Tikkun Leil Shavuot

Please join us on Tuesday, June 7 for Tikkun Leil Shavuot!  It's traditional to mark Shavuot - and celebrate the giving of the Torah - with Torah study that lasts late into the night. Our celebration will be an evening of learning and a wine & cheese party!

Kavana partner Marc Cohen and Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum will teach sessions around the theme of REVELATION.  Marc is going to introduce us to the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and through that lens we'll explore the implications of Sinai -- what does freedom mean, and what does Scripture require of us.  After a short break for food and socializing, Rachel will lead us through texts about the acceptance (and re-acceptance) of Torah throughout the generations... in the days of Ezra and Esther, and today.
 

Date:  Tuesday, June 7
Time:  8-10:30pm
Location:  Kavana H.Q. (please email us if you need the address).
Details: This is a wine & cheese party.  Kavana will supply drinks and crackers.  Please BYOC (bring your own cheese) to share so that we'll have lots to sample from.  (And, if you don't like cheese and prefer to bring some other munchie item, that's okay too.) 

Here is some general Information about Shavuot, courtesy of wikipedia:

Shavuot (which is the Hebrew word for "weeks") is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, although the association between the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) and Shavuot is not explicit in the Biblical text.  The holiday is one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals.  It marks the conclusion of the counting of the Omer.   

The date of Shavuot is directly linked to that of Passover.  The Torah mandates the seven-week counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover and immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the Giving of the Torah. On Passover, the Jewish people were freed from their enslavement to the Egypt, Shavuot they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.

In the Bible, Shavuot is called the Festival of Weeks, Festival of Reaping, and Day of the First Fruits.  Since Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Hellenistic Greeks gave it the name Pentecost (the "fiftieth day".)