Tikkun Leyl Shavuot
Torah for This Time: Generating Relevance
on Zoom only
continues well past midnight
Torah didn’t just happen at Sinai. It continues in our lifetimes through our words, our connections, our learning, our dreams, and our bodies. What is the wisdom that flows through us now? How do we recognize it? And where might this ongoing, unfolding Torah bring us?
In this annual Shavuot night of learning, our teachers will explore how Torah continues to flow to us, through us, and from us. How are we still giving and receiving Torah?
Join us on Zoom for this traditional night of un-traditional learning.
6:00 pm Opening Ritual with Rabbi Irwin Keller and Lia Goldman Miller
6:25 pm Eylu v’Eylu: Holding Conflict in Community with Rabbi Irwin Keller
Conflict is never easy, and these last months have alienated friends and loved ones from each other over differing (even subtly differing!) views. In this session, Reb Irwin will take us through a few models of holding conflict taken from Jewish tradition–Torah, Talmud, and classical Chasidic thought.
Movement Interlude with Hannah Caratti
7:45 pm Personal Relationship with Torah with Gesher Calmenson
How do we relate to the Sinai experience? In Jewish ritual the Torah is revered, honored, venerated, encountered with awe and joy. But I wondered what place it has in people’s lives. We will survey what some or our co-religionists have to say about their relationship to Torah (ranging from indifference to luminous sacred object), take some time to reflect, and share our own experience.
Movement Interlude with Julie (Rachanna) Chasen
9:05 pm From the Known to the Unknown: Leaving the Familiar to Find Your Truth: Lech L’cha with Basha Hirschfeld
Throughout the Torah, from Abraham to Moses, our leaders have had to leave the comfort of what was familiar to embark on a journey to seek their truth-- wandering through the desert of the unknown until revelation wakes them up to the truth. Much like the Bardo--the space-between death and rebirth described in Buddhist texts, it is in the groundless place from which revelation comes. Each of us must take that journey, in our lives and in our everyday world. Using these examples from the Torah, Basha will lead us in a personal journey of exploration, from the familiar to the unknown to–hopefully--revelation.
Movement Interlude with Diana Neshamah Faraone
10:25 pm Shnayim SheYoshvin: Sitting in Torah Rabbi Irwin Keller in conversation with Rabbi George Gittleman
Pirkei Avot 3:2 tells us that where two sit together and speak words of Torah, the Shechinah dwells among them. This conversation will honor Rabbi George Gittleman, retiring this month after 28 years as rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. Reb Irwin will engage Rabbi George to explore how Torah has been alive in his life experience, his rabbinate, and his deep relationship to the natural world. Expect a cameo from the Shechinah.
11:20 pm Harvest with Rabbi Irwin Keller
Midnight Meditation led by Rabbi George Gittleman
Then join us tomorrow on site at Ner Shalom at 2 pm for in-person learning and dairy (and faux dairy) treats!