Community Coming Together For Zoom Shavuot

Just as Zoom became an integral part of the Passover seder and the weekly Friday and Saturday services, Shavuot – which begins Thursday night, May 28 – is also joining Judaism’s digital revolution. And much of the Twin Cities Jewish community is getting together to make it happen.

“Alone Together at Sinai: A Community-Wide Tikkun Leil Shavuot” starts at 9 p.m. and runs through dawn Friday morning – much a like a traditional Tikkun Leil Shavuot would. But of course, since we can’t be together in person to learn at our respective synagogues, it will be available on Zoom.

“We have a robust Tikkun every year, but obviously that wasn’t going to be the case this year,” said Beth El Synagogue Rabbi Avi Olitzky. “I had sent an email to the members of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association to see who was interested. A number said yes and we worked together to get it going. It was awesome.”

Olitzky said that some congregations are doing a hybrid Tikkun, combining their own events with the community event. After 12:30 a.m., there are national events for the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly and the Reconstructionist Movement.

Participating congregations include: Adath Jeshurun, Bet Shalom, Beth El, Beth Jacob, Mayim Rabim, Mount Zion, Shir Tikvah, and Temple Israel. Here’s the schedule for the event:

9 p.m. | Niggun Leil Shavuot & Opening Ritual and Study: Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg & Rabbi Debra Rappaport

9:45 p.m. | Workshops Aleph

  • Jayce Koester and Jordyn Whitman: Reading & Writing the Psalms
  • Abby Kirshbaum: Body & Soul Workout–a solo and communal self-reflective dance party
  • Rabbi Jeffrey & Dr Deborah Schein: This is exactly how it happened when they received the Torah
  • Noam Sienna: History of the Tikkun Leil-Shavuot
  • Demetrios Vital: Jews & the History of Race Science

10:30 p.m. | Workshops Bet

  • Daniel Baxter: Does mistreating the stranger make structures fall down? Leviticus 19:34-19:36 (taught by a structural engineer)
  • Rabbi Sim Glaser: What Really Happened at Sinai? (A Kabbalistic Perspective)
  • Dae Selcer: Ruth, Rated R
  • Eli Kramer: Storytelling as Healing: Processing Pain to Heal Self (and Maybe Others)
  • Sara Lynn Newberger: SVARA style learning

11:15 p.m. | Integration

  • Margaret Kienitz: Torah Cheese Pairing
  • Dr Deborah Schein: Chi Qong

11:30 p.m. | Revelation with Twin Cities Rabbis

Rabbis of our community share their teachings of “standing at Sinai”. What does revelation look like today? How do we know what God requires of us? What does God ask of us at this moment? Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker (Mount Zion) will moderate a panel discussion with Rabbi Michael Latz (Shir Tikvah), Rabbi Lynn Liberman (Community Chaplain, JFS), Rabbi David Locketz (Bet Shalom), Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm (Beth Jacob), Rabbi Avi Olitzky (Beth El), Rabbi Sharon Stiefel (Mayim Rabim), and Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman (Temple Israel).

12:15 a.m. | Standing at Sinai – a Ritual for Shavuot, Rabbi Esther Adler

12:30 a.m. |Rabbinical Assembly Tikkun | Find Full Schedule HERE

Reconstructionist Movement: Register here or watch on Facebook here

4:30 a.m. | Hashkama Minyan (Sunrise Shacharit) via Zoom with Beth Jacob Congregation

Contact [email protected] for Zoom information – Each workshop has separate Zoom Information.