Leadership Messages

Friends, 

We are in the period of the Jewish calendar between Passover and Shavuot called S’firat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer. The first sheaf of the barley harvest, the Omer offering, was brought to the priest on the day after the Passover festival. The Torah instructs that we should count seven complete weeks from that day, and then on the fiftieth day, Shavuot is to be observed. As I have noted in previous bulletin articles, Shavuot is associated with the wheat harvest because wheat is planted and matures at a rate that brings its harvest approximately seven weeks after the barley harvest. Rabbi Mark Washofsky in Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice provides the spiritual link. “[The mitzvah of counting the Omer] can be seen as a means of linking Pesach, the season of our liberation, to its ultimate fulfillment in Shavuot, the season of giving the Torah. There is no ‘freedom,’ in other words, without Torah, without a system of meaning to be found in Jewish life and existence.” The Torah itself does not associate Shavuot, literally meaning ‘weeks’ as in the counting of the seven weeks, with the giving of the Torah, but instead with a purely agricultural meaning. Alternative names are Katzir, meaning ‘harvest,’ and bikkurim, meaning ‘first fruits.’ The rabbis connect Pesach and Shavuot, noting, ‘The Torah was given to Israel on the sixth day of the third month’ (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 86b). This day is Shavuot. Thus, they connected the redemption from slavery to the obligations of freedom.

At our Seder table, we all read the exact words every year, “Make clear to your child on that day: ‘This is because of what Adonai did for me when I myself went forth from Egypt.’” We are to imagine that we were there over 3000 years ago. This imagining aims to build empathy for those oppressed in the present day. But remembrance and empathy are not enough. The Passover rituals also seek to renew in our hearts and minds the purpose of our freedom, which is to accept the obligations of Torah. Shavuot is the celebration of that acceptance. Between Passover and Shavuot, we count the days by reciting a specific prayer, noting each day by name in the prayer, as if focusing on each footstep from redemption to acceptance. Just as we have a Seder at the beginning of the spiritual journey, we have a Tikkun Leil Shavuot at the end. The Tikkun Leil Shavuot is a night of Jewish learning and engaging with Torah. As Jews have experienced both heights of prosperity and depths of despair throughout the millennia, our generational footsteps are firmly planted in these traditions, keeping us together as a people, focused on God’s mission for us to be seekers of justice, emissaries of peace and love, a light to the nations, and caretakers of this world. As the world is currently in great upheaval, it is all the more important that we ground ourselves in our Jewish values and express them in our actions.

We will have a Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a night of learning and observing Shavuot, on Sunday, June 1, at 6 PM at Temple Emanu-El. Our theme is ‘Tasty Takes on the Ten.’ Rabbis Alter, Kideckel, Rabinowitz, Schwartz, and I will offer some Jewish teachings about the revelation of the Ten Commandments from surprising angles. To keep the agricultural theme, we’ll also have a cheesecake contest. We encourage bakers to bring their best cheesecake, whether traditional, creative, or vegan. Those who like to eat cheesecake are especially welcome. Sherry Barnes and Roz Etra will bring a festive mood to the evening with music. Of course, we will also include a short Ma’ariv service and recite Kaddish. Don’t sit at home watching the news. Instead, learn with us, immerse yourself in our values and traditions, and maybe make a new friend too. This is how we get through difficult times.

L’Shalom,
Rabbi Marc