This Sunday night through Tuesday, we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot–the moment when B’nei Yisrael stood at Har Sinai and received the Torah.

On Shavuot, it’s now become traditional to decorate our homes and synagogues with flowers and greenery. A beautiful midrash teaches that as the people waited at the foot of the mountain, Har Sinai suddenly burst into bloom, covered in flowers in anticipation of the receiving of the Torah. The mountain, usually barren and dry, suddenly burst into bloom.

The idea is that the flowering was out of excitement, and blossoms opened as an act of trust and faith. A flower opens not because it’s guaranteed sunlight or rain, but because it believes in the promise of life. In the same way, as we stood at Sinai, we opened ourselves, with trust and vulnerability, to receive the Torah.

Just as a flower is born from the meeting of seed and sunlight, Torah is born from the meeting of heaven and earth, and God and the Jewish people. And just as flowers lead to fruit through the loving work of bees, the Torah defines who we are and what we are committed to, and bears fruit when we live it out in our daily lives.

So on Shavuot, our flowers aren’t just decorations. They’re reminders of our trust, our beauty, and our blossoming partnership with Hashem and each other—a relationship that continues to bear fruit in every generation.