Preparation

Preparation is important. It’s also time consuming.

To prove this point, we need not look any further than to the Jewish holidays.

After the High Holidays, the three Pilgrimage Festivals—Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot—are our next tier holy days. All are Biblically established during which we refrain from work.

Preparation for Passover is, of course, the most labor intensive, with the cleaning, the turning over of the kitchen, the shopping, the cooking, etc.

Preparation for Sukkot is not as bad, but no bowl of cherries either. We build sukkot. We eat (and some sleep) outside in it. We shop and cook. We select lulavim, etc.

And did I mention the expense?

But then we have Shavuot.

There’s no lining the stove with tinfoil or carpeting the patio or any of the other wonderful activities that enhance our spiritual experiences. We count for 49 days and make cheesecake. That’s it. That’s the preparation.

Preparation is so minimal that my wife went to visit our kids in Colorado and California feeling confident that I could handle it all by myself.

Note: Being an overachiever, I also make the Signature Cheese Blintz Souffle from the Congregation Agudat Achim Divine Kosher Cuisine cookbook, which is totally optional, but well worth it.

Note 2: This essay, while factual, is intended to be humorous. It is not meant in any way to make light of all those who have been preparing spiritually for our receiving the Torah on Shavuot or for the many who have invested countless hours in preparing lessons for the all-night study sessions.

Shavuot starts immediately following Shabbat.

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