Shavuot

[cellio]

Tonight/tomorrow is Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the torah at Mount Sinai. It tends to get short shrift with some folks, but it resonates a lot for me. And the custom of late-night (or all-night, if you can manage it) torah study appeals to my inner scholar. My congregation usually studies until around 2:00. There are other places I could go after that, but the one year I did that I found it anti-climactic, so I don't any more. My rabbi does a good job of ending things on an appropriate note; why mess that up?

I wonder how other people solve the dinner problem. Here's the problem: there's an evening service, and then there's the study. In our congregation the first leads right into the second. I suppose in other congregations you have a break between them that's long enough for everyone to walk home, have dinner, and then come back? (But that adds a round-trip for everyone, so if you live a bit of a shlep away that might deter you from returning.) Someone attending both service and study at my congregation would either eat first (so it wouldn't be a holiday meal because the holiday hasn't started yet) or eat dinner after 2AM. Hmm.

I was on track to attend tonight's service before two things set in this afternoon: a headache and a plumbing problem. Both are now under control, so the study session will be fine.

Chag sameach to those who celebrate it, and happy Monday to the rest of you. :-)

Comments

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Two solutions:

1. Dinner break
2. Communal dinner (catered or potluck.)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

For solving the dinner dilemma, I'd tend to go with mamadeb's second option of a communal dinner. (Which, at First Presby in Allentown or at Yeocomico (Episcopal) in Kinsale or at Saint Bede's (R.C.) in Williamsburg, would *of course* be a potluck.)

[yorkshirelad.livejournal.com]

I am real familar with Jewish traditions but could there be food available to those who want it? A pot luck sort of thing. Everyone contributes and the food it left out(or available in a kitchen area) for folks when they feel they need to eat?

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

This was the first year that my temple did a Shavuot study session; there's always services in the evening with confirmation and in the morning, but I guess there has been little interest in the studying until recently. What we did was a have a short study session at 5 pm about what Shavuot is and what it can mean to us and little bit about the 10 commandments. Then there was a communal dairy dinner (paid for before hand) before confirmation (only 3 kids this year, and all articulate, intelligent and enthusiastic, which was a nice change from the last couple of years). After confirmation was an oneg with plenty of desserts and fruit and veggies, and then the few of us who were sticking around with the rabbi went and studied Ruth for an hour. Not a huge study session, but it's a start.