Shavuot
Our all-night Tikkun Leyl Shavuot will be held on the night of Sunday, June 1st. We'll get started around 9pm, daven Ma'ariv (the evening service) at 10 pm, then run study sessions from 10:30pm until it's time for Shacharit (the morning service) around 4 am. As always, non-members are welcome ... please let us know you're coming, admin@kolnefesh.org.uk.
The evening will take place at a member's home (contact admin@kolnefesh.org.uk for details). Bring dairy or pareve finger food, snacks, or a dairy dessert (fuel to keep us going through the night).
Note that as we will daven Shaharit for the first day of Shavuot at the close of the Tikkun Leyl, there will be no service at our usual premises on Monday June 2nd. A second-day Shavuot service will be held at 9.45am on Tuesday the 3rd (see below).
Everyone is also invited to our annual picnic and football in the park on the afternoon of the first day (this year, Monday June 2nd). See below for more details, or contact admin@kolnefesh.org.uk.
The Kol Nefesh Tikkun Leyl Shavuot
Once again at KNM we will observe the ancient tradition of staying up all night to study on the evening of Shavuot. Our midrashic tradition has it that the Israelites slept in late on the morning of the revelation on Mount Sinai and needed to be roused from their beds. For this reason Jewish communities around the world observe a "Tikkun Leyl Shavuot", loosely translatable as "Night of Repair", to make up for our ancestors' error. The night is devoted to learning, thinking and arguing. Each year at KNM we take a theme and develop it through the small hours of the night, hoping to gain new insights into some particular aspect of Jewish life.
This year our theme will be Going Back to the Mountain: Finding Ourselves at Sinai.
One of the stories that we tell in the West is that we really come to find out who we are by exploring our idiosyncratic desires. If that is true, it is hard to understand the significance of religion except as just one more eccentric human activity that we can either like or not like! From this perspective, those who go to synagogue a lot are just a peculiar set of people who are drawn to a particular cultural activity. Shul is just a weird hobby.
By contrast, in our communal myth, all Jews—past, present and future—are viewed as standing together at Mount Sinai. Re-creating that moment is essential for knowing who we really are.
Which of these ways of thinking is right? If I am searching for who I really am, should I look in community or as far from community as possible? Can we find ourselves as individuals at Sinai?
Timeline
9–9:15 pm Introduction by Rabbi Joel.
9:15–10 pm Study session 1
Danny Kalman: Adjusting to Different Communities. Danny will facilitate a discussion on how he has 'tuned in' to the various communities he has experienced, from his corporate life working for a Japanese company for over 20 years and communities in his private life.
10 pm Ma'ariv and Kiddush
10:45–11:45 pm Study session 2
Rabbi Joel, a response: Humans Create Societies that Create Humans! Maimonides, peer pressure and the circular shaping of society and the individual.
11:45 pm–12:00 am Tea break
12:00–1:00 am Study session 3
Georgia Kaufman: Which Hat Do You Wear? Is it what you do or what you wear that makes you a member of a community? In this session we will look at different ways of belonging: by content (Chasidim sing, dance and quake with the spirit of God) or by boundaries (we wear this hat and that coat and not those ones!). Football fans all follow football and all their teams kick footballs around in very similar ways; yet clubs are followed from the cradle to the grave as if each one is unique!
1:00–1.15 am Tea break
1:15-2:15am Study session 4
Rabbi Joel, a response: Are We Members of a Community of Identity or a Community of of Practice? Soloveitchik's dissection of the layers of the covenant.
2:15–2.30 am Tea break
2.30-4am Study session 5
Rabbi Joel: The Shattering Rock. Sinai as a source of plurality and individuality. How can a religion of revelation allow its practitioners to maintain their sense of adequacy and individuality?
4 am Shacharit.
Reminder: The evening will take place at a member's home. Contact admin@kolnefesh.org.uk for details. Please bring dairy or pareve finger food, snacks, or a dairy dessert.
Picnic and Football in the Park
Another Kol Nefesh Shavuot tradition!! Meet around 3pm in Stonegrove Park on the afternoon of the first day (this year, Monday June 2nd). No football skills required!
Second-Day Shavuot Service
Services for the second day of Shavuot will be held at our usual premises (Hyman Hall) from 9:45 am on Tuesday June 3rd.
As always, non-members are welcome. Please contact admin@kolnefesh.org.uk.
