Jewish Holidays

On the first day of creation, Hashem created light. “Hashem called the light day …” (Bereishit 1:4). The midrash (Rabba 3:8) understands that this refers to the actions of the righteous. “… and He called the darkness night” – this refers to the actions of the wicked. “… day one” – this refers to the one special day that Hashem gave – namely, Yom Kippur.

Prior to Shavuos in previous years, I published articles on the topics of producing and eating dairy bread, how to make kosher cheese, whether Shavuos is preceded by Parshas Bamidbar or Parshas Naso, and about the laws of making pareve foods. All of these articles can be accessed on RabbiKaganoff.com This year, I decided to distribute an article by my close friend, Rabbi Avraham Rosenthal, on the Ashkenazic custom of reciting Akdamus on Shavuos.