MAY 13 • 2021 | 37

to rise after this pandemic, and we hope 
that will be soon.”
Davidson is performing the second 
song because Prine was a hero of his, one 
of his favorite singer-songwriters. Prine 
died of COVID-19 fairly early on in the 
pandemic, but lyrics he left behind relate 
to the purpose of Shavuot: “Just give me 
one thing that I can hold on to” is repeat-
ed throughout the song.

SOUL OF SHAVUOT
“Shavuot is [thought to be] when all of us 
were alive at the time or were Jewish souls 
waiting to be born,” Davidson said about 
ideas associated with the holiday. “We 
were all there at the foot of Sinai waiting 
to have our collective encounter with the 

Divine. 
“It’s something that’s always accessible 
to us whether it’s through Torah study 
or acts of chesed [giving of oneself with 
compassion]. We can always hear an echo 
of that voice from Sinai. We carry it with 
us through our lives as Jews.
“In another sense, it’s kind of fun to 
stay up all night with friends, study and 
wait until the sun comes up.”
Berman, now a New Yorker who joined 
her family at Temple Beth El while grow-
ing up in Michigan, is thinking about all 
the metaphors that can be used in this 
presentation.
“I haven’t unpacked the metaphors yet,” 
said Berman, whose personal experiences 
are recalled in her book No Place Like 
Home: A Memoir in 39 Apartments pub-
lished by Harmony Books and whose play 
1300 Lafayette East was premiered at the 
Jewish Ensemble Theatre.
Berman is thinking about who we need 
to be when the sun rises.
“The older I get, the more I become 
interested in time,” said Berman, who has 

two plays and two films in development 
and teaches playwriting at New York 
University and Bard College.
Reboot is producing DAWN in 
partnership with the Jewish Emergent 
Network, which promotes collaboration 
among seven communities across the 
United States, and LABA, a global labo-
ratory for Jewish culture, as participants 
mark the breaking of the holiday dawn 
in each of the distant locales offered the 
festival.
“Shavuot is a huge, incredible holiday 
and so intrinsic to the Jewish experience 
… [with] so many ways to interpret it and 
inspire,” said David Katznelson, Reboot 
CEO. “By reimagining the all-night study 
and presenting it in this new and magical 
way, we provide a portal of entry to this 
mighty holiday.” 

Details 
To get a link to the program, with 
an entertainment schedule, go 
to DAWNFestival.org.

 “When I was an under-
graduate [at the University of 
Michigan], I was a literature 
major interested in 20th-cen-
tury American literature,” 
Davidson said. “You find a lot 
of stream-of-consciousness 
literature among the Beats 
and even before the Beat 
writers, and I was trying to 
tap into a Beatnik version of 
Torah study.”
 As he put together the 
book, which he is distrib-
uting with only the cost of 
postage and the suggestion 
of a charitable contribution 
to a Jewish organization, 
Davidson wants readers 

to bring their own individ-
uality to religious content. 
He relates that to his own 
life, establishing identity as 
the son of the late William 
Davidson, a successful entre-
preneur and philanthropist 
defined by his son as “the 
world’s best father.”

WRESTLE WITH ISSUES
“We’re supposed to contin-
ually examine our lives and 
wrestle with these issues and 
be more fully actualized as 
people,” Davidson explained 
about what he has gleaned 
from religious studies. 
 “I think it’s true of all peo-

ple, not just for Jews. I think 
it’s particularly true for Jews 
because we call ourselves 
Israel, the people who wres-
tle with God, which means 
we’re supposed to be the 
people who wrestle with 
these questions. 
 “We might not find the 

answers, and maybe that’s 
not the point. Maybe the 
point is to continue to ask 
ourselves these questions 
and check in on ourselves 
to find out what the tradition 
has to teach us about how to 
be more fully actualized.” 

— Suzanne Chessler

Details

Ethan Davidson’s book will be discussed digitally from 7:30-8:30 

p.m. Wednesday, May 26. Registration is available at jtsa.edu/

developments-of-the-human. He will appear in person starting at 7 p.m. 

Thursday, May 27, at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. Registration is 

available at temple-israel.org/ethandavidson. To order the book, go to 

ethandavidson.com.

“WE WERE ALL THERE AT THE FOOT OF 
SINAI WAITING TO HAVE OUR COLLECTIVE 
ENCOUNTER WITH THE DIVINE.”

— ETHAN DAVIDSON

Brooke 
Berman