Shavuot at Adas Israel
Tuesday, June 11, 2024 - Thursday, June 13, 2024
Step into an evening of spiritual enlightenment and connection. This year, we will kick off our tikkun leil evening of learning with a dynamic panel discussion exploring the essence of creation. Join experts from diverse fields as they share how creation and renewal shape their lives. Continue into the late night hours with engaging learning sessions, and enjoy the comfort of our cozy coffee stand, complete with indulgent sweet treats and relaxing lounging areas. Chag Sameach!
Tikkun Leil Shavuot Learning
“An Author, An Artist, A Techie and A Doctor: Musings on Creation”
Panel Discussion with Alex Laskey, Dr. Stephanie Wethington, Barton Rubenstein and Liz Scheier
Tuesday, June 11 at 7pm, Gewirz Beit Am
“In the beginning of God’s creating”...what? The world, the mishkan, our systems of law and values, the ongoing renewal of our souls and universe - we and our traditions are constantly in a state of creating and recreating. Join us and four experts in distinct fields as we explore how creation and renewal inform and influence their professional and personal lives.
Breakout Learning & Experiential Groups
9:00pm, Breakout I
Roasting to Brewing: Creation of the Perfect Cup Rabbi Alexander, Kay Kitchen
Mix. Stir. Shake: Creation In Action Rabbis Yolkut & Krinsky, Gewirz Beit Am
Learning: Rabbi Miriam Liebman, Biran Beit Midrash
Creating a Messianic Myth?
We learn in the book of Ruth, which we read on Shavuot, that the Messiah is a direct descendant of Ruth herself. But who exactly is the Messiah and when will redemption come? Come learn a Talmudic passage that offers a subversive and compelling vision of where redemption can be found, in both ancient times and our own.
10:00pm, Breakout II
Meditation: Marilyn Cooper, Wasserman
Language and Creation
God spoke, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Judaism holds that Hashem created the universe itself through language and speech, Baruch she-amar, v'haya ha-olam (“Blessed is the One who spoke, and the world was created.”). Hashem recreates and renews the world every day (Ha-m'chadesh. b'tuvo b'chol yom tamid ma'asei v'reisheet). Through our words and how we speak, we have the opportunity to participate in creation and shape the world we live in each day. This experiential session will explore speech, language and listening through meditation and a variety of mindfulness-infused practices. All are welcome—no prior experience with meditation necessary.
Learning: Billy Liss Levinson, Biran Beit Midrash
“So, Moshe FINALLY Found His Burning Bush - What About You?"
How does God communicate with many leading figures in the Torah? With whom are there problematic/flawed communications and what were the possible personal impediments? Now, let’s explore textual stories and midrashim about Moshe as an adult prior to his encounter with the burning bush. What took him so long and what impeded his ability to find/see the burning bush? What does the description of the bush tell us about liminal moments in time that allow us to discover both God and our personal mission?
11:00pm, Breakout III
Learning: Rabbi Jesse Paikin, Biran Beit Midrash
God, the Lighting Designer: Reflecting the Spectrum of Humanity
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (the 19th Century intellectual founder of contemporary Orthodoxy), in his commentary on the Torah’s story of Noah, makes an audacious claim: that God explicitly chooses to reflect a measure of divine holiness through the diversity of choices humans make about their spiritual practices and religious behavior. We’ll take a look at a short yet astounding text, and explorehow Rav Hirsch uses the imagery of God as a designer and artist to evoke profound psychological and spiritual ideas about the nature of human development.
Leil Shavuot, Tuesday, June 11
• 6:00pm Mincha Service
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Lev Shalem Pages: Click Here
• 7:00pm Panel Discussion
Gewirz Beit Am
• 8:15pm Maariv
Siddur Lev Shalem Pages: Click Here
• 9:00pm Food and Drinks Open
Gewirz Beit Am
• 9:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #1
• 10:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #2
• 11:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #3
Shavuot Day 1, Wednesday, June 12
• 9:15am Combined Service in the Gewirz Beit Am
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Shabbat & Festival Morning Pages: Download Here
Akdamut and Megillat Ruth: Download
Torah and Haftarah Pages: Download Here
• 6:00pm Maariv
In Person
Siddur Lev Shalem Mincha Pages: Download
Siddur Lev Shalem Maariv Pages: Download
Shavuot Day 2, Thursday, June 13
• 9:15am Clergy-Led service and Yizkor (10:45am) in the Charles E. Smith Sanctuary. All are welcome.
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Shabbat & Festival Morning Pages: Download Here
Akdamut and Megillat Ruth: Download
Yizkor Service Pages: Download Here
Torah and Haftarah Pages: Download Here
Sefirat HaOmer
Beginning on the second night of Passover we begin to count 49 days, 7 weeks until we reach the wheat harvest and Revelation at Mount Sinai on Shavuot. We call this time the Sefirat HaOmer or “Counting of the Omer.” The Omer is counted each night after the sun goes down- if one forgets, you can say the blessing all day until nightfall the next evening.
BA-RUCHA-TAH ADO-NAIE-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER
KID-E-SHA-NUBE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NUAL SEFI-RAT HA-OMER.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with
His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
A Reflection on Sefirat HaOmer by Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt:
There is a different space of the journey of everyday, of marking time not through major accomplishments or milestones, but through the sun rising and setting of marking the passage of time, of hammering at something slowly, patiently over a contemplative period of time. This is the Omer.
We begin counting the Omer on the second night of Passover and we count every night until we get to 49 and arrive at the holiday of Shavuot- matan Torah (the giving of the Torah). In ancient times the counting was a marking of the agricultural calendar- one would plant their wheat at Pesach and harvest it 7 weeks later. Shavuot is one of the shelosh regalim, one of the 3 times of year people would make pilgrimage to the Temple (the others being Sukkot and Passover). On Shavuot first fruits were brought to the Temple as a way of giving thanks for the abundance that God had provided.
We have become disconnected with the counting of the Omer because we are urban- we do not rely on the small plantings we make in our city gardens to eat, we do not watch an entire harvest spring from the ground and we do not have a Temple where we can offer our first fruits.
So the ritual of counting the Omer needs a reset. A way of connection in the modern world to link the time between our liberation (Passover) to our revelation and receiving of Torah (Shavuot). The most remarkable days are those of the quiet rhythm of our lives. Waking up without the rush- the steady movement forward- gentle and calm. The time to dig our hands into our relationships, our work- the planting. The time for reflection, noticing, and being- awaiting the harvest. And finally the joy of our first fruits- which we can only gather after we have had the discipline of sowing, planting, and waiting. Something will always emerge out of the ground.
There is a reason we don’t recite shehecheyanueach night of the counting of the Omer. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, the Kedushat Levi writes, “during the counting of the Omer, people are in anticipation of when the counting will be completed. They want the completion to arrive soon so they can experience closeness to the divine. Were they to have the capacity to complete the counting in an instant and be immediately able to enter into the closeness, how good and how pleasant it would be. This is why we do not recite shehecheyanu upon counting the Omer.”
The shehecheyanu would imply that we have arrived to a particular moment. But this time is about the steady, continuous journey, not the arrival. We’ll know when we have arrived and we’ll be ready then to offer our first fruits. This year we will again mark the Omer at Adas with a display in the Quebec street entrance where we will add a jar and a wheat stalk every day. With each jar we get closer. Let’s use this time to linger, to notice, to plant, and to allow the Torah of our deepest selves to emerge. I look forward to seeing you at Sinai.
