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Learn

Accepting The Torah Daily

Study sessions re-enact feeling of being at Mt. Sinai.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
StaffWriter

T

he holiday of Passover is signified by matza, maror,
a seder and four cups of wine; Sukkot by the lulav,
etrog and sukka.
"Why does Shavuot, which marks an event as momen-
tous as the giving of the Torah, lack a substantive symbol
and corresponding ritual?" asks Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein,
executive .vice president of the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism.
In searching for an answer, he maintains that although it
is significant on Shavuot to recall the Jewish people receiv-
ing the Torah, it is a subject also included in blessings of
everyday worship. "The Torah was given at Sinai. The Torah
is given daily," he says.
In the absence of a single physical symbol for Shavout,
Rabbi Epstein says tikkun leil Shavout, a night of Torah
study, marks the holiday with a distinctive ceremony.
Coinciding this year with Thursday, June 8, the tradition
stems from the Jewish people not rising early on the day
God gave the Torah. Future generations make up for God
having to awaken them_ with all-night Torah study.
In commemoration, Nancy Kaplan, head of Eilu v' Eilu,

Cover story: page 109. Related editorial: page 25

Conservative
Study Sessions

Detroit-area Conservative synagogues
offer the following services and study
sessions for Shavout, Thursday, June 8:
• Congregation Beth Shalom will
begin services at 7:30 p.m. followed by
a musical presentation by Cantor
Samuel Greenbaum and learning ses-
sions with ritual director Rev. Sammy
Semp and Rabbi David Nelson;
mdariv (evening) service.
$5 per family in advance.
Complimentary babysitting with
advance registration. Call Gail
Langer at (248) 553-3695.
• Congregation Shaarey Zedek will
begin with an 8:15 p.m. service, con-
cluding with 5:45 a.m. sunrise service
in the synagogue courtyard. Sessions
directed by Rabbi Irwin Groner,
Rabbi Stephen Weiss, Rabbi Jospeh
Krakoff, Education Director Michael
Wolf, local author Debra Darvick,

says the area's Conservative congregations will conduct
study marathons at each synagogue. They will be marked
with "special Torah sessions ... in which participants sym-
bolically re-enact the receiving of the Torah by studying
and discussing traditional texts."
Rabbi David Nelson of Congregation Beth Shalom, who
will lead a late-night Shavout study session there, addresses
the custom he terms "an exhausting learn-a-thon."
"The early evening start of the tikkun of Shavout is ordi-
nary enough," he says, but by early morning, "most partici-
pants have been enveloped by an exhaustion that leaves
them confused, disoriented and unable to think logically.
To study Torah in such a state would be absurd if our goals
were to absorb information, for our powers of comprehen-
sion have long since dissipated.
"In those pre-dawn moments of Torah study, under the
influence of utter exhaustion, we experience something
akin to the cognitive overload that our ancestors felt at
Sinai. So perhaps its importance is not in its content but in
its method," Rabbi Nelson says.
Rabbi Epstein reminds that "the rabbis have taught that
not only the Jews actually at Sinai, but all future genera-
tions of Jews also stood at the foot of the mountain to
receive the Torah."
Tikkun leil Shavout is a way to "affirm our obligation to
carry the Torah forth now and forever." I]

Rabbi Michael Pont and learning
minyan leader Frank J. Ellias. Hevruta
(paired) study sessions on commen-
taries on the Book of Ruth will also
be held. Reservations requested. No
charge. Call (248) 357-5544.
• Adat Shalom Synagogue will begin
with an 8:30 p.m. service, followed
by Torah study sessions from 9:30
p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sessions led by
Rabbi Daniel Nevins, Rabbi Herbert
A. Yoskowitz, Cantor Howard
Glantz, Cantor Larry Vieder,
Education Director Elissa Berg,
Hillel Day School headmaster Dr.
Mark Smiley and college student
Jeremy Fogel. Walk-in program. No
charge. No reservations needed. Call
(248) 851-5100.
• Congregtion Beth Ahrn will begin
at 8 p.m. Sessions led by Rabbi Aaron
Bergman for adults; peer-led session
for teens, Kadima pre-teen youth
group sessions, with youth directors
Josh Hearshen and Carrie Apsel.
Supervised activities for younger chil-

dren. A 9 p.m. service followed by
9:30 to 10:15 p.m. sessions. Ice cream
social at 10:15. Reservations required.
No charge. Call Mary Stone Tessler at
(248) 851-6880.
• Congregation B'nai Moshe will
offer a 6 p.m. service, a 6:45 p.m.
dairy supper followed by a 7:30 p.m.
session with Rabbi Elliot Pachter.
Requested dinner donation: $6
adults, $3 children. Dinner reserva-
tion deadline: June 5. No reserva-
tions and no charge for study ses-
sion. Call (248) 788-0600.
• Congregation Shaarey Zedek B'nai
Israel will hold a tikkun leil Shavout
from 8:15 to midnight. Rabbi
Leonardo Bitran; Rabbi Lee
Buckman, head of the Jewish
Academy of Metropolitan Detroit;
and Jason Miller, Jewish Theological
Seminary student; will offer
Shavuott study sessions on the
theme of "Matters of the Spirit."
Reservations suggested. No charge.
Call (248) 681-8247.

