On the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Sivan, av harachamim is said [before Mussaf].[325]

On the Shabbos when Parshas Bechukosai is read, the reader makes the blessings over the third portion without being called to the Torah.[326]

No Tachanun is said [from the Minchah preceding Rosh Chodesh] up to and including the twelfth of Sivan.[327]

The Rebbe Rashab did not look favorably on the practice of taking a haircut [at the conclusion of the period of the Omer] during the Three Days of Preparation (Shloshes Yemei Hagbalah) before Shavuos, i.e., before the eve of Shavuos.[328]

It was the custom in Lubavitch to stay awake throughout the [first] night of Shavuos.[329]

During the public reading of the Ten Commandments [Aseres HaDibros; i.e., Shmos 20:2-14], the congregation stands and faces the Sefer Torah.[330]

The hymn entitled Akdamus is not said.[331]

Since Shavuos falls not on a named date, but on the fiftieth day of the Omer which each individual is obliged to count independently, a person who gains or loses a day by crossing the international dateline during Sefirah has the problem of when to celebrate Shavuos.[332]

   

Notes:

325. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 56; [Siddur, p. 191. This weekly prayer, recalling those martyred over the centuries in Sanctification of the Divine Name (al Kiddush HaShem), is ordinarily omitted on Shabbos Mevarchim because of the semi-festive nature of the day. On this occasion, however, it is retained, because 20 Sivan was the date of the massive pogrom against the thousands in the city of Nemirov who resisted enforced baptism. It was this pogrom that launched the widespread Ukrainian bloodbath which is known as the Chmielnicki Massacres, or, in Hebrew, as gezeiras tach vetat ("the edicts of 1648 and 1649")].

326. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, loc. cit.

327. (Back to text) Siddur, p. 71; HaYom Yom, p. 58. See the first paragraph (p. 33, above) of the section on The Conclusion of Shacharis.

328. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 59.

329. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 47. The following appears in sec. 7 of a sichah [of the Rebbe Rashab] of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, 5652, that was published in Sefer HaSichos, Toras Shalom (Kehot, N.Y., 1983), p. 3: "I have a manuscript of the Mitteler Rebbe in which he promises that whoever stays awake throughout the night of Shavuos will be found worthy of being granted the crown of the Torah. And the pronouncements of the Mitteler Rebbe are authoritative!" (Lit., "And the Mitteler Rebbe was a posek!")

     And with these words the Rebbe Rashab rose to his feet and said: "Jews everywhere, listen! Throughout the night of Shavuos one should stay awake!"

330. (Back to text) HaYom Yom, p. 59.

331. (Back to text) Ibid.; [Siddur, p. 400].

332. (Back to text) Explained at length in a sichah of Parshas Emor in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. III, [p. 995ff.], where the Rebbe Shlita expresses his view that in such a case Shavuos should be observed on the fiftieth day as counted by each individual. [See also Vol. VII, pp. 285, 291, 294.]