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& #39;t eat outside my house for those days. torah was hard, but cheesecake was accessible, was the message.

so if you& #39;re finding the food focus of shavuot, especially this year, difficult, or painful, or alienating, i see you and i& #39;m here for you. it turns out that food is hard, but torah is for everyone. it& #39;s for you even if you think it isn& #39;t. that& #39;s what shavuot is really about.