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Shavuot 101 - A New Take
When I flew to Israel in 2003, I went on El-Al Airlines. They asked me a few security questions… which were a bit more complicated than the ones they ask for domestic flights (You know, when they ask “have your bags been in your possession at all times?” I mean – who says “no”?). In any case, they asked why I was going to Israel, so I explained I was entering my first year of rabbinical school. They then asked me to name the three festivals in the Jewish calendar (I suppose to prove I knew something about Judaism). I hesitated for a moment, then offered my semi-educated guess: Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Fortunately, I got it right.
For the record, I may have just committed some security breach by giving away the right answer. I guess El-Al Airlines will have to stay on its toes and come up with some new questions. Woops.
In any case, Passover is a holiday I knew a lot about. I knew something about Sukkot as well, because I had learned about it in Sunday School and friends of ours invited us to their sukkah [booth] for dinner every year. I probably knew the least about Shavuot though. I’m thinking my lack of knowledge had something to do with the fact that Shavuot falls after the last day of Religious School so they never got to it.
Pretty much all I knew was that Shavuot was when Jews celebrate God giving them the Torah. I’m pretty sure that God didn’t write the Torah. So, what could Shavuot mean to me?
Now that I’m slightly more educated (thank you Hebrew Union College), here’s what I know about Shavuot. We like to give things lots of names, so the holiday is also known as the Feast of Weeks or the Festival of the Covenant (and to further complicate matters, Shavuot is sometimes pronounced Shavuos). Essentially, it started as a way of marking the end of the barley harvest and involved making an offering to God. I don’t grow barley. So, what could Shavuot mean to me?
Eventually, Shavuot morphed and took on other meanings, as most holidays do. Without the Temple in Jerusalem and with less focus on agriculture, Jews needed new ways to say God was important to them. Based on the 19th chapter of the book of Exodus in the Torah, Jews decided it was possible that God gave the Torah to the Jews during Shavuot (since the text says both happen during the third month). So, hence the association with receiving the Torah on Shavuot.
It wasn’t just about receiving the Torah, though. It was also about the response. Our mythic ancestors in the Torah responded “we will do and we will listen/understand.” That’s why it’s called a covenant– it’s supposed to be a two way relationship between God and the Jews.
While traditional Jews understand this to mean that we will follow the Torah (i.e. God’s law, in their eyes), you’ve probably guessed by now that doesn’t work for me. But, what does work for me is the idea of having a holiday where we recognize the importance of a text in our lives.
Sure, I don’t believe the Torah was written by God. I don’t believe it was given on Mt. Sinai or that Moses had anything to do with it. Yet, I do believe the Torah is a fascinating text. And so I say “I will do and I will listen/understand.” I will do – meaning I will embrace this text as I receive it today, with all of the wonderful commentary that enhances it and all of the scientific knowledge that informs how I approach the text. And I will listen – taking in the words – seeking to understand them. What were the issues the authors of these texts were grappling with? What can we learn from this literature?
That’s my take on Shavuot. I won’t actually be observing it tonight (I’ll be in finance class instead – does that count?), but I guess I have marked it in some way by writing this blog. I even reread Exodus 19 in the process – trying to make sense of this text.
While many will be talking tonight about how Moses received the Torah from God on Sinai, I’ll be thinking (after finance class, of course) about my relationship with the Torah and other great literature today. My friend Jonathan pointed out that Shavuot is like Constitution Day. I like that idea. Constitution Day is about reflecting on the legacy of those who wrote the Constitution, and this Shavuot I’ll be thinking about the legacy of those who wrote the Bible.
If this has been too rambling for you, sorry, but I had to write more than Harry did. Since you got this far, let me give you three fun facts to impress your friends with:
1. Traditional Jews read the Book of Ruth on Shavuot.
2. Some people spend the whole night studying on Shavuot (if you want to be really impressive, it’s called Tikkun Leil Shavuot).
3. It’s a tradition to eat lots of dairy on the holiday.
Oh yeah, did I mention tonight is Shavuot? Since it’s a holiday that involves dairy products, calories don’t count. So have some ice cream and cheesecake (but not together, that would be gross!).
Hippies and Shavuot - A Guest Blog by Harry Chauss
You may have noticed I haven’t blogged lately. Well, I still haven’t. This blog is a guest entry from my good friend and giver of free-advice, Harry Chauss. If you like what follows, I wrote it. If you don’t, he wrote it.
In all seriousness, many thanks to Harry for writing this – and if any of you out there wants to write a guest blog, email me. And if you want to see what Harry looks like, the photo is from about 6 years ago.
Okay, enough from me. Here is the guest blog written by the oh-so-cool Harry Chauss…
When I was a kid, my house was filled with thousands of books. I never counted, but I’m pretty sure my older brother did. There were books for kids, books for grown-ups, books that told stories, and books that taught you how to do stuff. There were secular books, Jewish books, and I’m pretty sure there were even a few Christian books thrown in just for fun. There were dictionaries and two sets of encyclopedias. If one of the many kids in my family was bored, he or she was told either to go outside or read a book. So we did. Sometimes simultaneously. Kids reading outside are so cute, aren’t they? In the winter? In Minnesota?
There was one particular series of books to which I paid almost no attention. These were the First, Second, and Third Jewish Catalogs
Of course, the whole idea was that if one wanted to be Jewish, it might be a good idea to know how to do it by oneself. This was in the early 1970s, a time when some people were living on communes and things like that. People were growing their own organic food in community gardens. People were really empowered to do things themselves. I’m not sure why, but I think it had to do with Woodstock or something. I’ll ask around.
Jews had their own hippy movement. It was called the Chavurah movement. The idea was that young people thought that synagogues…well the polite way to put it would be that synagogues had little to offer young people. The truth was that they were sick of being judged for being hippies by all the old people at their synagogues and they were sick of having to just sit and watch services happen. They wanted to make it happen on their own, so they did. They stated groups called chavurot, which comes from the Hebrew word for “friend,” or possibly “comrade,” if one looks in an old enough dictionary.
These groups of friends did stuff. Jewish stuff. Together. They created their own services. They created their own curricula for teaching their kids about Judaism. They probably planted community gardens. Nowadays there are still some chavurot, but a lot of them have been subsumed into larger synagogue movements. Except they weren’t, exactly.
Anyway, Shavuot is coming up. It’s a holiday. Rabbi Baum can tell you about it. It involves staying up all night and eating cheesecake. It’s a good one.
Once, I was teaching a class for high school students who worked as teaching assistants at congregational supplementary schools. We called it “Sunday School” when I was a kid. At any rate, the curriculum called for the kids to make a lesson plan about a Jewish holiday. One of the kids chose Shavuot. His lesson plan included all the facts about Shavuot: Ten Commandments, Sinai, Moses, etc. Then his plan called for teaching his students to juggle.
“Why are you teaching the kids to juggle?” I asked. He pointed out a passage in a book he’d read. It said that during the staying up all night part of the holiday, kabbalists [Jewish mystics] used to teach each other “special skills.” “Yeah, kabbalistic skills,” I said.
“Well, I don’t know any kabbalistic skills,” he said, “I know how to juggle—it’s my special skill.”
So here’s the point. Yes, way down here. It’s that that kid was right. On a whole bunch of levels. First, he gave the kids in his class a fun memory. The wacky teenager taught them to juggle. They probably still associate juggling with Shavuot. I hope they do. Second, he made Judaism his own, but not blindly and “just ‘cause.” Third, he did something. Just like those chavurah hippies. He got bored, learned something and acted on it, in his own way.
There is a tradition that all Jews were at Sinai on that first Shavuot when Moses delivered the Ten Commandments. I like it. It makes us all responsible for our own Jewish life and experience. There’s no backing out, saying “It’s what my ancestors got, not me.” If it doesn’t work for you, be a hippy and make something for yourself. But, really, patchouli oil is optional.
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-26
- @lawmichelp You got it! It was one of those things like when you ask 2 rabbis and get 3 answers. in reply to lawmichelp #
- @warrenss Great article! Thanks! On Passover, I asked all to take out blackberries & smart phones and start tweeting. They were shocked! in reply to warrenss #
- RT @warrenss: @rabbibaum Hi Laura, Have you seen this article in Time about twittering in church? What do you think? http://bit.ly/D3Czn #
- After spending much time and making a great mess taking the skin off of halibut, I will NEVER forget to ask the fish guy to do it in future. #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-25
- @hodenday @thewanderingjew @EllieRachel @toastychew @lawmichelp @krmontan @tmana Thanks for all the wine info . You guys rock! in reply to hodenday #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-24
- Does anyone know how long a bottle of opened white wine with a screw top lasts in the fridge? #
- RT @BillComar Congratulations to Scott Googins and Xavier Baseball! A-10 Champions! #
- @shortjewish Excellent point! in reply to shortjewish #
- @dschwartz2 True that! in reply to dschwartz2 #
- One Bar Mitzvah down. Two weddings to go. And 200 pages of reading. And some writing. Long weekend, redefined. #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-23
- Lebron is the king! Crazy! #
- @davekerpen Thanks and #ShabbatShalom to you as well! in reply to davekerpen #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-22
- thinks that imitation really can be the highest form of flattery. #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-21
- @aglockner Oy vay! in reply to aglockner #
- @CGinChicago It’s great to see you here! Going to start tweeting more often? in reply to CGinChicago #
- @aglockner @gglockner Uh oh - how bad was the ketubah error? Glad things seem to have worked out despite it. #
- RT @randomdeanna @sonalbee Kuwaiti women used technology (textin beneath burkas)2 win right 2 vote, &4 parliamentary seats http://is.gd/BMOP #
- just filled out a ketubah. always makes me nervous. could be a very expensive mistake. success (i think). #
- RT @pblackshaw: “I pledge allegiance to participation in social media” http://tinyurl.com/qqvztm #
- RT @WomenWhoTech: Did you catch this article? Are Baby Boomers Killing Facebook and Twitter? Nice title hugh? http://bit.ly/9UZXm #
- @davekerpen Yup, we used @ustreamtv to videostream high holiday services and it was a great tool. in reply to davekerpen #
- @theKbuzz That was pretty cool (even though I didn’t win anything!) in reply to theKbuzz #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-20
- @danknapp76 Cool - thanks for the tip - I am now following @gijp in reply to danknapp76 #
- @danknapp76 Not yet… Let me know if you learn anything good from them though. in reply to danknapp76 #
- writing grants & dialing for dollars for OurJewishCommunity.org. Know anyone who might want to help us blend liberal Judaism and technology? #
- @Joann_Betschart Thanks so much for the #mondaymensch in reply to Joann_Betschart #
Twitter Updates for 2009-05-19
- @gavrielelijah Yup. Thanks for checking! #
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- — Passover page is up!
- — Baum's Blog on Chelsea Clinton and a Possible Jewish Wedding
- — Join us for Streaming Shabbat 6 PM ET Friday
- — Barr's Banter on International Women's Day