Q 01/05

Historians have suggested the spread of which drink through the Ottoman Empire made all-night Shavuot study popular?

A) Black tea

B) Sherbet

C) Coffee

D) Cocoa

Answer · why

C) Coffee

Coffee gave kabbalists and their followers a way to stay alert until sunrise, when the night of Torah study gives way to morning prayers.

Q 02/05

Which dessert is a signature Shavuot dish in Ashkenazi Jewish homes, often served at the festival's daytime meal?

A) Cheesecake

B) Honey cake

C) Rugelach

D) Macaroons

Answer · why

A) Cheesecake

Cheesecake leads a dairy menu with several explanations, one being that the Israelites, newly bound by kosher slaughter laws, had no meat ready to eat...

Q 03/05

A midrash says all-night Shavuot study makes up for the Israelites doing what on the morning the Torah was given?

A) Worshipping idols

B) Oversleeping

C) Quarrelling

D) Complaining

Answer · why

B) Oversleeping

Oversleeping is the charge: the Israelites turned in early to be rested for the great day and had to be woken, with God already waiting on the mountai...

Q 04/05

Besides crops and machinery, what do many Israeli kibbutzim show off to the community at Shavuot harvest festivals?

A) Newly married couples

B) New army recruits

C) School graduates

D) The year's babies

Answer · why

D) The year's babies

The year's babies are paraded with the produce, because secular kibbutzim recast Shavuot as a celebration of everything the community achieved in twel...

Q 05/05

Shavuot falls 50 days after Passover begins; the festival's Hebrew name is the plural of the word for what?

A) Months

B) Weeks

C) Sabbaths

D) Harvests

Answer · why

B) Weeks

Weeks is the meaning, because the Torah gives the festival no calendar date, only an instruction to mark off seven of them after Passover.