Happy Shavuot

For more than a century, the Reform movement has marked the anniversary of the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai with the ceremony of Confirmation. Each year we look forward to celebrating with our young people as they mark their Confirmation of Judaism as young adults. We celebrate their learning as we usher in the holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks and the receiving of Torah at Mt. Sinai. 

I am convinced that the festival of Shavuot is the least remembered or observed of holidays among the big three (that is the three festivals that in the time of the Temple Jews went up to Jerusalem to observe – Sukkot and Pesach being the other two).  Since religious school is usually over by the time the holiday rolls around, few of us had terribly strong memories of Shavuot ritual.  For many, Confirmation is the only ritual surrounding Shavuot that sticks in our minds.  Yet, the holiday includes wonderful potential -- after all it does celebrate this most mysterious and momentous event: the giving of Torah at Sinai

But Shavuot is not only for young people; all of us stood at Sinai.  Shavuot is a celebration of Revelation, of the Giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mt. Sinai. In recognition of this Revelation, we read the portion of the Torah that the Torah itself says took place on Sinai  the story of the giving of the Ten Words, otherwise known as the Ten Commandments.

These Ten Commandments are not the only commandments of Judaism. Our tradition tells us that there are 613 mitzvot (the word means "commandments," not "good deeds"), all of which are important. But somehow, the Ten Commandments remain for us among the most basic of all laws. They are laws which form the foundation of the life of society: laws against idolatry, about family, about resting, and about basic morality. And these Ten Commandments remain important in our lives today.

Shavuot is also one of the special festivals in the year that has one of the five "scrolls" or megillot assigned to it.  On Shavuot, the scroll that we read is the Book of Ruth.  There are three reasons that the Book of Ruth is read on Shavuot. First, the story of Ruth takes place during the summer harvest.  Second, the story of Ruth reminds us that the Torah, which we received at Sinai, is so precious and valuable.  Ruth, a Moabite, chooses Judaism.  She elects to cast her lot with the Jewish people, saying: "Where you go, I will go, where you lodge I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God."  Ruth's choosing Judaism makes us more aware and appreciative of the blessings of being Jewish.  Third, some scholars say that we read the Book of Ruth because it reminds us of King David.  King David was Ruth's great-grandson and traditionally Shavuot marks both David's birth and death. 

It is customary to stay up the entire night (leil) of Shavuot studying Torah with the community as we symbolically prepare to enter into a sacred relationship with God.  Many contemporary Jews choose to intensify and personalize the experience of revelation through studying Torah, talmudic, mystical and modern text and adding our own experiences and interpretations.

So, join us for Shavuot and the Confirmation service this year, and take some time to appreciate the gift of Torah in your life today as we stand together at Sinai.

Mazal Tov to our Confirmands and Happy Shavuot to All!

Sinai

This year as we are preparing to celebrate Shavuot, I am reminded of what the ancient rabbis teach, that we all stood at Sinai. My colleague and mentor, Rabbi Steve Foster, who is retiring from Temple Emanuel in Denver in just a few short weeks, teaches us that “we are all made b’tzelem elohim, in G-d’s image, black and white, women and men, tall or short, gay or straight... and we need to treat each other with kavod -with respect and honor”. As a woman, and as a female rabbi, I have faced discrimination and intolerance within the Jewish world, and Shavuot reminds me each year of Rabbi Foster’s message. One of my favorite poems of all time is Merle Feld’s piece entitled “ We all Stood Together”, because it resonates with many of the feelings that we as Jewish women have felt as we struggled to overcome to not be seen as “less than” or “other”.

We All Stood Together

by Merle Feld

My brother and I were at Sinai

He kept a journal
of what he saw

of what he heard

of what it all meant to him

I wish I had such a record

of what happened to me there

It seems like every time I want to write

I can’t

I’m always holding a baby

one of my own

or one for a friend

always holding a baby

so my hands are never free

to write things down

And then

as time passes

the particulars the hard data

the who what when where why

slip away from me

and all I’m left with is

the feeling

But feelings are just sounds

and vowel barkings of a mute

My brother is so sure of what he heard

after all he’s got a record of it

consonant after consonant after consonant

If we remembered it together

we could create holy time

sparks flying.

In her book, Standing Again at Sinai, Judith Plaskow writes: “Jewish feminists, in other words, must reclaim Torah as our own. We must render visible the presence, experience, and deeds of women erased in traditional sources. We must tell the stories of women's encounters with God and capture the texture of their religious experience. We must expand the notion of Torah to encompass not just the five books of Moses and traditional Jewish learning, but women's words, teachings, and actions hitherto unseen. To expand Torah, we must reconstruct Jewish history to include the history of women, and in doing so alter the shape of Jewish memory.”

For all of us to stand at Sinai, means accepting that women have a place in the synagogue and on the bima. This year, ultra-orthodox fanatics in Jerusalem need to be reminded that women also have a place on the bus, and it is not in the back http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/120436/ Women have a place at the Kotel (the Western Wall) and do not deserve to be spit on, attacked, or arrested for praying there http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/119148/ Women can pray wearing tefillin without the fear of physical brutality for doing so http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/128056/ For all of us to stand at Sinai, means recognizing that Jews are not just of white European descent. Last June I was honored to be at the ordination ceremonies in Cincinnati, to witness the ordination of my friend, Rabbi Alysa Stanton, the first African American woman to become a rabbi http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/06rabbi.html and http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7639090&page=1 For all of us to stand at Sinai means accepting GLBTQ Jews are part of the covenant. And this Shavuot brings us that much closer on two counts. First, Reuben Zellman became the first transgender rabbi ordained by the Reform movement this month http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/transgender_rabbinical_students_finding_equality_in_the_jewish_world_201005/ And second, Kol hakavod to my future colleague, Molly Kane, for her fourth year sermon. Kane’s sermon on Acharei Mot/Kedoshim, managed to change the stance of our teacher Dr. Eugene Borowitz at the New York campus of HUC. For 27 years Dr. Borowitz refused to sign the semicha of any rabbi who was known to be gay or lesbian. In protest, many of my colleagues declined to have him sign their semichot. This year, for the first time, thanks to Kane‘s moving and powerful words, Borowitz, at the age of 85, signed the ordination documents recognizing gay and lesbian rabbis. Read more about it here http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/05/06/for-we-are-all-one-people-created-betzelem-elohim-in-the-image-of-god/ While discrimination, bigotry, and intolerance in the Jewish world persist, we also have much to celebrate this year.