There is a tradition on Shavuot to stay up all night studying in celebration of the Jewish people receiving the Torah. While we won’t be staying up all night, our first-ever Tikkun Leil Shavuot will provide three hours of programming dedicated to learning and community.

Schedule

7pm Welcome

7:15pm Opening Session
Living Ethically in the Land of Israel, Rabbi Jill Jacobs
How do we balance our religious and historic relationship to the land of Israel with our responsibility to live in an ethical and just way there? How do we think about the connections and differences between the ancient land of Israel and the modern State of Israel? We will look at classical and modern texts about grappling with land, statehood and relationships with all inhabitants of the land.

8pm Concurrent Sessions

• Learning from Non-Jews: Yithro and Ruth, Sam Fleischacker
  This session will focus on the ways in which warm relationships with non-Jews in the Tanakh can enhance or even prove essential to having a Jewish relationship with God. We will look at Yithro’s role in setting the stage for Sinai and Ruth’s role in bringing Naomi back to spiritual and psychological health. At the end of the session, we will ask what these passages might teach us about our relationship to Palestinians and other non-Jews today.
• Revelation in the Wilderness, Rabbis Ayelet Cohen and Ephraim Pelcovits
  The midbar (“wilderness”) can be understood as a metaphor for venturing outside of our comfort zone, away from the fixed routines of the familiar. While being in the wilderness can feel deeply unsettling and uncertain, it can also be a time of greater openness and profound learning. Join Rabbis Ayelet Cohen and Ephraim Pelcovits of the New Israel Fund for a text study and discussion about the ways in which the wilderness can open us to new perspectives and prepare us to listen to voices which are less frequently heard.

8:50pm Concurrent Sessions

• Images of the Holy City: The Poetic and Political Jerusalem, Margo Hughes-Robinson & Talia Kaplan
  From the writings of William Blake to Tamim Al-Barghouti, Naomi Shihab-Nye to Yehuda Amichai, poetry echoes the political -— and nowhere does this dynamic reverberate more deeply than in Jerusalem. Join poet Margo Hughes-Robinson and organizer Talia Kaplan for an illuminating study of contemporary and ancient poetry about the Holy City, and the political visions they reflect.
• Turning the Mezuzah Towards Social Justice: On Re-entering Public Space, Rabbi Reuven Greenvald
  We will examine a few texts and traditions focused on the meaning of the mezuzah and its position as we re-enter public spaces.
• On Given and Chosen Families, Sarina Elenbogen-Siegel
  This session will look at a musical interpretation of Ruth’s story, followed by a discussion on the role of ancestry and what it means to have given and chosen families.

9:40pm Concurrent Sessions

• Socialists and Stained Glass: Class Warfare in Liberal Judaism, Allen Lipson
  Join us for a lively exploration of neglected primary sources that shed light on how class tensions shaped liberal American Jewish institutions, and how those tensions continue to influence our ritual and political commitments. We’ll pay special attention to the strange case of Jacob Schiff, a politically reactionary financier, unstintingly generous philanthropist and patron of the Reform and Conservative movements.
• Visions for an Inclusive and Welcoming Future, Josh Gischner
  In Genesis 18, Abraham models radical inclusion and welcoming for us in a very visceral way. We’ll jump into the text together and collaborate on how we could build a more thoughtful, welcoming and inclusive Jewish future.
• Ruth, the Stranger and the Messiah, Rabbi Andy Straus
  In this study session, we will explore the main characters in the story of Ruth and their shocking family histories. We will also use their histories — with the aid of an article by David Hartman — to explore the dynamics of what we would want Israel’s relationships with the Palestinians to be. This session is inspired by the teachings of Dr. Micha Goodman.