Thus under King Esarhaddon I returned to my home, and my wife Anna and my son Tobiah were restored to me. Then on our festival of Pentecost, the feast of Weeks, a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat. The table was set for me, and when many different dishes were placed before me, I said to my son Tobiah: "My son, go out and try to find a poor man from among our kinsmen exiled here in Nineveh. If he is a sincere worshiper of God, bring him back with you, so that he can share this meal with me. Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back." (Tobit 2:1-2)

The fiftieth day after Passover is still celebrated as Shavuot. It is a festival of first fruits, especially barley and wheat. In Leviticus instructions are given that "two loaves of bread made of two tenths of an epha of fine flour and baked with leaven" be presented at the Temple.

As the first fruits are presented to the priest, the man making the sacrifice is to say, "'I told God that I came into the land that God swore to our ancestors to give us." In this way the story of Exodus is recalled and the divine promise affirmed.

Shavuot was an agricultural festival centered at the Jerusalem temple. Tobit is exiled far from the Temple. He is an urban trader, not a farmer. It is a festival focused on inheriting a promised land that has now been lost.

But Tobit and his family work to remember - and renew - the sacred calendar. Deuteronomy instructs that during Shavuot "You shall rejoice in all the good that God has given you and to your house, you and the Levite and the stranger that is in the midst of you."

To the original readers of the story Tobit sending his son out to find a stranger would not be a spontaneous act, but an example of knowing the law and spiritual discipline. The essence of the liturgy is to give thanks by sharing whatever we have with others.

Above is a medieval illumination showing the Shavuot procession to the Jerusalem Temple.