growing up, i always dreaded shavuot. until i was eighteen i had a life-threatening dairy allergy and i had to be hypercautious about cross-contamination. normally, this was manageable. but on shavuot? everything was basically always covered in a thin film of cheese.

what was particularly hard was the assumption that the "cheesecake" part of the holiday was universally fun, when it meant i basically couldn't eat outside my house for those days. torah was hard, but cheesecake was accessible, was the message.

so if you're finding the food focus of shavuot, especially this year, difficult, or painful, or alienating, i see you and i'm here for you. it turns out that food is hard, but torah is for everyone. it's for you even if you think it isn't. that's what shavuot is really about.