Shavuot Programs are the New Passover Programs

Notes from a festive weekend full of learning, spirit, and Jewish joy

Hebrew Word of the Week:
Here’s an important one for this time of year: mazgan (מַזְגַן), or air conditioner.

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Shabbat Drop-In

My friend, Sandra Laub, is bringing her powerful one-woman play, Picking Up Stones: An American Jew Wakes Up to a Nightmare, to NYC late June/early July. Come see it with us at the American Theatre for Actors as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival.

After the performance, we’ll gather to discuss the play’s themes of grief, identity, and the fragile possibility of peace after October 7th. It’s running multiple dates, but we’re seeing it together on 6/28! Get your tickets here! And let me know if you’re coming!

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Shavuot is my favorite Jewish holiday. I’ll shout it to the mountaintops if I have to. ;)

I love learning something I otherwise wouldn’t have learned anywhere else while enjoying a dairy meal. There’s something magical about the all-night chaos: the several sessions happening every hour, the rush of racing to a room before the class fills up, and hanging out in the lobby over coffee and a catch-up with a Jew you haven’t seen in a while.

But this year, I did something a little different. Our friends Adina and Avi organized a Shavuot getaway at a camp in West Milford, New Jersey. 60 of us - and some children - relived our camp days, along with late-night learning and cheesecake.

Our tikkun leil (a “night of spiritual repair,” or a night of learning) was divided into 10-minute segments. Here are some highlights:

• A rowdy 1:00am rendition of “Vos Vet Zayn Az Meshiakh Vet Kumen,” a cumulative Yiddish song of questions and answers about the Great Feast in Heaven after the coming of the Messiah. Spoiler alert: it involves Moses teaching, David playing music, and Miriam dancing. Sounds like the cool kids’ table at lunchtime! I want in.

• A closer look at the most famous line in the Book of Ruth, which we read each year on this holiday: “Where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Moabite Ruth says this to her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, after Naomi urges her to return to her own land and start anew now that her husband is dead. But Ruth remains steadfast to the Jewish people, choosing loyalty and love over safety and certainty. In the quote, “people” comes before G-d, emphasizing that peoplehood and chosen belonging comes before covenant and faith.

• Speaking of chosenness, Phil taught two classes, one of which I wrote about last year. First, he spoke about how Jews have always struggled with how to explain chosenness in non-Jewish contexts, and in a separate talk, who gets (or doesn’t get) a portion in the world to come.

• I gave a 10-minute talk on The Torah in the Tarot by Stav Appel, which deserves at least a full hour. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this! I also gave Tarot readings and maybe turned a few skeptics.

• Fellow Substacker Yoni Weinberg gave an inspiring talk about the Jews’ stiff-neckedness, which originates in Exodus 32:9: “And the Lord said to Moses: I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.” Throughout history, our stubbornness has caused us to question, argue, hold on too tightly, and refuse to let go of what we believe matters. Empires rose and fell trying to crush us, convince us, erase us, and somehow we are still here in 5786, still singing the same songs, still telling the same stories, still choosing Jewish life.

Then, Kabbalat Shabbat overflowed with spirit in the best communal, homemade kind of way.

All 60 of us gathered on the porch of the main dining hall, and friends led us to another plane of existence with their guitars and voices.

Halfway through the service, prayers transitioned to jumping, dancing, holding hands, and forming a conga line. It felt like a collective exhale through Hebrew song. We had so much spirit, we were afraid the porch was going to give out from underneath us!

Even my friend who is normally insecure and shy about dancing felt moved to let loose during Lecha Dodi like something shifted in him. Afterwards he said it felt like “angels were smiling down on us.”

The celebratory weekend culminated in a post-chag/Shabbat silent disco, which is my favorite activity ever. What made this one special was that this was my first silent disco where one of the channels played Israeli music! So you bet everyone switched to the green channel once Ofra Haza came on.

Here’s the playlist from the Israeli station, created by one of the participants. It’s a mix of spiritual niggunim and bangers:

Throughout the weekend, my mind kept drifting back to Yoni’s talk about our stiff necks, and the fact that we were all there celebrating a Jewish holiday because our ancestors refused to give up their tradition. They refused to be like anyone else.

What will happen when the Messiah comes? Maybe it will look like this: Holding hands and dancing until the wooden slats of the porch give out. Children laughing on a sunny patch of grass. Fists pounding in rhythm on tables full of challah, wine, and delicious food. Silently swishing your hips to Akon’s “I Wanna **** You.”

Alright, maybe not that last one, but I would pay to see a room full of rabbis do that.

Mazel tov to Adina and Avi for creating a holy space for learning, joy, and connection, and to everyone who shared their wisdom with us.

✍️ Shabbat Prompt

What’s something you learned this Shavuot, or recently? Please share in the comments!

Shabbat Shalom (hey!),

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