24 June 6 • 2019
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LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

S

havuot, commemorating the giv-
ing of the Torah at Mount Sinai, 
begins on Saturday night, June 8. 
All over the world, some Jews do not 
go to sleep on Shavuot night, devoting 
the hours to Torah study. 
Rabbi Nachman Levine of Oak Park 
gives a quick overview of how that 
practice developed and changed over 
the years. 
According to Levine, the first hint 
of the practice appears in the Zohar 
(Emor), which criticizes our ancestors 
at Mount Sinai for sleeping the night 
before receiving the Torah. In the 16th 
century, a circle of Zohar students in 
Salonika (then part of the Ottoman 
Turkish empire) atoned for our sleepy 
ancestors by spending the night 
chanting verses from throughout the 
Hebrew Bible. Thus began Tikkun Leil 
Shavuot (tikkun means “repair,
” leil 
means “night”). 
A leader of that circle, Rabbi Yosef 
Karo, kept a diary recording his expe-
rience of visits from a mysterious 
spirit that encouraged him to make 
progress in Jewish observance. The 
spirit told Karo not to stay up the sec-
ond night of Shavuot, but instead to 
move to Israel. By the next Shavuot, 
Karo and many of his group had 
moved to Safed, where they continued 
to spend the night of Shavuot awake. 
The plan for the night’
s traditional 
readings — from the Torah, Prophets, 
Mishnah, Zohar and a list of the 613 
Commandments — took shape there, 
guided by Rabbi Yitzhak Luria. 
Another practice, which began in 
the late 18th century if not earlier, has 
people devoting the night to any area 
of Torah study. Individuals who already 
have a course of study would simply 
continue their usual studies the night 
of Shavuot. This, according to Levine, 
became the dominant mode in learned 
Ashkenazic communities. Rabbi Sasson 
Natan of Keter Torah Synagogue in West 
Bloomfield notes that many younger 
Sephardic Jews now prefer this mode 
over the traditional readings. 
A third mode, a schedule of public 
lectures on Torah or other Jewish topics, 
has, Levine notes, become popular in 
recent years. 

LOCAL LECTURE SERIES
Synagogues in the Detroit area plan to 
offer lecture series. 
Congregations Etz Chayim, Beth 
Shalom and Temple Emanu-El in Oak 
Park plan a joint study night at Beth 
Shalom (where Etz Chayim meets), 

beginning with a roundtable discussion 
among rabbis of different movements 
including Rabbis Dorit Edut, Eliezer 
Finkelman (disclaimer: me), Robert 
Gamer (Beth Shalom), Asher Lopatin 
(Etz Chayim) and Matthew Zerwekh 
(Temple Emanu-El). 11:30 p.m.
Congregation Or Chadash in Oak 
Park plans a series of lectures at a pri-
vate home in Huntington Woods. For 
location, call shul president Deb Kovsky 
Apap at (248) 910-9008. (Disclosure: 
I am part of the rabbi team of Or 
Chadash). A sampling of the lectures: At 
11:30 p.m., Rabbanit Jenna Englender, 
“Where Is the Torah Now?” At 12:30 
a.m., Rabbi Stephen Belsky will explore 
the meaning of a mysterious word in 
the Hebrew Bible, “refaim,
” which might 
mean “angels,
” “giants” or “aboriginal 
ghosts.
” At 3:30 a.m., Larry Winer of 
Lawrence Technological University 
will present the letters exchanged by 
President George Washington and 
Moses Seixas, warden of the Hebrew 
Congregation (Touro Synagogue) in 
Newport, R.I., in 1790. Winer will con-
nect the letters with Shavuot. He also 
will give the lecture at the joint Tikkun at 
Beth Shalom. 

B’
nai Israel Synagogue in West 
Bloomfield, which meets at Temple Kol 
Ami in West Bloomfield, has a roster of 
lectures, including one on “Loving Your 
Fellow Jew” and another on “What Ever 
Happened to the Karaites?” Teachers 
include Rabbi Brent Gutmann of Kol 
Ami and Rabbi Mitch Parker of B’
nai 
Israel. From 6 p.m.-dawn. 
Congregation B’
nai Moshe in West 
Bloomfield will hold a study session June 
8 beginning at 7:30 p.m. 
Congregation Beth Ahm in West 
Bloomfield will begin a study of the Ten 
Commandments at 7:30 p.m.
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield 
Township will gather from 7-9 p.m. to 
learn, followed by Havdalah in a private 
home in Birmingham; RSVP to jritchie@
tbeonline.org.
At Adat Shalom Synagogue in 
Farmington Hills, Rabbis Aaron 
Bergman and Rachel Shere and Hazzan 
Dan Gross plan a night of study on 
“How to create a community while still 
honoring the needs of the individual.
” 
Starting with Minchah at 7:30 p.m. 
RSVP to slederman@adatshalom.org.
At Bais Chabad in West Bloomfield, 
a learning session will run from 12:30-

4:30 a.m. (late Saturday night), which 
will feature several lectures, including 
one by Rabbi Nison Deitch, a visiting 
scholar from New York. Rabbi Shneur 
Silberberg of Bais Chabad will hold a 
study session for younger men at 12:30 
a.m. Refreshments will be served. 
“Shavuot-on,
” June 8-10, Woodward 
Avenue Shul, 25595 Woodward, 
Royal Oak. Learn for three days with 
renowned scholar, author and speaker 
Rabbi Shais Taub. Starts Saturday at 
9 p.m. with a lecture on “Emotional 
Sobriety.
” To RSVP and see the full 
schedule, go to thewas.net/shavuot.
For details about other Shavuot pro-
grams, check synagogue websites. 
As a festival, Shavuot should feature 
good food, along with study. Rabbi 
Natan reports Keter Torah congregants 
donate pastries and fruits so that at 
each break in the night’
s reading, par-
ticipants can say a blessing and enjoy 
bodily pleasures along with the spir-
itual. As Rabbi Yehoshua says in the 
Talmud, you should dedicate the festi-
val “half for God and half for yourself” 
(Pesahim 68b). ■

RELATED SHAVUOT EVENTS
• Schvitz Health Club, 7:45 p.m., 
Saturday, June 8, 8295 Oakland St., 
Detroit. Age 21+, full access to the 
sauna, steam room and cold pool. 
Tickets ($25) also include cheese tast-
ing and Jewish learning. For details, go 
to schvitzdetroit.com. For all genders. 
Bring swimsuit, robe, towels and flip-
flops, beer or wine. Sponsored by The 
Well, Moishe House and Mongers’
 
Provisions.
• Congregation Beth Ahm in West 
Bloomfield will hold a Shavuot 
sleepover for kids in grades 2-6 start-
ing after dinner at 7 p.m. Saturday, 
June 8, and ending Sunday, June 9, 
at 8:30 a.m. Activities include learning 
about Shavuot, lots of games, fun 
and a bedtime story. Snacks will be 
provided, and there will adult supervi-
sion all night. Bring PJs, sleeping bag, 
pillow and anything else needed for 
the night. No electronic devices. Open 
to the community. Free. 
RSVP to Tova 
Schreiber at tschreiber@cbahm.org by 
no later than noon Friday, June 7.
• Bais Chabad in West Bloomfield will 
host an ice cream party and reading 
of the Ten Commandments at 11 a.m. 
Sunday, June 9. A children’
s Shavuot-
themed carnival will be held, includ-
ing a dairy lunch and ice cream. No 
charge; open to all. 

spirit

Tikkun Leil Shavuot 

Shavuot 
Learning

Traditional all-night study sessions
evolved across all streams of Judaism. 

