Cool Things I Learned This Shavuot!

What does a lobster have to do with Jewish education? Read to find out.

Time for another post-Shavuot roundup!

This week was Shavuot (my fav Jewish holiday!), which commemorates the Jews receiving the Torah from G-d at Mount Sinai. It’s also when we stay up all night to learn and eat cheesecake!

This was my fourth year celebrating it. The past two years I’ve gone to Manhattan’s JCC and have learned about interesting topics ranging from cemetery measuring to martyrdom in Judaism (read my JCC roundups here and here).

It’s fun and chaotic (who doesn’t love an evening that starts with chocolate-covered espresso beans?), but I was looking for something different this year. That’s why I celebrated in Brooklyn, where educators and rabbis from a bunch of shuls across the borough come together to teach classes. Here’s some cool things I learned.

1. The Golem reminds us to do something

In “The Golem” by I.L. Peretz, the Jews of Prague faced horrible violence. Rabbi Yehuda Loew created a golem out of clay to protect the Jews. He breathed life into it, and the golem rose to fiercely protect the ghetto. But the golem raged, killing everyone, including the Gentiles who sometimes served as the Sabbath goyim!

So as Shabbat approached, the rabbi laid the golem to rest by whispering a psalm in its ear. The golem returned to a heap of clay, and this is how the story ends, with it

“…concealed in the uppermost part of the synagogue of Prague, covered with cobwebs that have been spun from wall to wall to encase the whole arcade so that it should be hidden from all human eyes. . . . The golem, you see, has not been forgotten. It is here! But the name that could bring the golem to life in times of need, that name has vanished into thin air. And no one is allowed to touch the cobwebs that thicken.

Do something — if you can!”

For a destructive creature, he was quite cute! Source: Historicmysteries.com

Why does the story end with a plea to do something, if you can?

While the story of the golem warns us of unchecked power and uncontrolled violence, Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips taught this Shavuot that we shouldn’t close ourselves off completely, lest we find ourselves in a cobweb of indifference or inaction.

In times of loss, hardship, or… war, it’s easy to feel frustrated, powerless, overwhelmed, or xenacious (yearning for change!). But we cannot remain closed off to the events of the world. Even the most Zionist among us should speak out when civilians are caught in the crossfire or are starved. It doesn’t make us less Zionist or less pro-Israel; it makes us human, capable of empathy.

Here’s to doing something, whether that’s donating, protesting, mourning, or bearing witness. Don’t find yourself closed off, caught in the cobweb or cocoon of your emotions. Because you know what the Hebrew word is for cocoon? It’s גוֹלֶם. Golem.

2. Chosenness may have been a choice

Jews often feel uncomfortable with the notion that we are G-d’s chosen people. I’ve never felt this way; since birth, my mother has told me how special I am. Little did I know it had to do with my monotheism!

I understand chosenness to mean responsibility, that we have a greater obligation to perform mitzvot and follow G-d’s laws, to be a light unto the nations. But I was taught that G-d came down from His celestial perch and said “I choose you.” Like Pokémon!

Well, I learned another interpretation, from none other than my extremely Jewishly literate and lovely partner, Phil.

I’m leaving out teachings and sources for brevity (sorry, Phil!), but here are some examples from Jewish history and thought that challenge the idea that G-d simply chose us and we had no say in it.

1. Abram began questioning idols waaay before G-d came into the picture. In the Book of Jubilees 11:23-26 (yes, that’s a thing, from the 2nd century BCE), it says:

“… and he was two weeks of years old, and he separated himself from his father that he might not worship idols with him. And he began to pray to the Creator of all things that He might save him from the errors of the children of men, and that his portion should not fall into error after uncleanness and vileness.”

At age 14 (a “week of years” is 7 years, x2 = 14. It’s poetic and confusing!), Abram questions idol worshippers around him, and begins to speculate on his own how all things on earth are made. What were YOU doing at 14? My Heavenly Father at that age was Gerard Way.

2. Let’s look at the Talmud. In the Gemara, there’s a story about G-d holding Mt. Sinai over the Jewish people, saying, “If you accept the Torah, excellent, and if not, there will be your burial.” Yikes!

   
   Shabbat 88a:5 says that the Jews were coerced into accepting the Torah, since G-d was going to drop a mountain on them, and therefore it was not binding. The rabbis here make a legal point, that acceptance of Torah cannot be made under duress. So when do the Jews accept G-d’s covenant?

   

   Mt. Sinai suspension via ChatGPT

3. Welcome to the Book of Esther. You know, Purim? According to the rabbis, this is when the Jews reaffirmed their covenant with G-d. In Esther 9:27:

"The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them.”

At this point in the Book of Esther, during the time of Ahasuerus, the Jews willingly accepted what they were previously coerced into. The rabbis interpret this verse as more than the observance of Purim. They see it as the pivotal moment when Jews accept Torah by choice, without open miracles, and during exile. All from a book that doesn’t mention G-d once!

It turns out that chosenness isn’t just about being picked; it’s about choosing back. Like love.

3. Tarot = Torah

Welcome to my favorite class all night/morning (sorry, Phil!).

I recently got into Tarot based on a powerful reading I received last year. People have misconceptions that Tarot is used as “fortune telling” (it can be), but it’s really using cards with specific imagery to look inward and see how you can apply the cards’ messages to your own life.

Did you know Tarot has Jewish connections? The most obvious is the Wheel of Fortune card, which contains the Hebrew letters יהוה for the Tetragrammaton, the name of G-d. And the 22 Major Arcana cards represent the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet!

Stav Appel’s riveting 2am class explained the possible origins of this Jewish connection. The Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille deck was made around 1650 in France, during a 250-year ban on public Jewish life (thanks, King Charles).

Just like playing dreidel during Antiochus’s reign, when Jewish practices were outlawed, Jews had to find a workaround and get creative to practice Judaism… like teaching through Tarot cards! It’s one of the few times in history you could call Jews sneaky and mean it as a compliment!

When you look at the Noblet deck through a Jewish lens, it starts to look like way more than just a set of cards. Hidden in the art are Hebrew letters, Torah stories, ritual objects, and even the Jewish calendar. It’s like a secret textbook for underground Jewish learning.

For example, let’s look at the Moon card (below left). Other than the moon (which oddly looks like a sun), we see two buildings streaked with red, two dogs (or a dog and a lamb), and a body of water separated by what appears to be a lobster.

Left: original Noblet deck. Right: popular 20th century Rider-Waite-Smith deck

Buildings streaked with blood? A dog and a lamb? Separated water? Could this be… a retelling of the Passover story? It sounds coincidental until you learn that in Old French and Spanish, the word 'langosta' means lobster. You know what else it means? Locust.

And the dog may be depicted as barking, because it’s said in Exodus 11:7, G-d promises that the Exodus will be so unopposed that “not even a dog will bark…”.

And do you see those three beige lumps at the bottom of the card? Those represent the three pieces of matzah on the Seder table. Check out some relevant hidden Hebrew letters:

Source: Stav Appel

I later went home and looked at my own deck, the Wyspell Feminine Tarot Deck, and guess what’s in the corner of the Moon card that I never noticed before? That’s right—a lobster. 🦞 (And many similarities, including the two buildings and dogs. I like to think the mountain is Mt. Sinai).

Stav’s class was full of examples from many Tarot cards, a convincing argument that today’s popular Tarot decks are copies of copies of copies of a deck once used for secret Jewish education. He had so many card examples he’s writing a book on it, and you bet your bottom dollar I’ll be writing a full Drop on it when it comes out this fall!

4. What the Third Commandment really means

Here’s an entry from a friend who wasn’t going to do anything for Shavuot but then decided to hop on a Zoom class on the Ten Commandments:

“I listened to a lecture on the Ten Commandments: how to apply them to your life and how they should be interpreted. The rabbi explained how we misinterpret the Third Commandment of not taking G-d's name in vain. I thought that this commandment was telling us not to say ‘goddamnit,’ but it actually means not doing mitzvot. We are here to do good on the earth, and if we don’t, we’re not living up to G-d’s name.

I also liked how the rabbi also talked about the idea of keeping the Sabbath and being able to find ways to make Shabbat your own. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to not use your phone completely and not take the Subway, but just find little things instead to make Shabbat. It's okay if you don't do everything; that shouldn’t deter you from keeping Shabbat in a real and restorative way.”

That’s all, folks. I hope you had a lovely chag. Drop something cool you learned in the comments!

I’m on my way to Israel to volunteer with Sar-El on an IDF base with limited Internet! I might schedule a post, and then take a break! ✈️

Good Shabbos. Be well,

“Excuse me, is this 'Jews and UFOs?'"

5 Things I Learned on Shavuot