ABSTRACT
The second of the three Pilgrim Feasts is the Feast of Weeks. It is usually known as Pentecost, a word derived from the Greek, and signifying the "fiftieth day." Pentecost, like Passover, is an historic as well as an agricultural Feast. The Day of First-Fruits, it is also the Season of the Giving of the Law. In Biblical times the Feast was exclusively agricultural in character. The post-Biblical teachers used the opportunity afforded them, and extended the significance of the Feast of Pentecost by making it a memorial of the Sinaitic Revelation. The religious purpose served by the command ordaining the offering of first-fruits is easily perceived. On Pentecost the synagogues, in accordance with old usage, are decorated with flowers. This graceful custom reflects perhaps both aspects of the Feast. The flowers, like the first-fruits, are specimens of the wealth and the beauty with which the Divine Hand has filled the natural world.
