “angry” and “betrayed” when the apple pie she thought she was buying from a local ShopRite turned out to be a cherry pie, leading her daughter to get sick when she ate a piece of it.
Accusing Saratoga Springs Fire Chief Joseph Dolan of “intent to defraud,” the city’s public safety commissioner released details of 16 internal misconduct charges that allege Dolan drew state pay at the same time he was being paid by the city.
Summertime is fast approaching, and with it comes the return of free outdoor activities in downtown Albany.
Former state Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro, who served in several ethics and investigative roles during former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer.
Tina Turner, the stiletto-wearing, gravel-voiced diva who heroically escaped the clutches of a domestic abuser to strike out on her own as an international superstar, died at her home in Switzerland this week after a long illness at the age of 83.
Bill Lee, the jazz musician and songwriter who performed with superstars and scored films for his son Spike, has died at the age of 94.
Nicholas Gray, the founder of Gray’s Papaya, a storefront hot-dog stand whose culinary eccentricity, competitive prices, clever sloganeering and apparent immutability earned the affection of New Yorkers young and old, rich and poor, has died at age 86.
