Communities around the world uphold the custom at Shavuos time to adorn their shuls with greenery, in an echo of Mount Sinai’s blooming flowers at the giving of the Torah. What are the reasons underlying this minhag? And why do so many shuls not observe it? An exploration of the halachic underpinnings to this time-honored practice.,Festooning with Foliage: Minhag Yisrael or Chukos Hagoyim?,Communities around the world uphold the custom at Shavuos time to adorn their shuls with greenery. What are the reasons underlying this minhag? And why do so many shuls not observe it? An exploration of the halachic underpinnings to this time-honored pract
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Other shuls receive some adornment but to a far lesser extent with only flowers and grasses. And then there are shuls where no special Shavuos decorating is done at all. There is quite a varied spectrum of minhagim with each kehillah following its own traditions. We will explore the main prevailing minhagim in Klal Yisrael along with their halachic background.
The Rema in Hilchos Shavuos (Orach Chayim 494:3) writes: “V’nohagin lishtoach asavim b’Shavuos b’veis haknesses v’habatim zeicher l’simchas Matan Torah [The custom is to spread grass(es) on Shavuos in the shuls and in houses as a remembrance to the joy of Matan Torah].” This custom is cited as the practice of several early Ashkenazic authorities including the Maharil and Terumas Hadeshen as well as the kehillah of Worms.
There are several rationales given to explain the connection between adornment of a shul and Matan Torah:
1. The Levush explains that the pasuk states (Shemos 19:8) that the cattle and sheep were prohibited to graze in the area at the time of Matan Torah implying that Har Sinai was surrounded by grass and thus as a zeicher l’Matan Torah we replicate that setting.
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