Opinion

OTHER ViEWS

Mt. Sinai: I Was There

Ann Arbor

M

uch of the dishar-
mony in the Jewish
community today can
be attributed to the divergence of
opinions concerning the revela-
tion of our Torah at Mt. Sinai.
Regardless of what one
believes actually occurred at that
mountain, the essential issue
for us on the festival of Shavuot
is that we feel a part of divine
revelation. How do we internalize
the midrashic tradition that all
Jews stood at Sinai as the Torah
was revealed to Israel?
Just as we seek the spiritual
connection to see ourselves as
having escaped Egyptian slavery
on Pesach, we also attempt to
envision ourselves at Sinai as the
Torah was revealed several mil-
lennia ago.
Never has the spiritual force
of revelation affected me more
than it did on the early morn-
ing of May 31, 1998.1 had
recently graduated college
and was spending Shavuot at

Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, where I was serv-
ing as youth group adviser.
The new assistant rabbi, Rabbi
Steve Weiss, decided that the
congregation would offer an
all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot
(study session) and then a dawn
Shacharit service just before 5
a.m.
It was a memorable night,
with many opportunities for
Torah study with several won-
derful teachers, including three
eighth-grade students from the
local Jewish day school. With
delicious snacks and caffeinated
beverages, about 30 of us man-
aged to stay up the entire night.
We decided to hold the minyan
outdoors in the courtyard so we
could enjoy the sunrise while we
prayed.
The Torah service that morn-
ing took on new meaning for me.
The Torah was paraded around
and I had the sense that we really
were at Sinai claiming what God
had lovingly gifted to us.
As I stood at the Torah for

tion.
my aliyah, the sky
This was the
began to get dark
epitome of holiness.
again. The Torah reader
This existential
pronounced,"On the
experience was full
third day, as morning
of awe and majesty,
dawned, there was
thunderclaps and
thunder, and lightning
lightning bolts. Best
..." As the words "thun-
of all, it was shared
der" and "lightning"
Rabbi Jason
with community.
were uttered, a huge
Miller
This was a lim-
thunderstorm ensued.
Community View inal moment in my
The Torah reader
life. The experience
managed to get out a
has had a lasting
few more words, chant-
effect on my life in the eight
ing"... and a dense cloud upon
years since. Being shaken by the
the mountain, and a very loud
thunder, seeing the lightning and
blast of the horn; and all the
hearing the words of our Torah
people who were in the camp
trembled. Moses led the people
convinced me that I really did
out of the camp toward God, and stand at Sinai. We were all there
they took their places at the foot
together. As a community.
Much has happened in my life
of the mountain."
since that Shavuot in 1998.1 got
At that point, the sky opened
married, became the father of
up and the heavy rains began.
three children, earned a master's
I grabbed the Torah and ran
degree in education, became
inside to the chapel where the
an ordained rabbi, returned to
Torah reading was completed.
Michigan for my first full-time
As I wiped the raindrops from
my glasses, I remember thinking job; and I will soon relocate to
Columbus, Ohio, to begin a new
that this must be divine revela-

journey as the spiritual leader
of a wonderful congregation. All
of these accomplishments, all of
these milestones, are informed
by that experience in the early
dawn hours of Shavuot in 1998.
That was my revelation. That
spiritually charged moment had
the three ingredients that shape
my life and my rabbinate: God,
Torah and Israel. I felt the awe-
some force of the Holy One; I was
touched by the words of Torah,
and I stood together with my fel-
low Jews.
May we all be blessed to share
such powerful moments together
in the years ahead. ❑

Jason Miller is associate direc-

tor of University of Michigan

Hillel Foundation. He is also a rab-

binic adviser to Congregation Beit

Kodesh in Livonia. This summer,

he will become spiritual leader

of Congregation Agudas Achim,

a Conservative synagogue in

Columbus, Ohio.

Consider A Gap Year In Israel

I

worry when a student comes
to me and announces, "I
am going to take a year off
before college unless the stu-
dent has a definite plan for the
year.
Studies highlight the virtues
of "gap year" programs as long as
they are organized, focused and
goal oriented. Rather than call-
ing this year a "year off:' I prefer
to call it a "year on!'
I recently participated on
a college guidance counselor
mission to Israel sponsored
by MASA and the Avi Chai
Foundation. It was a mission
that inspired me to recommend
that students consider not rush-
ing off to college and that they
take more time to know them-
selves and to experience another
culture. Colleges are happy to
defer that first year of college in
these situations.
The U.S. students that we met
in Israel were passionate about
their gap year experiences. From

36

June 1 @ 2006

community service to the class-
room, each one of them told a
compelling story of young adult
adventure within the security of
a supervised program.
The first program we visited
was Young Judaea's Year Course
that combines experiential
opportunities through travel,
volunteer work throughout the
country, and an academic com-
ponent.
Also featured was a similar
program for Orthodox students
called Shalem. From the halls of
their brand new headquarters
and youth hostel, a student told
me, "It's a chance for me to grow
up; I think I'll be a more focused
college student!' Another one
smiled and said, "It has already
helped me to be even more sure
of what I want to do!'
The Nativ (meaning path)
Program, associated with
the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism, also
features a supervised and bal-

IN

component and
anted program that
close-knit com-
combines academics
munity living in
at Hebrew University
dorms and com-
or yeshivah study and
munity volunteer-
community service or
ing.
kibbutz volunteerism.
Carmel is
The students that we
associated
with
met raved about their
John
B.
Boshoven
North
American
experiences. One said,
Community View Federation of
"I'll never have or will
Temple Youth; it
take this chance again.
seeks to bring
Some say they will do
it later, but college and career life together committed and mature
Jewish students who seek to be
have a way of dominating your
Jewish leaders. •
choices." Another student said it
The Rimon Music Experience
was "a great way to find out who
offers
a creative alternative for
I am."
"gap
year"
students. As Israel's
The Carmel Program at Haifa
largest
independent
profes-
University is connected to the
sional
music
school,
Rimon
Leo Baeck High School and
offers
majors
in
composition
Educational Center and the
and arranging, film scoring,
Lokey International Academy
song writing, jazz and general
of Jewish Studies; it is affiliated
vocal
and instrumental perfor-
with the Reform Movement.
mance, music production and
Their three-tiered emphasis
engineering. Beginning with
combines academic study at
ulpan (Hebrew immersion) and
the university, a beit midrash
integrating community service
(prayer, study and leadership)

through the arts, students from
all around the world come and
study for a year with some of
Israel's finest artists.
Israel hosts many yeshivot.
The one we visited was Yeshivat
Eretz Hatzvi in Jerusalem. This
simple facility was filled with
young men who were immersed
in deep and loud study as we
arrived at 9 p.m. They had
been at it since 8 a.m. We were
impressed by their diligence; the
students thought nothing of the
long hours.
We talked to students on other
programs as well. One student,
studying at Midreshet HaRova
in the Old City of Jerusalem,
beamed, "This is such an enrich-
ing experience. I talk to my
friends at college, and I am
growing in such different and
richer ways. They seem the same
and uninspired whereas I am
becoming a whole and deeper
person."
Another student at the

