June 2014

Let Them Eat Cake. Cheesecake, That Is….

Friends,
This week, Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, which marks the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Although the giving of the Torah is supposed to have happened 3300 years ago, our tradition invites us to imagine that we receive Torah again each and every year.

How might we relive the experience of receiving Torah? Our tradition offers two special practices, based on two favorite Jewish activities – eating and learning.

What do we eat on Shavuot?

Well, before God gave the Torah to the Israelites, God commanded them to purify themselves for three days by refraining from marital relations and avoiding eating meat. To remember this time, Jews eat dairy on Passover. Faced with the challenge of making enticing dairy meals for the holiday, Ashkenazi Jewish women developed the custom of making cheesecake and blintzes. In Sephardic communities, women often make cheese burekas, which are little pastry pockets.

How do we learn on Shavuot?

Around the world, Jews observe Shavuot by holding Tikkun Leil Shavuot gatherings where people stay up all night studying, usually focusing on traditional Jewish texts. At these study sessions, task is not only to read texts, or even to understand them. Instead, we are invited to explore how Jewish texts and ideas speak to us personally. We situate ourselves as one link in a chain of many generations who have interpreted and reinterpreted the Torah, in order to understand how to live the most righteous lives we can.

Today, many Jews expand the meaning of “studying” to include other practices that might help us to
experience revelation today. For example, I hope to attend the Brookline Community Tikkun Leil Shavuot (let me know if you want to join), where offerings include text study, meditation, yoga, and drama improv about the giving of the Torah. Whatever the practice, the goal is to receive wisdom and/or revelation by digging deeply.

So, how might you observe Shavuot this year?

First, I recommend that you pop some Lactaid pills and enjoy some dairy delights. Second, perhaps while
enjoying your milchic (dairy) meal, I invite you to spend a few minutes learning and exploring how you want to live. Whether or not you choose to study a traditional Jewish text, I invite you to reflect – through speaking with others or writing alone – on what this past year has taught you about how to live a righteous life. What experiences – positive or painful – helped you clarify your life path or sense more deeply what God wants of you?

I would love to hear what you come up with!

May this year be one of learning, growth, and revelation for all of us.

Blessings,
Rabbi Margie