Shavuot, Chag HaBikkurim: A Revival of a Biblical Firstfruits Tradition?

The idea that the Torah was given on Shavuot is not articulated in the Torah itself. Over time, however, Shavuot came to be celebrated as zman matan toratenu, “the Time of the Giving of Our Torah,” a phrase that first appears in the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram.^[1]

In modern times, particularly in Israel, Shavuot has also become known as chag habikkurim, “the Festival of Firstfruits.” This understanding of the festival originated as part of an effort to reconnect with the biblical festival’s agricultural past and to revive the Jewish people’s connection with the land. The command to bring firstfruits to YHWH is found in the Torah—but is it biblically associated with Shavuot?

Firstfruits Festival in Pre-State Israel and Today

The first modern bikkurim festival seems to have been held in 1897 by the residents of Petah Tikva, the first modern Jewish agricultural settlement in the land of Israel. The farmers loaded samples of their produce onto camels and brought them to Jerusalem, calling on anyone named Kohen or Levi to take their share, in commemoration of the donation of the firstfruits to the priests in the Jerusalem temple (Num 1:12–13).

During the British Mandate period (1920–1948), similar ceremonies became part of the regular celebration of Shavuot. Beginning in 1924, members of three agricultural settlements in the Jezreel Valley held an elaborate parade, culminating in the presentation of produce to a representative of the Jewish National Fund in lieu of a priest. The practice quickly spread to other settlements and even to cities, such as Haifa and Tel Aviv.

These ceremonies sparked a bitter conflict between the secular members of the settlements and the religious community and rabbinate because they were held on Shavuot itself, in violation of the laws of yom tov, festival days on which certain types of work are prohibited. The issue was taken up by the 1927 Zionist Congress in Basel, and the ceremony was ultimately moved to the day after Shavuot.

Another controversy erupted in 1928 over the concern that the bikkurim ceremonies might be seen as supplanting the mitzvah (commandment) of bringing bikkurim, which could only be fulfilled when the Jerusalem temple was standing. This was resolved by renaming the festival chagigat zikaron habikkurim, “celebration commemorating the firstfruits.”^[2]

Similar celebrations continue to take place in Israel today, especially on kibbutzim and moshavim (Israeli communal and cooperative agricultural communities, respectively), where they often center on babies and animals born in the past year and feature agriculturally themed activities, such as tractor rides. “Saleinu al k’tefeinu” (“Our baskets on Our Shoulders”), a popular Israeli children’s song for Shavuot, written by Levin Kipnis in 1929, describes people coming from all parts of the land of Israel bearing firstfruits in a celebratory procession, accompanied by musical instruments. (Listen to the song here.)

The song is partly inspired by the description of the bringing of bikkurim in the Mishnah (m. Bikkurim 3). But what is the relationship of the modern chag habikkurim to the biblical and rabbinic traditions of Shavuot?

The Covenant Collection (Exodus 21–23): The Festival of the First Harvest (Barley)

In the Covenant Collection (Exod 21–23), the earliest source on the biblical festivals (both in the sequence of the Torah and, most likely, its historical development), the festivals do not have specific dates and would presumably have been observed by each farmer in accordance with the ripening of that year’s crop. The Festival of Unleavened Bread^[3] occurs in the month (or new moon) when barley begins to ripen but is still green (Aviv, later called Nisan):^[4]

‏^{שׁמות כג:טו} אֶת חַג הַמַּצּוֹת תִּשְׁמֹר שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תֹּאכַל מַצּוֹת כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִךָ לְמוֹעֵד חֹדֶשׁ הָאָבִיב כִּי בוֹ יָצָאתָ מִמִּצְרָיִם וְלֹא יֵרָאוּ פָנַי רֵיקָם.

^{Exod 23:15} You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread (chag ha-matzot)—eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of Aviv, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed.^[5]

The Festival of the Harvest occurs at the start of the harvest of “what you sow of the field,” apparently the beginning of the grain harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering is celebrated at the end of the agricultural year:

^{שׁמות כג:טז} וְחַג הַקָּצִיר בִּכּוּרֵי מַעֲשֶׂיךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע בַּשָּׂדֶה וְחַג הָאָסִף בְּצֵאת הַשָּׁנָה בְּאָסְפְּךָ אֶת מַעֲשֶׂיךָ מִן הַשָּׂדֶה.

^{Exod 23:16} And the Festival of the Harvest (chag ha-katzir), of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Festival of Ingathering (chag ha-ʾasif) at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field.

The phrase בִּכּוּרֵי מַעֲשֶׂיךָ, “the first fruits of your work,” in reference to the Festival of the Harvest, signifies the time when the festival is observed, not a donation of produce. All three festivals are referred to as חַג (chag), a cognate to the Arabic word hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The term implies that they are pilgrimage festivals, as confirmed by the command to appear before YHWH:

^{שׁמות כג:יז} שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵרָאֶה כָּל זְכוּרְךָ אֶל פְּנֵי הָאָדֹן יְ־הוָה.

^{Exod 23:17} Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, YHWH.

This would have been a pilgrimage to a local sanctuary, since the Covenant Collection was written before the centralization of the temple cult in Jerusalem. These pilgrimages would have involved offerings, probably including the field’s produce at that time of year—young barley at Unleavened Bread, mature grain at Harvest, and late produce such as olives at Ingathering.

The pilgrimage laws conclude with more general regulations on offerings, both animals and produce:

^{שׁמות כג:יח} לֹא תִזְבַּח עַל חָמֵץ דַּם זִבְחִי וְלֹא יָלִין חֵלֶב חַגִּי עַד בֹּקֶר. ^כג:יט רֵאשִׁית בִּכּוּרֵי אַדְמָתְךָ תָּבִיא בֵּית יְ-הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא־תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ׃

^{Exod 23:18} You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened; and the fat of My festival offering shall not be left lying until morning. ^23:19 The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of your God, YHWH. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.^[6]

Here, indeed, we find an injunction to offer the first of all produce, but it does not relate to the Festival of the Harvest in particular.^[7]

The Ritual Decalogue (Exodus 34): Shavuot, the First Wheat of the Harvest

A parallel to the Covenant Code’s festival laws appears as part of a set of laws sometimes referred to as the “Ritual Decalogue” (Exod 34:11–26). Here the second festival is called Weeks (shavuʿot)—though the text does not explain why—and it occurs at the start of the wheat harvest—not barley, as in the Covenant Collection—and thus is later in the year (since the first grain to be harvested each year was barley):^[8]

^{שׁמות לד:כב} וְחַג שָׁבֻעֹת תַּעֲשֶׂה לְךָ בִּכּוּרֵי קְצִיר חִטִּים וְחַג הָאָסִיף תְּקוּפַת הַשָּׁנָה.

^{Exod 34:22} You shall observe the Festival of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.[9]

As in its source in Exodus 23, the injunction to offer firstfruits of all kinds occurs several verses after the enumeration of the three festivals:

^{שׁמות לד:כו} רֵאשִׁית בִּכּוּרֵי אַדְמָתְךָ תָּבִיא בֵּית יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ....

^{Exod 34:26a} The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of your God, YHWH.

Deuteronomy: Shavuot, A Festival with a Freewill Offering

Deuteronomy’s festival calendar (16:1–17) also includes the Festival of Weeks (shavuʿot). Deuteronomy explains this name: it occurs seven weeks (shavuʿot) from the start of the harvest:

‏^{דברים טז:ט} שִׁבְעָה שָׁבֻעֹת תִּסְפָּר לָךְ מֵהָחֵל חֶרְמֵשׁ בַּקָּמָה תָּחֵל לִסְפֹּר שִׁבְעָה שָׁבֻעוֹת. ^טז:י וְעָשִׂיתָ חַג שָׁבֻעוֹת לַי־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מִסַּת נִדְבַת יָדְךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּתֵּן כַּאֲשֶׁר יְבָרֶכְךָ יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

^{Deut 16:9} You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. ^16:10 Then you shall observe the Festival of Weeks for your God, YHWH, offering your freewill contribution according as your God, YHWH, has blessed you.

In this passage, a specific offering is associated with Shavuot, but it is not an offering of firstfruits; rather, it is a “freewill contribution (nedavah) according as your God, YHWH, has blessed you.” The offering is not of a specific amount, like a tithe, but is expected to have some correlation with the bounty of the crop.

At the end of the festival legislation, this kind of proportional freewill offering is mentioned again:

‏^{דברים טז:טז} שָׁלוֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵרָאֶה כָל זְכוּרְךָ אֶת פְּנֵי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחָר בְּחַג הַמַּצּוֹת וּבְחַג הַשָּׁבֻעוֹת וּבְחַג הַסֻּכּוֹת וְלֹא יֵרָאֶה אֶת פְּנֵי יְ־הוָה רֵיקָם. ^טז:יז אִישׁ כְּמַתְּנַת יָדוֹ כְּבִרְכַּת יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לָךְ.

^{Deut 16:16} Three times a year—on the Festival of Unleavened Bread, on the Festival of Weeks, and on the Festival of Booths—all your males shall appear before YHWH your God in the place that He will choose. They shall not appear before YHWH emptyhanded, ^16:17 but each with his own gift, according to the blessing that YHWH your God has bestowed upon you.

A Separate Firstfruits Commandment

Deuteronomy mentions firstfruits again (26:1–11)—in a standalone section that is not part of a festival calendar—and details a ritual for presenting them:

‏^{דברים כו:א} וְהָיָה כִּי תָבוֹא אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְיָשַׁבְתָּ בָּהּ. ^כו:ב וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית כָּל פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר תָּבִיא מֵאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ וְשַׂמְתָּ בַטֶּנֶא וְהָלַכְתָּ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם.

^{Deut 26:1} When you enter the land that YHWH your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, ^26:2 you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that YHWH your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where YHWH your God will choose to establish His name.

The Priestly Source: The Day of Firstfruits with an Offering of New Grain

Yet another calendar of holy days appears in the Priestly source (P), specifically Numbers 28–29. The context of this calendar is a list of offerings for particular days, including the twice-daily offering (tamid) and the offerings for Shabbat, the New Moon, and festivals. The calendar includes an offering for the “Day of Firstfruits,” also called “your Weeks”:

^{במדבר כח:כו} וּבְיוֹם הַבִּכּוּרִים בְּהַקְרִיבְכֶם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לַי־הוָה בְּשָׁבֻעֹתֵיכֶם מִקְרָא קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם כָּל מְלֶאכֶת עֲבֹדָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ.

^{Num 28:26} On the Day of Firstfruits, your Weeks, when you bring an offering of new grain to YHWH, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

Here, the Day of Firstfruits—in contrast to Unleavened Bread (28:17) and Booths (29:12)[10]—is not a pilgrimage festival (chag). P does not prescribe an offering of firstfruits in general but does refer to a “new grain offering” (minchah ḥadashah).

The Holiness Collection (Leviticus 17–26): An Offering of Loaves

Like the Priestly source, the Holiness Collection (H) does not describe Shavuot as a pilgrimage festival (chag); it also does not give the day a name. As in Deuteronomy, the timing of this holiday is reckoned by a count of seven weeks, although in this case they are counted from the offering of the ʿomer, or “sheaf” (though the precise timing of the ʿomer is not entirely clear from the biblical text):^[11]

‏^{ויקרא כג:י} דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם וּקְצַרְתֶּם אֶת קְצִירָהּ וַהֲבֵאתֶם אֶת עֹמֶר רֵאשִׁית קְצִירְכֶם אֶל הַכֹּהֵן.... ^כג:טו וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה.

^{Lev 23:10} Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf (ʿomer) of your harvest to the priest.... ^23:15 And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete.

H elaborates somewhat on the new grain offering in P, specifying that it be baked into two loaves of leavened bread, and it clarifies that this offering is the firstfruits associated with the holiday:

‏^{ויקרא כג:טז} עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת הַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לַי־הוָה. ^כג:יז מִמּוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם תָּבִיאּוּ לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם שְׁנֵי עֶשְׂרֹנִים סֹלֶת תִּהְיֶינָה חָמֵץ תֵּאָפֶינָה בִּכּוּרִים לַי־הוָה.

^{Lev 23:16} You must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to YHWH. ^23:17 You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering; each shall be made of two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as firstfruits (bikkurim) to YHWH.

Ezekiel: Bikkurim without Shavuot

The book of Ezekiel includes a festival calendar that, strikingly, does not include Shavuot at all (45:21–25).^[12] Ezekiel does, however, mention a firstfruits offering—a full chapter before the festival legislation:

^{יחזקאל מד:ל} וְרֵאשִׁית כָּל בִּכּוּרֵי כֹל וְכָל תְּרוּמַת כֹּל מִכֹּל תְּרוּמוֹתֵיכֶם לַכֹּהֲנִים יִהְיֶה וְרֵאשִׁית עֲרִסוֹתֵיכֶם תִּתְּנוּ לַכֹּהֵן לְהָנִיחַ בְּרָכָה אֶל בֵּיתֶךָ.

^{Ezek 44:30} The first of all the first fruits of all kinds, and every offering of all kinds from all your offerings, shall belong to the priests; you shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, in order that a blessing may rest on your house.

Philo: The Basket, a Non-Calendrical Festival

Philo of Alexandria (c. 25 B.C.E. – 50 C.E.) was a Jewish philosopher best known for his allegorical interpretation of the Bible.[13] Though he lived and wrote while the Second temple was standing, he did not live in Judea, so his accounts of temple practice are not necessarily reliable. However, his writings do indicate that Shavuot and firstfruits were not inherently associated in the Second Temple period.

Philo’s On the Special Laws, intended to explain and defend Jewish practice to a non-Jewish audience, includes extensive explications of the festivals. He includes Shavuot among the biblical calendrical festivals (Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur).^[14] Philo then describes another event:

^{On the Special Laws 2.215} But besides these we have what is not a feast, but is a general ceremony of a festive character called the Basket (κάρταλον), a name which describes what takes place.^[15]

As he goes on to explain, farmers and those with landed estates fill baskets with every kind of fruit that they harvest, and they bring them to the temple as an offering.^[16] The ceremony concludes with a recitation of a hymn that paraphrases Deuteronomy 26:5–10.^[17] The name of the festival likewise echoes Deuteronomy 26:2, which refers to firstfruits being placed in a basket (טֶנֶא in Hebrew, κάρταλλον in LXX). Philo explains, quite reasonably, why the firstfruits cannot all be offered on a particular day: different crops ripen at different times, and these times can even vary from place to place:

^{On the Special Laws 2.220–221} This hymn is used continually by a succession of worshippers from early summer to late autumn, through the two seasons which constitute a complete half of the year. For the whole population cannot in a body bring the fruits of the season at a fixed time, but must do so at different times, and this may even be the case with the same persons coming from the same places.

For since some of the fruits ripen more quickly than others, both because of the difference of the situation which may be warmer or colder, and for a multitude of other reasons, naturally the time when this sample of the fruits is due cannot be exactly defined or limited, but extends over a very considerable period.^[18]

The Temple Scroll: Multiple Days of Firstfruits

Found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, the Temple Scroll consists of a rewriting of many of the Torah’s laws (especially from Deuteronomy) and includes practices unknown from any other source. It resolves the problem raised by Philo in a unique way: by mandating different firstfruits festivals for different crops, beginning with the offering of leavened loaves of new grain (found in Lev 23):[19]

וספרתה [לכם] ש֗ב֗ע֗ ש֗ב֗ת֗ות תמימות מיום הביאכמה את העומר [התנופה תס]פורו עד ממוחרת השבת השביעית תספורו [חמשים] יום. והביאותמה מנחה חדשה לי־הוה ממושבותיכמה [חלות] ל֗ח֗ם חמץ חדש בכורים לי־הוה לחם חטים....

^{Temple Scroll (11Q19), col. 18:10–14} You shall count off [for yourselves] seven complete Sabbaths, from the day on which you fetch the sheaf [of the wave offering you shall c]ount until the day after the seventh Sabbath, you shall count off [fifty] days. And you shall fetch a new grain offering to YHWH from your villages, [loaves of] new leavened bread, first fruits for YHWH: wheaten bread…

ואחר [יאכלו כול] [הע]ם לחם חדש אביבות ומלילות, והיה היוֹ[ם הזה להמה] [לזכרון חוקות עו]לם לדורותם כול֗ מלאכת עב֗וֹ[דה לוא] [יעשו בו חג] ש֗בועות֗ הוא וחג בכורים לזכרון לעול֗[ם].

^{Col. 19:7–9} Afterward, [all the peo]ple [will eat] new bread, ears of grain and soft grain, and this da[y] will be [for them an ete]rnal [memorial] for their generations. They shall do no men[ial] work, [for] it is [a festival of w]eeks and a festival of the firstfruits for etern[al] memorial.[20]

An offering of new wine follows seven weeks later, and an offering of new oil seven weeks after the wine.^[21] This legislation accords approximately with the agricultural cycle in the land of Israel: wheat was harvested around May, grapes in June and July, other summer fruit in late July to late August, and olives late August to late October. Notably, the Temple Scroll is the first source to refer to Shavuot as chag bikkurim, a festival of firstfruits.

The Mishnah: Shavuot as the Start of the Firstfruits Season

Drawing on the reference to “the first fruits of your work” (bikkurei maʿasekha, Exod 23:16) in its law concerning the Festival of the Harvest, the Mishnah determines that Shavuot is the earliest point at which the firstfruits may be brought:

^{משנה בכורים א:ג} אֵין מְבִיאִין בִּכּוּרִים קֹדֶם לָעֲצֶרֶת. אַנְשֵׁי הַר צְבוֹעִים הֵבִיאוּ בִכּוּרֵיהֶם קֹדֶם לָעֲצֶרֶת, וְלֹא קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם, מִפְּנֵי הַכָּתוּב שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה: וְחַג הַקָּצִיר בִּכּוּרֵי מַעֲשֶׂיךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע בַּשָּׂדֶה:

^{m. Bikkurim 1:3} Firstfruits are not to be brought before Atzeret (Shavuot). The people from Mt. Zevoim brought firstfruits prior to Atseret, but they did not accept from them, for it is written in the Torah: “the Festival of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field” (Exod 23:16).^[22]

The Mishnah, however, does not restrict the firstfruits ritual to Shavuot itself.

Chag Habikkurim: Old Wine in New Casks

While the idea that the Torah was given on Shavuot may have precedence in Second Temple-era texts,^[23] it is not surprising that it became the dominant aspect of Shavuot when a majority of Jews lived in the diaspora. Disconnected from the agricultural cycle of the land of Israel, they were able to engage with the holiday through the practice of Torah study.

With the modern Zionist project of rebuilding a Jewish presence in the land, it made sense to reemphasize the agricultural aspect of the holiday. But like the transformation of Shavuot into zman matan toratenu, its transformation into chag habikkurim was perhaps less a return to the past than the construction of a new model on the basis of textual connections—a process more midrashic than historical.