Shavuos with Chabad

Shavuos at Chabad of Flatbush
Thursday, May 21
🕯 Candle Lighting	9:54 PM
Evening Services	8:45 PM
Friday, May 22
Morning Services	10:00 AM
📜 10 Commandments Reading	12:00 PM & 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM
🍦 Holiday Dairy Meal (RSVP: 347-245-0821)	1:30 PM
🕯 Candle Lighting	After 9:01 PM
Saturday, May 23
Holiday / Shabbos Ends	9:02 PM

Thank you to all the children and families who joined us on Shavuos to hear the reading of the Aseres Hadibros! We were delighted to see so many children participate and enter our annual raffle.

We thank everyone who participated and helped make this year's Shavuos celebration so special.
May we continue to grow in Torah and mitzvos and merit the complete Geulah with Moshiach now!

Shavuos, the "Festival of Weeks," falls on the 6th of Sivan — exactly 49 days after Passover. It marks the moment when G-d gave the Jewish people the Torah at Mount Sinai, the defining event of Jewish history. The name "Shavuos" means "weeks," referring to the seven weeks of the Omer count that connects Passover to this holiday.

The Exodus from Egypt was not an end in itself — it was the beginning of a journey toward receiving the Torah. Our sages teach that the Jews were so eager for that moment that they arrived at Sinai early and waited. On the morning of the 6th of Sivan, G-d descended onto the mountain amid thunder, lightning, and the sound of the shofar, and spoke the Ten Commandments to the entire Jewish people.

Outside of Israel, Shavuos is observed for two days. The holiday includes special prayers, the reading of Megillas Rus (the Book of Ruth), Yizkor memorial prayers, and the beloved custom of eating dairy foods.

Source: chabad.org

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, instituted a powerful campaign to bring every Jewish child — even the youngest infants — to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments (Aseres HaDibros) from the Torah on the first day of Shavuos.

The campaign is rooted in a beautiful Midrashic teaching: before G-d gave the Torah at Sinai, He asked the Jewish people for guarantors. After several proposals were rejected, the Jewish people declared, "Our children will be our guarantors — they will cherish and observe the Torah." G-d immediately accepted this pledge and gave the Torah. Because the children are the guarantors through whom the Torah was entrusted to the Jewish people, it is especially fitting that they be present to hear it read each Shavuos.

The Rebbe taught that even a nursing infant should be brought to shul. While they cannot yet understand the words, the experience leaves a profound and lasting spiritual imprint on the soul. The Rebbe also encouraged children to personally invite their parents and grandparents — after all, the children are the guarantors, making them in a sense the most important guests at the Shavuos celebration.