Shavuot 101

בס''ד

This post was written for the Schusterman Foundation's REALITY Network. 

Shavuot is one of those Jewish holidays that got lost.

In America, for most of the last century, celebrations of Jewish holidays have revolved around children. Until recently, most parents wouldn’t go to a synagogue for holidays unless their kids had some program. So, almost without exception, the popular Jewish holidays fall within the school year. But Shavuot typically falls in late May or early June – just after school lets out. Unless you’re real hardcore, it’s not a holiday of which you’ve heard.

Which is a shame. It’s a good one; you don’t even have to eat matzah.

Shavuot’s meaning is straightforward.* It’s the day on which God gave us the Torah: 1.3 million people, all standing around a not particularly impressive mountain called Sinai, and the voice of the Divine came out of thunder and lightning, speaking the Ten Commandments. Even in our CGI world, the spectacle would have been impressive.

We were already a people; we had suffered together in Egypt; we were redeemed together at the first Passover; we knew each other in joy and in pain. But on that day, we became a people with a purpose: “I, God, have called you in justice; I have grabbed you by the hand; I created you, and set you to be a people of covenant, a light to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:6) From that day, we have held the responsibility to carry and live by a book in which is written the eternal message of justice and compassion.

Jews are not alone in this. Everyone has an obligation to the right and the good. But its particular expression through the Torah – that is our birthright and our responsibility.

The giving of the Torah happened first thing in the morning. In testament to the goofiness of human nature, the Jews overslept and almost missed the whole thing. The midrash** teaches that God showed up to give the Torah, and Moses had to wake up the whole camp. ***

To make up for that embarrassing oversight (it’s a lot worse than missing that 8am meeting with your boss), many Jews have taken on what is now the practice that defines Shavuot. On the evening of the first night of the holiday, we spend all night studying Torah ‘til the sun rises in the east. And in that moment we will be awake, ready to hear God’s voice, and receive wisdom.

Then we’ll pass out for the better part of the day.

People will sometimes respond to this unusual practice by commenting that it’s very nice that the party animals (of a strange sort) want to stay up all night, but that they prefer to be tucked comfortably in bed, thank you. However, there is magic in those midnight hours. Before the invention of modern lighting, people would regularly wake at midnight for study and reflection.**** Maimonides, a medieval Spanish philosopher and physician, teaches that a person acquires most of her wisdom at night. In the wee hours of the morning, the secret self emerges. Hidden truths manifest. Revelation becomes possible.

If you can manage it, this Tuesday night, May 14^th, find your way to a tikkun – that’s what we call this holy all-nighter. But even if you can’t make it this time, know that the experience of engaging Torah study is radically egalitarian. Everyone is capable; everyone is welcome. Teachers help a lot, but they’re not required. All this kind of study requires is a good book (Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire would be my personal recommendation), perhaps a likeminded friend or two, and the willingness to open up to what’s on the page. Something essential just might be waiting for you, ready to be revealed.

Shavuot Opportunities Around DC:

—EntryPoint DC and DC Beit Midrash, 6:30PM

—DCJCC 1529 16th St., NW

—Tikkun Leil Shavuot with Moishe House MoCo and Congregation Beth El Montgomery County 7:00PM

—Congregation Beth El, 8215 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda

—Shavuot with Rosh Pina, 7:45PM

—The Flats at Dupont Circle,

—Four Corners Shavuot @ Adas Israel, 8:00PM

—2850 Quebec Street, NW

—Kesher Israel Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, 8:00PM,

Tiffereth Israel/Ohev Shalom 9:30PM

—2801 N St., NW

*As much as anything in Judaism is straightforward. Which isn’t much.

** A kind of commentary on the Torah, dating back ~2000 years. Considered canonical, and near importance to the Torah itself

***Shir haShirim Rabbah 1:57

**** Check out a really fascinating book, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, by A. Roger Ekirch

The Sweet Truth

בס''ד

Behar-Behukotai

23 Iyyar, 5773

May 3^rd, 2013

38^th Day of the Omer

A person experiences something extraordinary: fights in the war, saw the peace treaty signed, heard Hendrix play that electric National Anthem. When she returns to the rest of us, we have one inevitable question: what was it like to be there?

Shavuot is around the corner. Its meaning is straightforward – on Shavuot, God gave us the Torah.

Our Rabbis were gripped with the same question that seizes us: what was it like? What was it like to hear God’s voice? How did the sky and the mountain look? How did it happen? Tell us what it was like.

And what some of them said was, “when we heard God’s voice speak the first word of the first commandment, God’s voice was too much to bear, and we died.”

Weren’t expecting that one, were you?

The midrash* teaches that God spoke the “I” of “I am the Lord your God,” and the souls of Bnei Yisrael left their bodies. The Torah, embodied, comes back to God, and says, “Master of the World, I exist, I live! You exist, You live! Yet you have sent me to the dead!!!”

And the Blessed, Holy One does two things: revives all the Israelites, and – here’s the kicker – sweetens God’s own voice so that each individual can stand it.

For those of you midrash nuts out there (legions, I’m sure), this is why the verse in Psalm 29 (before Lekha Dodi on Shabbat) says, “kol HaShem bakoah” – “God spoke in strength,” – according to the listeners’ strength – and not with God’s strength (koho). God spoke to every individual differently, such that everyone had the strength to hear the Divine. God sweetens the Truth.

As a person who, by temperament, is full of fire, I need this lesson. Some of you may feel the same. Every person holds a small piece of the Divine truth. I know because I see those truths splashed all over Facebook. But the trick is to speak the sweet truth to others. Through my work with alcoholics, I’ve learned this gem: before you speak, ask yourself – is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? Then open your mouth.

The point is not to avoid difficult truths; Torah speaks both to who we are and to who we could be. The point is that spoken truth should point towards sweetness and healing, not humiliation and destruction. Torah’s sweet truth gives people back their lives.

“God’s Torah is pure; it revives the soul.”

Psalm 19

*Shir haShirim Rabbah 6:3

VOTE HERE