cellio | Shavuot, Shabbat

Shavuot was great. I missed the evening service (which was mostly confirmation) because I didn't time dinner well enough; I'll do better next year. The tikkun was great, though as usual we didn't get to most of the material the rabbi brought. We always start by studying the revelation in the Torah, and this year that spawned a lot more discussion than in the past. It was all good, too. Around that we sang niggunim, and the rabbi read us some midrash -- some classical, some modern. Some Zohar too, I'm pretty sure.

As has become tradition the last couple years, he concluded with a reading of Before the Law. I don't know why that story gives me (and lots of other people) chills, but it does. It's very effective at 2 in the morning when you're hearing it; it's not quite the same reading it in the comfort of your office.

The group ranged from about 15 to 25 people, which is a good size. I prefer an intimate study session to a large one. Almost everyone participated, including a couple high-school students.

Afterwards I walked home with my rabbi. (Well, 80% of the way, until we reached the branch point.) I enjoyed our conversation, and at that hour of the night the neighborhood is quite peaceful.

After the morning service I invited two people back for lunch. (I'd invited one of them last Shabbat; the other I picked up at services, when I found out that her husband is out of town and she would otherwise be spending the afternoon alone.) It was a fun group with lots of good conversation. This was so much better than spending the day alone the way I did last year! (And, for that matter, the way I spent the seventh day of Pesach.)

Friday night I led services at Tree of Life. Turnout was low; I guess there was some element of "wait, we were just there last night, and this morning" going on, or something. The people who were there were very pleasant, though, and I got a disproportionate number of compliments compared to past times. (I thought I did a very good job, but it's always gratifying to have outside confirmation.)

The rabbi talked about yom tov sheni -- whether it's necessary to add an extra day to holidays outside of Israel. (ToL doesn't; neither does my congregation.)

I've heard varying rumors about whether ToL has hired a cantor for next year. (Maybe they have, or maybe they have just hired her for the high holy days.) The scheduling person called me a few days ago and signed me up for a Shabbat in September, so I know I've got at least one more. (The person they might or might not have hired becomes available in July, so a job could start any time thereafter.)

We had a pretty good turnout Saturday morning. Torah study addressed only one verse (Lev 19:17), and we spent a lot of time talking about rebuke and whether it's ever appropriate and if so how it should be done. This led into a discussion of authority (who can issue rebuke?) and community standards. It was interesting, and there was less off-topic chit-chat than we've sometimes had recently. (One of the major sources of that wasn't there today.)

Tonight I had close to 100 pieces of spam waiting for me. Ok, the spam problem has gotten worse; it wasn't that long ago that I averaged 10-15 pieces a day.

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Thanks for the Kafka link -- it's been too long since I read all that stuff. You probably already know this, but The Trial has a wonderful exploration of the parable in a very midrashic way between Josef K. and the priest who tells him the story. I think an even creepier story at 2 am would be "In the Penal Colony," which basically presents Kafka's view of Judaism (in one interpretation) as a sublime but obsolete form of torture.

I did pretty much nothing for Shavuot this year except go to services. Since I am now also the religious chair of my congregation, for next year I am going to try to rectify the lack of stuff at our shul on Shavuot. Perhaps you have some pointers.

Anyway, I will post my thoughts in my own LJ one of these days...

I've got to read (or re-read) more Kafka. I last read The Trial in either high school or college, and I didn't really know anything about Judaism at the time. So I wouldn't have picked up on anything that was at all subtle.

Since I am now also the religious chair of my congregation, for next year I am going to try to rectify the lack of stuff at our shul on Shavuot. Perhaps you have some pointers.

Congrats.

I wasn't there when the study tradition formed at my shul, so I don't have first-hand experience to offer. I do know that it was a gradual change; it started out with a small, dedicated group for Torah study on some Shabbat mornings (study predated that group's morning service), and sort of grew from there. By the time the rabbi started having tikkunim, this group had already existed for a few years. That was (and still is) the group that provides most of the attendees at the tikkun.

So if you want a study/discussion feel to the tikkun, you probably want to try to introduce the concept earlier, rather than on Shavuot. Otherwise, you'll get a lecture instead of a discussion at the tikkun, because people won't really be clear on the concept. Lectures are fine; I went to a very good one on the first year that I went to any tikkun. But it's pretty different from the style we're talking about here, and if you want this style, I suspect you need to cultivate it. And don't get discouraged if the first attempt at a tikkun doesn't draw a lot of people, or if it peters out early. Change is hard.

As for "what", we started with Exodus 19, which prompted a lot of discussion. That can serve as a springboard for all sorts of things -- our relationship with God (then and now), what it means to keep Shabbat, what it means to honor parents, what it means to have commandments about feelings rather than actions (coveting, love), and so on. You could fill up a tikkun just with that, but I recommend having other materials planned so you can wing it. There's some very accessible midrash; our rabbi likes Gates to the {Old, New} City (two different books, two different authors, but similar collections). And, of course, you can mine the Talmud itself for relevant midrashim; ones specifically related to Shavuot would include the one about God offering the Torah to all the other nations, the one about God holding the mountain over the Israelites, and the one about Moshe defending the people's right to the Torah to the angelic court. (This last is in Sanhedrin, high 80s or low 90s, I'm pretty sure. I can't cite the others off the top of my head.)

You can also discuss the book of Ruth, of course. :-)

I hope some of that helps!

Shavuot, Shabbat

Kafka

Re: Kafka