Shavuot
Our all-night Tikkun Leyl Shavuot will be held on the night of Thursday, May 25th. 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 Friday the 26th. A second-day Shavuot service will be held at 9.45am on Shabbat the 27th (see below).
Everyone is also invited to our annual picnic and football in the park on the afternoon of the first day (this year, Friday the 26th). 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 we will look at the theme of conversion to Judaism. Is it possible to join the Jewish people, and if so, how is that to be be done? The Bible lays out no clear process by which other people could become Israelites, and yet we have many examples of the boundary between insiders and outsiders being extremely porous. During the course of the night's learning we will examine biblical and rabbinic models for joining the Jews and think about what it means to voluntarily change religious and ethnic allegiance.
Join us for a wonderful night of thinking, learning and sharing.
Rough Timeline
9–9:15 pm Introduction by Rabbi Joel.
9:15–10 pm Belonging and Becoming, led by Dr Georgia Kaufmann.
Switching religions is one thing, but changing ethnicities is another. Ethnicity, identity and faith are all social constructs. What makes us belong? What makes us 'us' and not 'them'? How are boundaries drawn and group identities maintained? I'll take an anthropological overview and reflect on my own conversion.
10 pm Ma'ariv.
10:30 pm–11:30 pm Personal experiences of conversion and self-transformation. With Jeremy Kelly, Claudia Allan and Gabi Peretz.
11:30 pm–12:30 am The finished product: Two versions of the rabbinic conversion ceremony through the eyes of the Rabbis. Led by Rabbi Joel.
12:30 am–1:30 am Did conversion exist in Bible times? Can the stories of Ruth and Ezra shed any light? Led by Nahum Gordon.
1:30 am–4 am Some major controversies during the evolution of the rabbinic device of conversion. Led by Rabbi Joel.
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, Friday May 26th). No football skills required!
Second-Day Shavuot Service and Cheesecake Kiddush
Services for the second day of Shavuot and Shabbat will be held at the Jack Block building (formerly known as Leonard Sainer) from 9:45 am on Shabbat May 27th, followed by a cheesecake and fruit kiddush.
As always, non-members are welcome. Please contact admin@kolnefesh.org.uk.
