I Made It Through the Rain….No! Through An All Nighter: Tamara Recounts Shavuot
The night was young and I was already exhausted. My days start early, needless to say, I look forward to relaxing weekends. For some reason though, I never caught up on my sleep last weekend which makes this small feat even bigger.
This year, my husband and I managed to be awake for the ENTIRE (unless you count my semi-snooze in the middle of a session) Tikkun Leyl Shavuot at our synagogue. That’s correct! We arrived at 7:15pm, davened a quick Maariv, had a community dairy dinner with other young adults at our shul, which included bagels and cream cheese, lox, blintzes, soup, salad, cheesecake, and I’m sure other things that I don’t recall.
Being that this was the first time I stayed up for the Tikkun, I thought I’d share why, as a Jew by birth, this was significant. As Jews, we all connect to our Judaism in different and unique ways. My husband for example connects very much academically. He is a book monger. He devours, chews, treasures his Jewish academic books. I on the other hand connect by doing. That is not to say that Avi doesn’t connect by doing or that I don’t treasure books. But it is clear in our home the ways we connect differently. This is an important thing to acknowledge because if I can understand my connection to Judaism, I can nurture it and I can force myself to step outside my usual comfort zones to experience new things. The Tikkun was a great chance for me to connect in a different way than I usually do.
I don’t do Jewish study groups and classes so much; nor do I long for hours of lectures and hundreds of pages of text to read. Me? I love a Jewish woman’s circle where I do crafts, or a hike with a group of Jews. I love beautiful Judaica around my home and slowly integrating ritual prayers into my life. For me, being Jewish is what I do in my day to day life. I actually do notice “Jewishness” about me and I love that. The Tikkun for Shavuot was different for me. This was a new way to connect. This was a challenge which made it fun. There is something special about being up all night and sharing it with like minded individuals. As the night went on, and people left little by little, it was the remaining people who I would connect with better. I was happy to find that the small circle of friends that I’ve slowly built since I returned to L.A. were still there at 5:15am.
For those of you who are interested in the pattern of the evening, there was a learning session, 15 minutes snack time (yes they kept us going on lots of dairy and sugar), more learning, more snacks, more learning, more snacks…oh and coffee and coke too! I thought I’d include the program so those of you who didn’t have something like this this year can take away ideas for your own communities next year 
Overall I found this to be quite the powerful experience. First, I loved sharing this with my husband. Second, I really enjoyed learning and discussing. My only complaint? Exhaustion. When we got home we both got in pajamas at about 6 am, and went to sleep until about 12:30. It has taken us both a couple of days to get our mojo back.
The Program (bold items are the sessions I attended)
9:15-10:45 The evening of learning began with a Plenary session moderated by Rabbi Joel Rembaum. The guest speakers/rabbis were Rabbi Sharon Brous (IKAR), Dan Greyber (Camp Ramah), and Perry Netter (TBA). The theme of the entire evening was the power of speech and words. This plenary was called, “Can we Talk?? - the Deterioration of Public Discourse”.
Snacks: Cheese, crackers, fruit
11pm-12:15 am
- “Truth and Diversity: Strategies to Remain Pluralist without Losing Our Moorings” (Rabbi Steve Greenberg),
- “Eros and THanatos in the Bet Midrash: the Complicated Relationship of Rabbi Yohanoan and Resh Lakish” (Rabbi Gail Labovitz),
- “Yo took gifts for humanity:Moses Dangerous Ascent to Heaven” (Dr. Ra’anan Bustan),
- “An Exploration of Midrashic Sources on the Power of Words that Hurt” (Rabbi Rembaum),”
- You Want Us to Do What? Midrash and Matan Torah” (Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg)
Snacks: Cheescake, Blintzes, Yoga
12:30-1:30
- “How Do We Know What G-d Said at Sinai?” (Rabbi Avi Havivi),
- “The Challenge of Rebuke-How to Have the Conversation and Still Love your Neighbor” (Rabbi Susan Leider),
- “Spritual Eating: Your Body, Soul, and the Earth” (Rabbi Scott Perlo and Jamie Rappaport),
- “Thus Esasu Despised his Birthright” (Ms. Julie Weiss),
Snacks: Chocolate!
1:45-2:45
- “Saving G-d in Ten Easy Steps”,
- “Argumentation for the Sake of Heaven” (Ms. Candice Levy),
- “The Impact of Gender Studies on Reading Talmud” (Rabbi Mitch Malkus)
Snacks: Curdite, Dips, Cookies
3:00-4:00
- “They used to call me a rabbi: A Misunderstanding Between Reish Lakish and Rebbi Yochanan” (Uri Allen , Justin Goldstein),
- “Gneivat Da’at-Misleading Someone by Speech” (Rabbi Ronnie Cohen), “
- Hilkhot Tzedaka-The Laws of Giving” (Rabbi Scott Perlo)
4:15-5:15
- Education and Speaking with G-d: Does the Halakhah Hinder Us?” (Rabbi Aaron Alexander),
- “How G-d Learns the Hard Way: Biblical Sources on G-d’s Response to Human Rebelliousness” (Rabbi Rembaum)
Yes I agree it was a pretty awesome experience! Considering this was my first real kick at the Shavuot can, I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better run program. One of the things I found most amazing is that there must have been at least 300 people there at the beginning of the evening. I didn’t expect even half of that many to show up, so it was a total surprise to me. I was also really impressed by the amount of options one could choose from. For most of the night there were at least three options to choose from and even towards the end, there was never less than two.
I don’t have much to compare this event to but as far as I can tell, I don’t think things could have been done much better. I loved the combination of lecture and chavruta study.
Personally I was really impressed with Rabbi Greenberg’s presentation. I can’t say that, I’m all that surprised that Beth Am, would invite an Orthodox rabbi but still it was pretty cool. Rabbi Greenberg is well-known, being one of (if not) the only openly gay Orthodox rabbis around. I thought he did an excellent job looking at pluralism and difference. However, probably the most personally valuable workshop was the one on giving rebuke led by our very own Rabbi Leider. I actually learned a couple of things and was inspired enough to take on improving my communication/feedback skills as a goal for the rest of this year.
Anyhow, what can I say it was a terrific evening, even if it wiped me out for a couple of days afterwards.