Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe will never forget the sight: “a great stretch of Jews,” walking en masse down California Street, every one of them discussing Torah. It was, he says, “a great moment.”
That was a year ago during the first Traveling Shavuot, which celebrated the holiday with a mobile study session that wended its way from synagogue to synagogue in San Francisco’s Richmond District.
Jaffe is looking forward to the second annual shul crawl Tuesday, May 18. It’s one of several Shavuot all-nighters taking place around the Bay Area.
Like last year, the 2010 Traveling Shavuot will start with an early evening vegetarian kosher family dinner at Congregation Sherith Israel. From
there, the group will walk to the
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Congregation Emanu-El and Congregation Beth Sholom to participate in the tikkun leyl Shavuot, or all-night community Torah study.
“Everyone enjoyed the format last year, the chance to visit each institution and walk on the way,” says organizer Jaffe, a rabbi at Emanu-El. “The big push this year was to make it more interdenominational.”
In addition to the Reform and Conservative rabbis who participated last year, the upcoming edition will include Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi of Congregation Chevra Thilim and Reconstructionist Rabbi Rosalind Glazer of Congregation Beth Israel– Judea. Also in the lineup: Rabbi Micah Hyman of Beth Sholom; Rabbis Sydney Mintz and Peretz Wolf-Prusan of Emanu-El; Rabbis Julie Saxe-Taller and Larry Raphael of Sherith Israel; and Professor Aaron Hahn Tapper.
Their workshop/lecture topics will run the gamut from the Book of Ruth and the crisis in Darfur to Alexander the Great and Carl Jung.
“I let each teacher teach what they’re passionate about,” says Jaffe, who may not attend this year because he and his wife are expecting a baby any day. “I like learning as much as I can from teachers from other synagogues.”
Zarchi is happy to participate, especially because the event brings together Jews of every stripe. “While we can’t agree on every issue,” the Orthodox rabbi says, “nevertheless the one thing that does unite all Jews around the world is we have one Torah.”
To illustrate the point, Zarchi notes that the Torah refers to the Israelites in first-person singular while they camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.
“Why does the Bible refer to it as ‘He camped at the mountain?” asks the rabbi. Because “at that point they were one person, with one heart, waiting for the Torah.”
Across the water, the tikkun leyl Shavuot at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay will get under way at the same time. The event is in its 22nd year, and as always, Torah students and teachers will burn the midnight oil until dawn.
Coordinator Robin Braverman expects more community participation than ever. She has booked a record 57 scholars/teachers and 33 sponsors. She also hopes to top last year’s attendance of 600.
“This spreads the table before you,” she says. “You can walk into one room and study with someone with a black hat, then walk into another and do Jewish yoga. This event presents all that for free.”
Teachers include perennial favorites such as Rabbis Stu Kelman and Burt Jacobson and other local rabbis, as well as scholars such as Rabbi Hershel Yolles, Naomi Seidman and Deena Aranoff. Israeli Consul General Akiva Tor will teach a class on Jewish values and Israeli foreign policy.
Early evening children’s programming and child care will be provided for families, including an onsite kids’ sleepover to allow parents to study into the wee hours.
New this year is a concluding sunrise service and breakfast, held atop Mount Tamalpais in an event coordinated by Wilderness Torah. Hardy souls will depart the East Bay at 4:15 a.m. and head for the Marin hills.
“A group will take Aquarian Minyan’s Torah scroll,” Braverman says. “We’ll have a Shacharit service, and I will [chant] the Ten Commandments that morning. It’s the first time we’re doing anything like this.”
What is the appeal of a holiday that has Jews give up the comfort of a good night’s sleep for the sake of Torah study? Fans of tikkun leyl Shavuot would say the question answers itself.
“This [event] gives us a chance to redefine Shavuot,” says Jaffe. “There’s this great template of study in the evening, presenting a wonderful opportunity to create something dynamic.”
Adds Braverman: “Anyone who has experienced it cannot forget what it feels like to be in a room with so many Jews, each having different ways of practicing their Judaism. Yet we all come together. That’s why this event grows.”