None of the major Jewish chagim (festivals) is less observed in progressive Judaism than Shavuot. This is ironic because, especially for Reconstructionist Jews, the message of Shavuot is not only important, it is compelling. Convince me, you say? OK, here goes...
The Torah tells only that Shavuot is an agricultural holiday. In Temple times, this meant sacrifices, of course. But these are not the ordinary animal sacrifices we moderns are used to reading of in the Torah. Nor are they sacrifices of grain in honor of the spring harvest. Rather, the sacrifice is of two loaves of bread per family, baked from the first spring wheat (plus an additional offering based on what the family could afford). How intriguing that the primary offering is not just God's bounty, but what humans can make with that bounty.
Now come the Pharisees in the end of the second Temple period, who in departing from the priestly rites of the Sadducees, were our proto-rabbis. The Pharisees were looking to identify which holiday commemorated the giving of the Torah, the revelation at Sinai. Among the reasons for this pursuit was their philosophy—antithetical to the priestly caste—that the Torah was and should be open to interpretation in every generation. This process of seeking inner meaning in the Torah relevant to each generation is known as midrash, that is, reading between the lines of the Torah.
Well, the holiday commemorating the revelation at Sinai is not to be found in the words of the Torah. So, in fact, the Pharisees had to look for the inner meaning that could identify which holiday celebrates revelation. Their logical machinations which led to choosing Shavuot are beautifully described in Arthur Waskow's Seasons of Our Joy (pp. 185-203). Living in modernity and looking back on their reasoning, we are likely to find it something of a stretch. But the Pharisees used midrash to sanction a holiday that authorizes—no, compels—us to see that each of us was at Sinai. That for each of us, Torah must mean "Living Torah" of relevance to us in our generation, which entails making midrash to help find that meaning.
You may or may not have given much conscious thought to the idea of "Living Torah". But that is exactly what Adat Shalom does every Shabbat when Rabbi Fred or Rabbi Sid or a congregant leads one of our "patented" d'var Torah discussions. We make midrash together as a community. That doesn't mean we agree on everything. But it does mean we actively engage every week as a group in seeking inner meaning in Torah. It is also traditional to do this on erev Shavuot by holding a tikkun leyl Shavuot, an extended study and discussion session on classical as well as modern Torah concepts. The secret is out, then. If you love our Shabbat morning d'var Torah discussions, then our tikkun leyl Shavuot is for you.
I cannot do justice to the compelling reasons why it's worth your making the effort to rediscover Shavuot, for indeed, it is already yours.
L'hitraot,
Garry Grossman, Religious Practices Committee