ritual
names of Shavuos
שבועות · עצרת · קציר · ביכורים · חמישים · קהל
Bottom line
Three names are the Torah's: Shavuos, Festival of Weeks; Chag HaKatzir, Festival of the Harvest; Yom HaBikkurim, Day of the First Fruits. Atzeres is the name of Chazal and the one the Mishnah and Gemara normally use, though the Torah never applies it to this yom tov. Render Atzeres by its sense, either Assembly or Conclusion depending on the reading a passage follows, and say which. Do not translate Shavuos as "Pentecost."
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| שבועות | Shavuos | Festival of Weeks | the date is counted, not dated (Shemos 34:22) |
| עצרת | Atzeres | Assembly, Conclusion | Rabbinic; sense disputed |
| קציר | Chag HaKatzir | Festival of the Harvest | the wheat harvest season (Shemos 23:16) |
| ביכורים | Yom HaBikkurim | Day of the First Fruits | first day bikkurim may be brought (Bamidbar 28:26) |
| קהל | Yom HaKahal | Day of the Congregation | the Torah's name for Matan Torah (Devarim 18:16) |
Where the authorities disagree
Whether Atzeres means conclusion. The Munkatcher Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro: atzeres is "stop," and here "the end," so Shavuos concludes Pesach as Shemini Atzeres concludes Succos, which is why Rabbinic literature can call it "the Atzeres of Pesach" (see Ramban to Vayikra 23:36, and Rabbi Moshe Zacuto). The Kedushas Levi makes both names one thought: Shavuos completes the weeks from Pesach, Atzeres completes Pesach. Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Hoffmann rejects this, there being no evidence that atzeres concerns conclusions; he and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg read it as "gathering," pointing to Devarim 18:16, where the day of Matan Torah is called Yom HaKahal. The Bottom line keeps both, the choice governing the English word.
Two further readings of Atzeres. The Kedushas Levi also reads it from restraint: inspiration slips away unless contained in some worldly vessel, and at Sinai Yisrael had no mitzvos yet to serve as one except the command to hold back from touching the mountain, so Atzeres means both "stop" and "store up." Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky reads it from the absence of a positive mitzvah: the two days the Torah calls Atzeres, the eighth of Succos (Vayikra 23:36) and the seventh of Pesach (Devarim 16:8), are the only yamim tovim with no act commanded, only refraining from melachah. Shavuos had the two loaves and two goats while the Beis HaMikdash stood (Vayikra 23:16-20); once that lapsed it too was left with refraining alone, and the name followed.
Whether the name is warranted at all. Midrash Lekach Tov (Rabbi Tuviah ben Eliezer) searched the parshiyos of the moadim and found atzeres used for other days but never for Shavuos. He upholds it from Targum to Bamidbar 28:26, which renders b'shavuoseichem as b'atzarteichon.
Why the Torah's names fell out of use. Rabbi Baruch Epstein: with exile from the Land, harvest and bikkurim were no longer live, so Chag HaKatzir and Yom HaBikkurim fell away. For Shavuos itself an explanation is recorded that "weeks" could be heard as calendar weeks beginning on Sunday, the Sadducean reckoning of the Omer, and Chazal used Atzeres to avoid conceding it; that controversy long dead, the Torah's name is used again.
Distinctions
Shavuos (שבועות)
Shemos 34:22; Devarim 16:10, 16:16; Divrei HaYamim II 8:13. The Torah gives no calendar date, only a count of seven weeks from Pesach; the commentators explain that at that season many were camped in their fields and would not know when the Sanhedrin had declared Rosh Chodesh Sivan, while everyone knew when Pesach fell. Shavua means both a seven-day week, plural shavuos, and a seven-year shemittah cycle, plural shavuim; Rashi to the Gemara sometimes writes shavuim for weeks.
Chag HaKatzir (קציר) and Yom HaBikkurim (ביכורים)
Shemos 23:16 names the yom tov for the wheat harvest, which is why the people were in the fields; Rashi to Yirmiyahu 5:24 notes that the grain harvest ran exactly seven weeks. Bamidbar 28:26 names it for the bikkurim (Devarim 26:1-11), and Bikkurim 1:3 fixes Shavuos as the first day they may be brought. A further post-Biblical name is Yom HaChamishim, the Fiftieth Day of Sefiras HaOmer, from which the word "Pentecost" comes.
Rendering guidance
- Keep Shavuos untranslated in a sefer; "Festival of Weeks" belongs in a gloss at first occurrence, and "Pentecost" nowhere.
- Where a Rabbinic text says Atzeres and means this yom tov, write "Atzeres" and gloss it rather than substituting "Shavuos"; the choice of name is usually the point.
- Trap: "Atzeres" also names Shemini Atzeres and the seventh day of Pesach, and English "Assembly" absorbs Atzeres, kahal and asifah alike. Where a passage sets Atzeres beside Yom HaKahal, keep the Hebrew for the first.
- Chag HaKatzir takes "Festival of the Harvest," not "of the Reaping"; bikkurim takes "first fruits," transliterated where it names the mitzvah.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Stop! It's Shavuot!," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 5 Sivan 5778 (2018-05-19): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/stop-itas-shavuot; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7758-stop-itas-shavuot.md. Primary loci: Shemos 23:16, 34:22; Vayikra 23:16-20, 23:36; Bamidbar 28:26, 29:35; Devarim 16:8, 16:10, 16:16, 18:16, 26:1-11; Divrei HaYamim II 8:13; Rashi to Yirmiyahu 5:24; Mishnah Bikkurim 1:3; Targum to Bamidbar 28:26; Midrash Lekach Tov (Pesikta Zutrasa); Ramban to Vayikra 23:36. The article's citations of Hellenistic-Jewish writers for the post-Biblical names Yom HaChamishim, Chag HaTene and Asartha are omitted under the house rule limiting sources to Torah authorities; the names themselves are recorded above.