Rabbi Schneider - Pentecost, God Is Within Us
Shalom Uvrachah! Peace and blessings! As we're focusing now on Shavuot, which we call in Greek, "Pentecost," Pentecost meaning "Fifty," Shavuot meaning "weeks," it's the same day. Hebrew people will call it "Shavuot," the Jewish people refer to it as "Shavuot" because it took place seven weeks and a day after Passover and in the Greek language we just call it "Pentecost" which means fifty but in Acts chapter 2, when the disciples were gathered together there in the upper room and the day of Shavuot or Pentecost had come, they were celebrating a holiday that they had already been celebrating for 1500 years.
In fact, it came to be associated with the day that the God is Israel manifested Himself on top of Mount Sinai in fire and glory, giving Moses the Ten Commandments there and as these first disciples in Acts chapter 2 were gathered together on this day of Shavuot of Pentecost, no doubt they were thinking of the glory of God that had been revealed to Israel as a nation some 1500 years earlier when He gave them the Ten Commandments, writing on the tablets with His own finger. Here they are thinking about Him, celebrating how the God of Israel had appeared to them and suddenly, the God of Israel appears again to them in fire, this time not writing His Law on the tablets of stone but going much much much much deeper writing His Law by the fire of His Spirit in their hearts.
So as we think about Pentecost, Shavuot this year beloved ones, let's just rejoice in the fact that God loves us so much that not only does He speak to us from the outside as He did to the children of Israel when He wrote His Law on the tablets of stone but He's come literally to dwell within us now, writing His Law and communicating with us in our own hearts. Baruch HaShem, shalom and shalom.